My younger son Caden has struggled with reading this year, which confirmed for us our knowing it was time to consider homeschooling him (something I wrote about in an earlier post I have known was going to happen). The outer distractions have become too overwhelming for him to manage while also trying to maintain his concentration at the same time. A few months ago however, I also received an intuitive nudge to have his eyes checked.
We were reading one night and I sensed he was having difficulty seeing the words. Has was squinting and slow to see some of the words I know he is familiar with. I asked him if he was having trouble seeing the words and he said yes. I began to realize some of his frustration and challenges could potentially be a result of his eyes and not a greater issue the school was beginning to lean toward. Not to mention, he is a visual-kinesthetic learner which means he processes much of his world through vision and feeling. Coincidentally, later that same week his reading teacher commented that perhaps he should have his eyes checked.
I immediately called the eye doctor and explained the situation to her. She shared that one of the most common mistakes that are made with young children is that they are labeled with a learning disability when often the issue can be attributed to their vision. She went on to say she even had a patient's mom who was a teacher who missed the issue with her daughter's vision and had leaned toward it being a learning disability. I knew it, I thought to myself. Another instance where children are being labeled with a disability rather than all other options being investigated first.
So I scheduled Caden's eye appointment and took him in. Almost immediately upon him stepping up to the "eye machine" (something new since the last time my eyes were checked...) she could see he would need glasses. I was amazed that within seconds of examining his eyes she could see that there was a pretty significant issue with his visual cortex. A feeling of relief washed over me, because in that moment he and I both knew his challenges with reading had been a result of his eye sight, not a learning disability. He looked at me and said, "I told you I was going to need glasses." And of course he did.
His visual diagnosis is being farsighted along with a stigmatism in his left eye which is an even greater visual challenge and also a genetic defect (thank you grandma...LOL). He was fitted for glasses and his reading ability was tested with the new prescription. Based on how he read the card and his ability to easily identify his letters during the actual exam, she explained that for his specific issue his ability to see punctuation and small print was diminished by his inability to see up close. This had caused him to read without knowing when to pause or stop for grammatical purposes AND all of his focus and energy was going into seeing the words which has made it difficult for him to comprehend what he's reading.
She also explained it would take some time to help him adjust to the ability to see clearly and will take some "rehabilitation" if you will, to improve his reading comprehension. Basically, we will have to work on strengthening his understanding again, because he won't be compensating for his inability to see the words on the pages.
I recently had a conversation with one of the mom's at Caden's baseball game and shared what I discovered about Caden's vision. She was impressed I picked up on it so quickly and also believes people miss vision issues more frequently than we are aware of. She shared her own story about being almost 20 before she realized she had struggled with her vision; to her, it was normal. Her story made me feel strongly about writing this article. In fact, in Maryland it's now mandatory for children's sight to be tested before school begins. Perhaps all states should make this a requirement and we can begin easing up on everything being considered a "learning" disability. In some instances, it is simply a physical disability and with proper knowledge and resources, these issues can be addressed easily enough.
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