What can you see?

I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated. - Poul Anderson (1926-2001)

Most educators have heard this success story: a student sits in the back of the room, gets poor grades and is inattentive. He takes an eye exam, gets glasses and, like magic, not only do the "C"s turn into "A"s, but behavior improves too!

The connection between seeing the board and getting good grades is an easy one to understand. But what about the relationship between vision and behavior?

An article in Review of Optometry by Senior Editor John Murphy brings to focus a 15-year-old boy ("Nate") who was disruptive in class and in trouble with the law. And, according to Murphy, "he looked mean." But the reader soon discovers that the "meanness was just a cover-up for the frustration." Nate had a serious vision problem that caused him to see double when looking at objects (like his textbook!) up close. But he passed all of his school vision tests with 20/20.

When Nate's vision problem was properly diagnosed and corrected, he not only improved his grades dramatically, but his behavior completely turned around as well. In fact, his "mean look" disappeared.

Is Nate's case unique?

Dr. Murphy goes on to state "but many children with vision problems stumble through school, suffer from poor self-esteem and lack the skills necessary to compete among their peers." Makes sense. He concludes with this: "Visual problems can impede learning, depriving the child of adequate educational standing and intellectual capability to succeed in life. Also, visual problems cause frustration and lead to disruptive acting out in class. That can descend into delinquent behavior and branding as a 'bad kid.' Such labels may become self-fulfilling."

Dr. William Moskowitz quotes a recent National PTA study where "About ten million children in this country suffer from undetected vision problems that may cause them to fail in school. "Over eighty percent of the children with diagnosed learning problems have undiagnosed vision-based learning problems. And, sadly, up to fifty percent of youngsters who find themselves entangled with the criminal justice system have vision problems that were undiagnosed prior to their run-in with the law."

In his article "Behavior Problems and Poor School Performance Linked to Vision," he breaks it down for us:

"Think about the classroom environment. A child sits at a desk, writes, alternately reads from a textbook and from the chalkboard, and visually follows the teacher's movements around the room while listening to the lesson. Visual skills required?: being able to see the board (distance vision) and the book (near vision); being able to maintain clear vision while shifting focus from a distant object to a near one (accommodation); being able to aim both eyes accurately and move smoothly across a line of print or from object to object with ease (eye movement skills); being able to use the eyes to guide the hands (eye-hand coordination); being able to coordinate the two eyes together so that they are precisely directed at the same object at the same time (eye teaming); maintaining, for long periods of time, completely clear vision while looking at near or distant objects (focusing)."

Moskowitz gives us a checklist to help with our assessment:

Some of the most obvious symptoms of which to be watchful, and which might indicate that a child has a visual problem include:

• Poor concentration, comprehension and attention span
• Fatigue
• Squinting
• Complaints of double vision or blurring
• Loses place while reading
• Points to words while reading
• Avoids close work
• Rubs eyes or blinks a great deal while reading
• Nausea, dizziness, and/or headaches after close work
• Reverses letters or words in reading and writing
• Omits small words or makes substitutions while reading
• Clumsiness on the playing field, when ordinarily well-coordinated
• Homework takes FOREVER when its shouldn't