In 2004, 60 percent of the kindergartners at Gordon Parks Elementary in Kansas City, Missouri, failed a visual-skills test. The results prompted teachers to try something new. They began regular lessons in visual skills using therapist Cheryl Steffenella.

"Parks retrains many students' listening abilities as well, through lessons pioneered by French physician Alfred Thomatis. The sessions use students' voices and modified recordings of Mozart, played through headphones, to retrain the brain."

The American Academy of Pediatrics hasn't approved the new techniques, saying that the results are not consistent. But the students at Park Elementary say they've learned better how to focus, and how to listen. Source: USA Today.

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Labels: therapy, listening, visual_skills

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments

It’s not quite August, but parents and children are thinking about school. It’s time to shop for clothes, notebooks, pens, and pencils. Parents should also consider taking their kids in for an eye exam.

“Your child’s eye doctor will perform a thorough evaluation that not only includes testing how clearly they see, but also whether there are any other vision disorders that could get in the way of learning. These other disorders can include uncorrected hyperopia, accommodative insufficiency, and convergence insufficiency or excess.” [Source: The Star Exponent (VA)]

Any one of these disorders can cause headaches or eyestrain, or cause a child to dislike reading and home work. The disorders can cause ADHD-like symptoms such as poor concentration or restlessness. A simple eye exam can pinpoint the cause of these behaviors and ensure that your child isn’t misdiagnosed.

Labels: behavior, schools, visual_skills

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 2 Comments

According to a report by Denise Dador of southern California's KABC Channel 7, experts estimate that as many as a million children with vision problems have been wrongly diagnosed as having ADHD.

However, other experts have cast doubt on those estimates:

"One of the questions that we ask parents is to decide whether it's an organic attention problem or maybe more related to a vision problem," said Daniel Press, O.D., a development optometrist at Family Eyecare Associates. ...

Vision experts say 60 percent of kids labeled as problem learners actually suffer from undetected vision problems.

But some have doubts. The American Academy of Pediatrics says vision therapy may give parents and teachers a false sense of security that a child's problems are being addressed.

Labels: visual_skills

Posted By: 4ADHD.com 1 Comment