Vision Intervention Program

Program from Learning Insights, a not for profit organization in Missouri, striving to screen children for vision problems, provide tutoring for them in schools, and refer the more severe cases to optometrist that look at vision from a broad perspective.

Name:
Location: Holts Summit, Missouri, United States

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Does vision therapy improve reading?

Another of the basic questions that I've been researching is the effect vision therapy has on reading. A number of articles show clear evidence of the positive effect of vision therapy in improving reading. Some of the more recent include the following.

Hefner B. Effects of vision therapy on reading students with vision problems. Paper presented to the Kansas Legislature. Kansas Optometric Association, February 9, 2000.

Five hundred students with reading problems were screened by optometrists in 1998 and 1999. Problems that would hinder reading efficiency were identified in more than half of these students. Fifty-six students were placed in a study with 27 as a control and 29 as a treatment group. At the end of the 15-week vision training time, the treatment group’s reading levels increased one grade level. These changes were not seen in the control group.
Harris P. Learning-related visual problems in Baltimore city: a long-term program. J Optom Vis Devel 2002; 33:75-115.

A longitudinal, single-masked, random sample study of children at a Baltimore City Public Elementary school documents the prevalence of learning-related visual problems in the inner city of Baltimore and tests the effectiveness of vision therapy. Vision therapy was provided to one of the randomly selected groups and data were collected on optometric tests, visual performance tests, and standardized achievement tests before and after treatment was provided. Data presented show that the vision therapy program has made a significant difference in the demand level of reading that could be read for understanding, in math achievement on standardized testing, and in reading scores on standardized testing, as well as on infrared eye-movement Visagraph recordings, which show significant changes on nearly all mechanical aspects of the reading process.

Solan HA, Shelley-Tremblay J, Ficarra A, et al. Effect of attention therapy on reading comprehension. J Learn Disabil 2003;36:556-563.

This prospective, randomized study quantified the influence of visual attention therapy on the reading comprehension of Grade 6 children with moderate reading disabilities in the absence of specific reading remediation. At the completion of vision therapy, the experimental group improved significantly on attention and reading comprehension scores. The control group showed no significant improvement in reading comprehension scores.

Monday, June 06, 2005

One of many questions that I've been researching:


Do vision difficulties relate to reading problems?

I found the following article:

Young B, Collier-Gary K, Schwing S. Visual factors – a primary cause of failure in beginning reading. J Optom Vis Devel 1994; 25:276–88

In a longitudinal study of 144 beginning readers in public school, data on 25 measures of visual efficiency were subjected to two- and three-way Analyses of Variance. Binocular function, visual acuity, discrepancies in acuity, and color deficiencies were all found to be statistically significant in impeding beginning reading. Significant differences were also found in the sequence of visual development between sexes, between eye dominance for different tasks, between specific factors for 6-, 7-, and 8- year olds and first and second grades. It was concluded that visual factors are a primary cause of beginning reading failure and that most current school screenings are inadequate in scope and rigor.