As the school year approaches, the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD) has declared once again that the month of August is National Vision and Learning Month.  With this year’s campaign, COVD is trying to demonstrate how vision therapy is needed around the globe.  We agree, and we’ve got the blog comments to prove it.

Many of our vision therapy patients have a poor pencil grip. This often occurs because these children will learn to write before they are developmentally ready, either because of a vision problem or because their fingers are not dexterous enough, or both.  Either way, we often find children in vision therapy need to work on this skill.

When you get a driver’s license, it’s standard to undergo a “vision test” that uses a Snellen eye chart.  However, this approach does not capture the types of undetected vision problems that can have a serious impact (I hate to use that word in this context) when driving.

To be honest, I was frightened to call Dr. Knueppel.  We regularly chat about vision problems, and today, I had one affecting me:  I was wondering if my big screen TV was giving me eyestrain.

August is Vision and Learning Month, and to help drive home the important link between vision and learning, here are some quotes we picked up from the website of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development.  We included a few of our reactions with them:

Vision problems frequently manifest in sports, and no sport may serve as a better indicator than baseball.  Our national pastime can actually help you spot a potential vision issue with your child.

A story recently broke in Time.com that The Lancet journal reported that up to 90% of young adults in major Eastern countries, which include China, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea are myopic. The main culprits are believed to be an overload of near work and a lack of sunlight, which poses the big question:  Are US children far behind?

Summertime is almost here, and kids are chomping at the bit to get outdoors (we hope) or at least get out of the classroom.  If you have a child who is experiencing some vision problems, you’ll be happy to know there are some fun ways to strengthen the visual system.

Every year, spring heralds in a new round of standardized tests for college-bound high schoolers.  While it’s a time of great promise, it can also yield surprising disappointment, as a bright student may perform poorly on a test.  These students may not realize that a low score may be due to a vision problem.