PARENTS NEED TO HAVE CHILD'S EYES TESTED BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS!

                Parents Need To Have Their Child's Eyes Tested BEFORE School Starts!

As a retired teacher and now a reading tutor I have seen too many children classified with learning disabilities,  labeled as attention deficit, slow, and with discipline problems or even classified as autistic because they have a problem with their eyesight. The child does not know enough to tell the parent or the teacher they cannot see the page or the white board from where they are sitting. They just start to feel there is something wrong with them self or they are dumber that other kids. The child is put into a group with others with learning problems. He or she gets tested and of course cannot get the needed score because of sight problems. The child's psyche is affected. Every child in the class knows which is the slow to learn group no matter if the teacher gives each group a fancy name.  Quite often the child acts out and becomes a problem in the class and is labeled ADHD. The child is also classified and put into a special group and He or she gets tested and of course cannot get the needed score because of sight problems. taken away from the class for special help--which also affects his psyche and  he loses what the class has learned while he was taken for help. Most teachers do not first think to ask the parent to check the eyesight before the child is classified.

 When I have noticed what I think is a sight problem and I have approached parents with the suggestion of having the child's eyes tested by a pediatric ophthalmologist , I am told the pediatrician checked the child. Pediatrician's are not taught to find a children who are farsighted, near sighted, astigmatic, or  amblyopic. I used to think any optometrist could test the children until I had a parent of a student in my class who was an ophthalmologist . I had noticed my grandchild was having problems with finding what she dropped or recognizing letters or even seeing what I was pointing  to. My son took her to a mall optometrist  but she still had problems even with her glasses.  I was asking my ophthalmologist parents'  advice and she said a young child needs a pediatric eye doctor to correctly find the problem. She was right, my grandchild had the "lazy" eye and needed to wear a patch to correct her eyes. This need to be corrected before age 7 or it would never be correctable.  I had another child in my class who I noticed had  to come so close to what I was writing or demonstrating in the class that he was almost in my lap. For three months I spoke to the mother who ignored the problem. Finally I cornered the dad who listened and got the child tested. To this day I am considered the savior of the child because the  eye doctor found a defect that would have caused blindness.

I could go on and on with examples of how eyesight can affect a child's learning or discipline problems and the many parents and teachers who did not realize it was a simple matter of having the eyes checked before the child is classified , so I implore you as a parent to have your child's eyes checked before school starts. I think all schools should require eye examinations by a qualified eye doctor just as they require pediatric examinations before school starts.