Paterson Burn Optometrists has teamed up with Rototuna Primary School to help identify visual issues affecting students’ learning.
A group of Paterson Burn optometrists carried out free screening for all the school’s year three and four students. The results will not only help participating students but will also form part of a wider Paterson Burn study called Vision to Learn, which aims to determine how prevalent undiagnosed visual conditions are in school children, said Kim Stedman, Paterson Burn’s visual therapy specialist. “Members of the school had spoken with me about potential visual conditions in children who they’d noticed struggled with reading and writing.”
While standard screening by the Ministry of Health measures what a child can see in the distance, most of the visual demands for school children are near based, Stedman explained. “If visual skills are not well developed, learning can become more stressful and difficult. Symptoms children might exhibit include demonstrating a short attention span, tiring easily, avoiding reading or writing whenever possible, not easily comprehending the task at hand, closing one eye to read, write or concentrate and behavioural problems.”
Some of the key visual deficits the team is looking for are best treated with visual therapy, she added. “Visual therapy is a programme of exercises used to improve the coordination and efficient functioning of the visual system. Traditionally it is done within an optometry practice or in the child’s home.” To increase accessibility, the school will run the visual therapy programme for one term under the guidance of Paterson Burn.
