The Senses

The Visual System

Humans by nature are visual creatures. As a matter of fact, 75 to 90% of all that we learn comes to us through visual pathways.

It’s amazing that we know so much about the visual system and its affects on learning, yet when a child struggles in school, very little is done to help strengthen this crucial system. It is usually up to the parents to seek out help, most often in the form of vision therapy. Educators only seem to know to add more academics or to try a different approach to academics, rarely considering that the academics portion is difficult for the student due to visual processing problems.

Think about it. What do you need the most in order to read? That’s right – eyesight. You must be able to see the print before you even think about the sounds and blending them together. I have worked with many children who don’t know all of their sounds or who are missing huge chunks of phonemic awareness skills, yet they were still able to read through memorization. This, of course is no the most efficient method of reading, but it can work.

My daughter has a 4.125 grade point average since she is working above grade level. What’s amazing about this is that she is hearing impaired. She refuses to wear hearing aids but continues to do so well in school because her visual processing system is so advanced. She is also a visual learner, and this system serves her well even though she misses a great deal of what is said.

Knowing this, it’s important to identify children who may have weakened visual processing skills and give them a method to overcome these weaknesses. First, understand that 20/20 vision has very little to do with this. Second, you should have a general understanding of the anatomy of the eye. And finally, you will need some basic exercises to help the student overcome any of these problems.

The Anatomy of the Eye

There are six tiny muscles that surround the eye and control its movements. They are known as the extraocular muscles. Four of these muscles control the eye’s movements from left to right and up and down. The other two rotate the eyes inward or outward. All six muscles work in unison to move the eye. As one contracts, the opposing muscle relaxes, creating smooth movements. Also, the muscles of both eyes work together so that the eyes are always aligned.

Of course, there is a lot more to consider about the anatomy of the eye. But in regards to learning and how to strengthen the visual system, this is really all you need to know. I am not an eye doctor, but one is necessary to check for the health of the eye and to determine if glasses are needed.

Let’s go back to those eye muscles now. A lot of people don’t even think about the muscles that hold the eyes in place. But, as with any muscle, there can be weaknesses. I am finding more and more children who struggle in school partly because of weak eye muscles. Remember, those muscles must work together and must be properly aligned. What do you think would happen if the muscles are weak or the eyes aren’t properly aligned? Do you think that reading and school work would be difficult?

Some of those eye muscles contract while others relax, hopefully in unison. Frequently, these muscles don’t work in unison. Perhaps one set of muscles contracts too tightly, just as muscles in, say, a leg might be over contracting. What would you do if the muscles in your leg didn’t work right? You’d get physical therapy, most likely prescribed by your doctor. Well, the same is true for the muscles of the eye.

The eye muscles must work smoothly for efficient learning to take place. If the eye muscles turn too far in or too far out, then it is difficult for proper perception to occur. Both eyes need to aim at the same point to have clear, single vision, and the student’s eyes must be able to move across a horizontal reading line or vertically up and down a math page in an efficient manner.

There is more that can go wrong with the processing of visual information than that of just the muscles. Sometimes the brain will intermittently “shut down” an eye throughout the day. This is called suppression. Many students have an extremely difficult time focusing from a far plane of vision, back to a near plane of vision, and so on. This is called accommodation. Sometimes the student is unable to take the two images seen by two eyes and fuse them into one image. Often kids with learning problems will show poor depth perception.

Perceptual Skills

As the name suggests, perceptual skills are also related to vision. If the student perceives information incorrectly, then it is extremely difficult to come up with correct answers in a learning environment.
Perceptual skills comprise of the student’s ability to analyze, interpret, and give meaning to what is seen. This is the processing portion of vision, and these so important skills should not be overlooked when trying to repair an improperly working visual system.

Following is a list of these skills and a short definition of each skill.

