Sometimes it seems like the best things in life come through hard work and patience. When it comes to developing your child’s healthy vision, here’s good news: it’s easy and fun!
The American Optometric Association recently put together a timeline of toys that encourage complex vision development at every age group. They range from rattles to roller-skates, and fall within an affordable, everyday range.
Vision is key not just for seeing but for processing the world around us. Visual input is one of our primary – and certainly favored – senses. It allows us to enjoy the view, to protect ourselves from danger, to interact with our environment, and to learn. Much of our education comes through the visual realm, reading being the prime example.
A child may pass the 20/20 test and yet still have some areas of poorly developed visual processing. It is important to realize that these two different categories do exist: ‘sight’ and ‘vision’. Sight usually refers to the ability to see objects far and near. Vision is about how the eyes work together with the brain to process those objects.
You need healthy sight and vision to develop good reading skills. There are a number of visual processing weaknesses that can seriously impede a child’s reading development, and they remain largely unseen until their effects are shown through slow or backwards progress. If you are worried that might be a hidden cause of your child’s reading difficulties, get in touch and we’ll refer you to a specialist who can help.
In the meantime, enjoy this fun list of toys and activities for playtime with your child, whether infant or 7 years old!
http://www.aoa.org/patients-and-public/good-vision-throughout-life/toys-games-and-your-childs-vision
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Sarah Forrest is a Reading Solutions Consultant for the Easyread System, and fully supported online course for kids with reading difficulties, dyslexia, auditory processing disorder, highly visual learning styles and more. www.morganlearning.com
