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Neurodevelopment Teaching Tip of the Month Visual Gateway November 2011 |
Neurodevelopmental Tip of the Month: Visual GatewayIn the previous months we learned that hearing and seeing are an integral part of the receiving gateway. Any visual or auditory impairment can hinder learning. By carefully observing your children when they are working and playing, you can usually spot if there is any hearing loss or blurred vision – whether it is close up or at a distance. It is not so easy to spot if the eyes are having trouble working together and focusing at the right distance for learning. There is an informal way to check this, but before we describe it, there are two things you need to know first. First, each of the two eyes has a field of vision, the breadth of view that each eye spans and sends to the brain to process. The two fields of vision overlap somewhat, and together they provide a panoramic scan of the environment. If you have ever tried to line up an illustration or text that spans two sheets of paper, you know how crucial it is that the overlap matches perfectly. That alignment is called binocularity, as in the two lenses of binoculars. Second, God designed the body so that the ideal distance for the two eyes to focus together happens to coincide with the length of the forearm (including the fist). What’s amazing is that the distance changes as the child grows, always staying in line with the typical distance that a person holds a book in hand. Ideally, the two views of each eye should converge together at the distance that a book is held. If for some reason they don’t — as in the case of a lazy eye – the panoramic view is distorted. As you can imagine, this makes it harder for the person to read. Depending on the type of misalignment, the symptoms can vary from slower reading speeds, to getting fatigued quickly when reading, watering eyes, and even headaches. Ultimately, we see it as a child who doesn’t like to read or has poor reading comprehension. If you have such a situation in your family, try doing this informal check. It can give you the “heads up” that more formal and thorough testing is required with a vision professional. String Test All that is required is a pencil with an eraser at the top, a thumbtack, and a piece of string around two feet long. Attach one end of the string to the eraser with the thumbtack. Have your child make a fist and hold up the forearm. Measure that length with the string, holding the pencil end at the elbow and pulling the string out to the end of the top knuckle of the fist. Mark that point by pinching the string with your thumb and forefinger (and holding it there). Now have the child hold the pencil vertically against the nose so that the top of the pencil (where the string is attached) is right between the two eyes, level with the eyes. (The pencil will rest against the child's nose, parallel to the face.) While still pinching the designated length of the string, hold it out straight out from your child’s face, forming a 90-degree angle with the pencil. Ask your child how many strings he sees. If he hesitates, tell him it’s okay if there is more than one. In fact, there should be two. If there is only one, ask which side it is on. The vision professional will need to know this. If your child sees two strings, ask him if they come together at some point. Ask him to point to where the strings come together. Ideally, they should come together where you are holding the string. In some cases, the strings will converge on the same plane as the string, but either closer to the eyes or past where you are holding the string. That means the depth of focus is off. In fewer cases, the strings will converge somewhere off that plane, which means there are additional vision problems. In either case, it is recommended that you visit a vision professional who can test for a wide range of vision issues (not just the standard acuity test of near- or far-sightedness). 688 Words To view more 'Teaching Tips' Articles please 'Log In' and visit the 'Achives' page. |