1. Visual discrimination – the ability to determine exactness and distinctive features among similar objects. (saw/was; on/one)
2. Visual memory – the ability to remember for immediate recall the characters of a given form. (more on this in the memory section)
3. Visual sequential memory – the ability to remember forms or characters in correct order (letter omissions, additions, and transpositions are common problems that occur with weaknesses in this area)
4. Visual spatial relations – the ability to distinguish differences among similar objects or forms (necessary for problem solving and conceptual skills required for higher level math and science)
5. Visual spatial orientation – the ability to know left from right as well as laterality and directionality (kids with reversals, whether words, letters, or numbers are usually weak in this area)
6. Visual closure – the ability to visualize a complete whole when given incomplete information or a partial picture (kids weak in this are might have a difficult time completing thoughts and may confuse similar objects or words, especially those with similar beginnings or endings)

Fixing the Problem

Vision therapy, if done correctly, can do wonders for kids who are struggling in school. By exercising the eye muscles and helping these muscles to work together, students can learn to see like nature intended.

Unfortunately, vision therapy is quite costly, and not all people can afford it. I feel it is shameful that only parents with enough money to afford this process or who the proper insurance to cover this process can give it to their children.

Vision therapy was the first step we took in helping our son overcome learning problems. But, we spent thousands of dollars to do this. Most parents don’t have this kind of money. Should the children of parents who don’t have the means to provide vision therapy be left with nothing? I don’t think so.

If you suspect your child is struggling in school due to a visual processing problem and you can afford it, then by all means, have a behavioral optometrist test your child to see if vision therapy helps. (Use the checklist that is provided). However, if you are looking for some basic eye exercises that have been proven to help students strengthen their eye muscles, then you should be provided with these exercises. Keep in mind that this is not a replacement for vision therapy, but I have been using these eye exercises on students for years and have had fantastic results.

Approximately 20% of school-aged children may be affected to some degree by learning related visual disorders. There is a dramatic increase in this percentage within special education, learning disabled, and remedial reading populations where up to 70% of the students show a significant visual component to their learning problem.

There are many students suffering from visual disorders and not enough help available for them. I have put together a series of eye exercises that are similar to vision therapy that can be done at home. These exercises are not intended to replace what an eye doctor can do. But they are helpful for the individual who is looking for help and cannot do vision therapy or doesn’t have access to a qualified vision therapist. These exercises are aimed at correcting insufficiencies related to learning, primarily reading. Like strengthening muscles for a marathon, you can strengthen the eye muscles and prepare the eyes for the daily marathon they go through every day at school.

And, what are the symptoms that one might see in a student suffering from visual distress? There are numerous things to look for:

 Headaches

 Blurred vision

 Watering eyes

 Excessive blinking
 Double Vision

 Skipping lines while reading

 Losing place while reading

 Poor reading skills, especially oral reading

 Reversed letters or words

 Poor concentration

 Poor coordination

 Difficulty with copying

Eye/Hand Coordination

“Kids today can’t write.”

I hear this over and over from people I talk to. And the people I talk to, whether educators or parents, seem to be at a loss for what to do about it.

Walk into any modern classroom in America and you will find about 30% of the students who have illegible or extremely messy handwriting. And that’s only the beginning. If their handwriting is poor, then their math will be messy and full of mistakes as well. This carries over to every subject.

All of this is in direct relationship to eye/hand coordination and fine motor skills. Eye/hand coordination is the ability of the vision system to coordinate the information received through the eyes to control, guide, and direct the hands in the accomplishment of a specific task, such as handwriting or catching a ball. The eyes are used to direct attention and the hands execute the task.

Eye/hand coordination is so complex because it involves the visual guidance of both the eyes and the hands while simultaneously using eye movements to optimize vision. Since only hand movement directly affects the outer world, eye movements are the primary workers in this system. Can you see how a student who has a weak visual processing system would also have a greater possibility of having poor eye/hand coordination?

What Causes This?

While the modern child can operate a computer mouse or video game with ease, this same child seems ill at ease with a pencil. I often hear how people feel that video games are good for eye/hand coordination, and I, too use to buy into this. But in the past few years I have changed my point of view.

