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.
