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It is certainly not an unknown fact that in years gone by, many children through no fault of their own, have struggled at school and with learning in general. What was once labelled as simply being 'problematic' or more hurtfully being the class 'dunce' may actually have been more to do with the child's visual abilities over their academic qualities or lack of desire to study. It might sound silly, but until recently, checking a child's eye was not something done automatically as a matter of protocol in matters such as these. One particular 'poster boy' for this change in attitude is a young boy named Sam from Gainesville, Virginia in the US. The child struggled to achieve at school until a trip to the optometrist uncovered a problem which had been holding him back.
While many of the signs indicated that young Sam may have behavioural problems or simple ill discipline, his family looked at all avenues to try and improve his schooling and education. When private tutoring failed to turn the boy around, a last ditch option to see an eye specialist proved to be the turning point they had all been looking for.
It is certainly not unreasonable to suggest that young Sam would have been frustrated beyond belief as he began to grow and mature, yet his comprehension of things in front of him, with a particular problem associated to reading, was poor. Without clear vision and sight, his rate of progress was slow and thus, following his inability to read efficiently he began to give up attempts to learn with a short attention span inevitable as he struggled. Upon closer inspection of his visual abilities it became clear to his optometrist that he was infact suffering from double vision, and from this, blurring. Having diagnosed the condition, Sam underwent therapy to improve the physicalities of his eyes and the muscles surrounding them to strengthen, and thus improve his eye sight. It is pleasing to hear that having received treatment, Sam is now beginning to excel in class where he once became reluctant to participate.
Vision therapy such as this is often used to treat patients with alignment and tracking problems, which in turn helps to improve processing of images and text as well as giving a sufferer the ability to learn at a higher rate as a consequence.