March 7th 2018
Joplin Eye Doctors Help Students Improve Their School Performance
Advanced Vision Therapy Helps Children With Reading and Focusing Problems
Approximately 1 out of every 4 children have vision issues that affect their ability to do school work. While most people think of people with glasses or contact lenses as having vision issues, the truth is that there are many different processes that affect vision. For example, Reading is complex and there are 10 different visual skills used in the process. Children that may have passed their school vision screening or have been assessed by an optometrist and determined that they do not need glasses, may nonetheless still struggle visually to read and perform other visual tasks.
Vision Therapy is a research-backed program of custom-tailored exercises used to train the brain and the eyes to work together.
Does Your Child Fight With You About Homework?
The Eye Doctors at Coleman Vision Center in Joplin provide advanced Vision Therapy for patients from the 4 states. As Dr. Jeff Coleman explains:
“We are one of the few practices in the 4 states that really focuses on vision therapy to help children with learning issues that are vision related. Our practice has been serving the 4 states for three generations, and our vision therapy program is the pride of our practice. Students come from all over the 4 states and we experience life-altering transformations on a regular basis. Vision therapy is approved by the American Association of Optometrists (AOA) for the treatment of non-refractive vision problems, and there are many studies that demonstrate its effectiveness.”
Vision therapy is the process of training the eyes and the brain to work together. The first step is to assess the child with a developmental eye exam, this exam not only looks at the child’s ability to see clearly but also different visual skills that may affect their ability to concentrate and learn. 
“Once we understand the visual issues affecting the child we create a custom program combining in office visits with a therapist and at home homework. Therapy tends to last between a few months to a year, and really depends on the patient’s input into the process.” Said Dr. Coleman.
Some of the common reasons for vision problems that affect learning are:
- Amblyopia (Lazy Eye)
- Strabismus (Eye Allignments, wandering eye, cross eyes)
- Binocular Vision Problems (Slight issues that cause eye strain and fatigue)
- Accommodative Focusing/Function (Problems related to strain caused from focusing)
- Vision Issues due to stroke, brain injuries, and developmental issues such as Cerebral Palsy.
Coleman Vision Center has helped countless students to overcome their learning and performance challenges, and their Facebook page and website have numerous videos of students that have made remarkable progress overcoming different vision issues that affect their learning.
To learn more about Vision therapy visit our page here where you will find in-depth information about the technology, techniques, patient experiences, and much more. You can also take a quiz that can help identify vision related learning problems.
Click here to learn more about our Eye Doctors.