I have been privately testing students for this and other learning problems for years. I do a simple test of the eye functions, including the muscle turning of the eyes. I have found this out over the years: almost all of these children are revealing esophoria, which is a tendency for the eyes to turn inward. With esophoria, the student sees things smaller than they actually are. In order for someone with esophoria to see an object properly, it is necessary to make it larger. Usually eye/hand coordination problems will crop up as a result of this.

Have you ever seen poor writers during the writing or working process? These kids are usually hunched over their desk in an awkward fashion. Their handwriting is usually quite large. This is because it is difficult for them to translate a message to an outer limb when the message being received from the outer world is distorted.

Which brings me back to my earlier position video games. What has changed in our society in the past twenty years that would cause children’s eyes to turn inward? My theory, of course, is that video games and computer usage has contributed to this problem that so closely is associated to learning success.

I’m not totally against these items. I recently watched a student playing the Wii video game and thought the tennis would be a wonderful tool for integrating the left and right hemispheres of the brain. But I am against over usage of these technological advances. If students spent the entire day at school in front of a computer or video game it would be different. We are still expecting students to be able to use pencils for most of their school work, so they should be getting practice with pencils, crayons, and pens at an early age instead of time in front of the television, video game, or computer. We are not preparing students for success if we allow too much time spent with these items.

There are so many other things that contribute to this complex problem. In the past few years there has been a push for academics in our country, which has forced children to learn skills when they may not be developmentally ready for them. If a child has not developed gross motor skills, then it is ludicrous to expect him/her to have fine motor skill development. But children are being forced to write when they are not ready, and this causes confusion for them. This, in particular, has hurt our boys, who are usually developmentally behind girls academically. However, I have been seeing more and more girls with eye/hand coordination and fine motor skills deficiencies.

If we want our children to be lifelong, successful learners, then we must go back to sandbox kindergartens and let these children develop at their own pace to prevent learning problems in older grades. These young children have been alive for only five years and are expected to write, read, and do worksheets in kindergarten. More and more kindergartens are switching to all day kindergartens as well. If a child can’t keep up at this age, the parents are told he/she is behind and the child is often retained. What a sad way to start your first school experience!

Another reason for poor eye/hand coordination skills is simply lack of exposure to these skills. Kids today rarely sit and color or draw. The television has become a babysitter. All day kindergartens fail to provide free discovery time where gross motor skills can develop. The push for academics has left little time for teachers to actually teach handwriting skills. They are too pressured to teach to a specific test so that school scores are acceptable. Also, the dual working parent lifestyle is harried to say the least. Little time is left for playing games, coloring, drawing, etc.

I am always amazed when I hand a 5th grader a deck of cards and ask him/her to shuffle them. Almost always the student tells me he/she cant’. Keep in mind that I work with kids who have learning problems. Poor eye/hand coordination prevents these kids from doing this, but if they had more time with family games, then this skill would come along.

There are so many things that can be done to help students with eye/hand coordination problems. I will be giving you some activities, but keep in mind there are simple things like card shuffling, braiding hair, coloring, dot to dots, drawing, and art that can get a kid started in the right direction. Another useful tool I have used is the light tracing box. These are inexpensive, around twelve dollars. You put a piece of tracing paper and a picture in the light box and the student traces the picture.

To find out if your child has eye/hand coordination problems, have him/her take the simple checklist that follows. Then, if you find a weakness, there are some activities that follow. Some symptoms of eye/hand coordination problems are:

 Difficult time copying from the board

 Sloppy drawings

 Sloppy writing skills

 Poor spacing between letters, words, and numbers

 Difficult time putting ideas on paper

 Excessive erasing

 Excellent vocabulary and oral answers but has a difficult time putting these
answers and ideas in writing

 Difficult time completing written assignments on time

 Knows material but performs poorly on tests

 Difficult time writing numbers and lining up columns in math

 Slouching when writing or doing school work