This one is for the teachers!

I wanted to give a shout out to the teachers today.  I know, I know, the teachers really just want to have a Saturday at the lake, pretending it’s not August yet. 

But, August is Save Your Vision Month and I want to make the connection between vision and learning. It’s so much more than 20/20 eyesight. 

It’s about processing the letters and words and being able to remember the sight words.

It’s about being able to read without sounding every word out.  And remembering that new word when you see it later in the paragraph.

It’s about having a visual memory that allows you to remember your multiplication facts.

It’s about having the spatial visual skills that teaches you the difference between a “b” and a “d” or the difference between “u” and “n.”

It’s about having the visual skills that allow you know where you are in space so that you don’t have to walk on your toes all of the time.

It’s about having the eye teaming skills that allow you to read for a long time without getting headaches or tired eyes.  Or, better yet, getting “bored” from reading.

It’s about being in the gifted program and yet struggling and struggling to have fluency with reading. 

Save Your Vision Month means that it’s time for your child to get his or her annual eye exam.  But, I’d like to go one step further and remind people that a developmental optometrist goes beyond “20/20” and looks at things like eye teaming and visual processing that really can make a difference for your students in school. 

I hope that through this blog, I can provide some useful resources for school teachers to incorporate into the classroom, from a visual perspective.  Maybe some tracking activities or other visual perceptual “tricks” to teaching those kids who just don’t get it from traditional means. 

Thanks for listening and have a good rest of your summer before the school year starts!

- Dr. Cheryl Davidson