Hearing about a friend’s experience with his son has prompted me to write about something I thought I had buttoned down. The old eyes.
Like most short-sighted folk I’ve been in and out of optometrists for most of my life and thought it was mainly about diagnosing, correcting it and long-sighted vision and selling stuff like frames and lenses. What else is there to know apart from laser treatments?
My friend became aware of something that could really help his son who has what so many kids these days are diagnosed with ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to give its full name. He was having problems at school and his dad saw something about behavioural optometry and sought out a behavioural optometrist in Melbourne.
What these guys basically do is look at a child’s learning problems from the perspective of their vision. Not necessarily in how their eyesight actually is in terms of long or short-sightedness but in how problems they may have with their vision impact their ability to learn.
We all process information differently and that process comes from our senses like hearing, touch, smell and of course sight. (Funny how some people dream in colours and some see the world in different colours and sensations to the next person).
Differences are most marked in kids with ADHD or even more so with children on the Autism spectrum. Behavioural optometry can help with dyslexic youngsters too. A behavioural optometrist concentrates more on how a child processes information visually.
They deal with a range of conditions from lazy eye, where one eye doesn’t develop along the lines of the other, and strabismus (commonly known as eye-turn) where the two eyes are unable to maintain proper focus and kind of fight each other.
In Conclusion:
It was the diagnosis that my friend’s son’s learning issues were related to his vision – when for all intents and purposes it looked like he could see properly – that helped him dramatically. The issue was strabismus (a new word for me) and sorting this out through a series of learning methods has helped him not just with school focus but some poor behaviour.
So think about your kids’ eyes – especially if they are having trouble focusing and there seems no other answer.
