Why focus on Vision?
Vision and learning are intimately related and 80% of a child’s learning is through their eyes.
How clearly a child sees and how efficiently they process visual information fundamentally contributes to how a they learn and develop.
Vision plays an essential role not only in physical and intellectual development, but also how a child socially interacts with others and emotionally connects with themselves and the world.
A child’s eyes rapidly develops from birth to 3 years, and their visual system continues to develop in the primary school years.
As parents and educators we witness our child’s developmental progress as they learn to move and speak every day. How our child sees, remains unknown and visual disorders can go undetected, especially in younger children who cannot tell us how they see the world.
Currently in South Africa there is no system in place for effective vision screenings of children under the age of 4 years.
Yet 1 in 4 children develop a vision disorder and 7% of children will suffer from Amblyopia, or “lazy eye”, without early detection.
60% of school-aged children with reading and learning challenges have an undiagnosed visual impairment and often these children will present with developmental delays, behavioural challenges and ADD/ADHD symptoms.
About
My Approach
"It takes a village..."
Many studies have shown the benefits of a Multi-sensory learning approach, especially when guided by a multi-disciplinary team.
Behavioural Optometry is a visual care system based on the understanding that vision is the dominant sensory process. It explores all the aspects of the visual system and how visual input integrates with the other brain processes e.g. hearing, touch and movement.
I believe by having comprehensive vision screenings at school and engaging with our different communities about the importance of vision and learning, visual issues in children can be detected early and long term effects on development can be avoided.
