The cause of poor visual skills?

[Jumping In Puddles]

I was reading this site and read that kids are not developing proper vision because of the type of play they are doing (or not doing). :confused: My son doesn't play video games often (we don't own a gaming console) and we don't often watch TV. He spends his time riding bikes, tying knots, drawing and collecting rocks. Indoors, he plays legos, board games, card games and makes things out of clay. At school he has done copywork since K, and has beautiful handwriting and cursive. :confused: Yet he never developed the vision skill that he needs to read.

 

I'm bringing this up because VT is probably out of the question - at least for now and I'd like to help him develop these skills. He has never liked playing catch or team sports. He loves acro and karate and hiking and fishing plus cub scouts. Maybe I should have been making him play catch!

 

If I could help my kids develop some skills at home, maybe they will be able to read without therapy.

 

Undeveloped Visual Skills. Kids today aren't doing the same things you did as a kid that developed the eyesight and vision skills needed to be a good reader. And schools are not testing kids to find out whether they have the visual skills needed to read what is required.

 

Remember when you were a kid? How did you spend most of your free time? You played outdoors, right? You rode your bike, climbed trees, built forts, played catch, drew and followed maps, and made up lots of new outdoor games. Indoors, you played board games, wrote letters, made up card games, played jacks and built things with tinker toys.

 

You didn't know it then, but all those things gave you the skills you needed to be able to read.

 

You learned:

 

How to track a moving object (then you could move your eyes from line to line easily when you read)

Eye-hand coordination (copying from the board to the paper)

Developed peripheral vision (allowed you to see more words at once and read faster)

Learned to tell right from left, b's from d's, p's from q's (laterality and directionality in reading terms)

Today - guess where most kids are? Indoors - and what are they doing? You guessed it, they are watching T.V., spending countless hours on the computer and playing video games. While these are not bad things in themselves, they don't develop the visual skills needed to make them good readers and they need vision therapy exercises to help.

 

[Lecka]

I don't know how to delete but meant to delete what I had written. I mis-read again -- I am reading too quickly today for some reason.

Edited February 23, 2012 by Lecka

[Jumping In Puddles]

Yes, I am sure Lyndon Johnson's daughter who is on their web page I went to spent countless hours inside playing video games and watching tv.

 

:lol::lol::lol: Good point!

 

Thank you, your post made a lot more sense than that website. You'll have to excuse me, I'm having a mental breakdown today. :tongue_smilie:

[prairiewindmomma]

I hate it when websites try to oversimplify information and they end up sounding stupid. :)

 

I think what the website was trying to get at is that your brain has two main pathways of handling visual information. In children who struggle with visual skills, often it is the magnocellular pathway that is less developed.....

The magnocellular pathway handles all movement related visual information and is strengthened through full body movement activities (like playing outside).

 

If you want some kinda technical information that explains the difference between the two pathways...I googled and here's what I came up with:

http://www.lea-test.fi/en/assessme/comenius/pathways.html

 

I am still looking for a good explanation on the web to hand to my parents. If anyone has something better, please share!