Our parental instinct naturally wants to find the fastest solution & often the first options for a child who struggles in the classroom are either a tutor or a learning center. However, not every solution to a learning problem can be solved by forcing extra hours of the same material.
One of the foundations of vision therapy is how we educate parents to recognize that when their child has a tantrum, gets easily frustrated, and can’t continue with homework, maybe very bright and intelligent in other areas. The issue might not have anything to do with the child’s intelligence. In fact, many parents who find out about vision therapy have already enrolled their child in various programs only to discover that something a lot more basic was the source of the child’s setbacks - their vision.
Why aren’t parents brought to vision therapy from the beginning?
There are various reasons why vision therapy may not have been recommended to you initially or perhaps have never heard about it until now.
- Vision therapy is a unique program that only some optometrists specialize in and offer at their clinics. Therefore, not all eye doctors when performing their eye exam will be on the lookout for a vision problem in your child.
- There’s a lot of competition in this field. Tutoring and learning centers offer a lot of value, and they’re often large institutions trying to win over your business.
- Other practitioners may not have had the education or years of training to specialize in vision therapy, but they will attempt ‘eye exercises” on their own to solve the problem. While there may be some benefits from this, without having the necessary training you’re not going to solve the problem appropriately.
- Because vision therapy is an out-of-pocket expense, parents try to turn to cheaper means or hope the problems will simply go away as the child grows older.
With factors like the ones shared, many children continue their years at school without ever treating their vision problem until the problem becomes too severe to cope or they reach adulthood & discover what was holding them back the entire time.
Plus, some parents consider their child in 1st or 2nd grade too early to start vision therapy. The child is starting to read & pronounce the words now, so who says it’s a vision problem that won’t go away? Unfortunately, in scenarios like this, a child with a vision problem who reaches 3rd, 4th, or even 5th grade falls behind the class as the foundational visual skills were never developed. The child may be able to pronounce words & run through sentences, but they will lack comprehension. For people with normal vision, it’s difficult to understand how someone can read through a page & not remember what they read. Children end up learning to read but never reading to learn.
Why Vision Therapy Should Be Your 1st Priority
Fortunately, vision therapy is well researched & supported with multitudes of success stories over the years. Plus, a developmental optometrist who specializes in vision therapy has ways to accurately test your child’s various visual skills & identify whether vision therapy is needed. There’s no guesswork involved. This means that your child will achieve normal, functional vision at the end of therapy, and in many cases, they become amazing readers, sports players, and happy to learn.
Q: Can you request lenses made from glass? Is glass still used for lenses?
- A: Opticians still sometimes use glass for lenses. However, glass is not used very often because they aren’t as safe. If these glass lenses breaks, they can shatters into many pieces and can injure the eye. Glass lenses are much heavier than plastic lenses, so they can make your eyeglasses less comfortable to wear.
Q: Can a coating be added to eyeglasses to protect them from further scratches?
- A: A protective coating can’t be added to a lens after it’s scratched. The coating is applied when the lens is manufactured and can’t be put on later.
Quality Frames For Prescription Eyeglasses & Computer Glasses In Sunnyvale, California. Visit Silicon Valley Eye Physicians for an eye exam and eyeglasses that match your style.
