LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT PROBLEMS
As we develop and learn we increasingly rely on visual skills and visualisation. Very simply we move from solving problems by using concrete materials to imagining and manipulating information in our minds.
General
A child's interaction with the world progresses from:
- Tactile - touching and tasting (everything goes into the mouth)
- Motor - walking/ falling; manipulating; trial and error
- Visual - eyes lead the response. Look - think - respond
Spatial World
Expands outwards from birth:
- Mum's face when breastfeeding - to:
- Reachable space; which expands as the child becomes more mobile - crawling then walking - to:
- See-able space - to:
- Conceivable space - beyond the bounds of the house and gardens and into the imagination (visualisation).
Learning
Life, particularly before school, is about learning through interacting with the world (playing). