Posted on 08/29/2003 6:00:08 PM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
(Mystic-WTNH, Aug. 29, 2003 4:55 PM) _ Soon students will be getting ready for their first round of exams. But some doctors say perhaps the most important exam should be done at the start of the school year. It's en eye exam.
13-year-old Jessica Berg is getting her eyes checked at Visions Sight and Learning Center in Mystic. Her mom says it's all about being prepared for the upcoming school year.
"I wanted a second opinion for my oldest daughter because she was having trouble with comprehension at school last year and I wanted to make sure this year we did something about it," Deb Berg said.
"What we're going to do is test the function of your eyes, how well the eyes work together as a team how well they coordinate how well they track how well they focus," explained Dr. Jackie Campisi.
Optometrist Dr. Jackie Campisi says school screenings and annual physicals only identify five percent of children with vision learning problems.
"We're not just concerned with vision and health. We want to make sure the eyes are working together to see 3D, to see binocular comfortable vision."
This 45 minute exam reveals Jessica has a problem. Her eyes are not tracking as they should.
"I did a visiograph test on her which told me her eyes were not working as a team and that can cause a lot of confusion in the system and make somebody work harder to work to achieve the same thing," Dr. Campisi said.
But with aggressive eye therapy designed to train eye muscles to work more proficiently, Dr. Campisi says Jessica should have a better year at school.
"I think everybody should try it," Jessica said. "It will certainly help everyone find out how they're reading."
"An eye exam can be done at any age," Dr. Campisi said. "We recommend they come in during their pre-school years because that's 80 percent of learning is done from age zero to ten."
Dr. Campisi says the exam done at school and at the pediatrician's office only test the eyes for distance.
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For more information: http://www.drcampisi.optometry.net
And the only way to fix it all is through tax dollars and institutionalized medical checkups.
Subtle -- drip, drip, drip.
Not only can I rEad it, I can pick out the spelling error. And that at normal eyeglass reading distance. (I had "eagle eyes" before age reduced my vision to 20/20...)
Hate to tell you this but even with the best teacher in the world, if you can't see the lesson it's harder to learn.
I can testify to the veracity of this. As a child in kindergarden, 1st, and 2nd grades I didn't do all that well. I passed but I was a pretty disruptive child. I couldn't concentrate on the lessons.
Had my eyesight checked and guess what? I had a lazy eye and astigmatism.
Did eye exercises and wore glasses and from the third grade on did great.
It can be a problem.
Actually, this is very good advice and for just this reason.
Our bright and school-loving first grader suddenly began getting in trouble for not doing her work, dawdling, putting her head down in class, not paying attention, etc... she also began struggling with her reading. Everyone in our family was near-sighted and I had gotten her eyes checked with the chart annually. After several months of her evidencing "behavior problems" according to the school and losing recess every day to catch up on her work, we took her to an eye doctor out of desperation. Sure enough, she was so far-sighted the doctor couldn't understand how she was getting any work accomplished AT ALL.
I've had a hard time forgiving myself for not catching it earlier :-(
When I took algebra in the 9th grade my seat was at the back of the room. I couldn't read the problems on the blackboard. I got up out of my seat and walked 1/2 way up the aisle in order to read the problems.
Wearing glasses was NOT 'cool'.
When I turned 16 and wanted a driver's license I had to get glasses.
I memorized the 20/20 line on the eyechart in order to pass the eye exam. I still remember the line
DEFPOTEC
I never worried about being 'cool'.
I was too worried about getting my behind beat.
It wasn't 'cool' to be 4'11'' and 95 lbs going into high school either.
It can be hard to catch. When my youngest was 3 he had a routine screening and flunked the eye exam. I had him rechecked at the peds office and he did fine with one eye. When we got to the other, he started playing around. The nurse was CERTAIN that he was fine, just little and bored.
I was uneasy enough that I demanded a referral and got him seen at Children's Hospital Eye Center. He has poor vision in one eye. Funny thing is, even at 5 now, he hates wearing his glasses and often plays video games and watches tv without seeming to have any problem at all.
These things happen. One has to be responsible for one's children, unless the state is, of course. Good thing is, you probably won't have a very hard time recognizing socialized medicine once the funding is coming out of your paycheck.
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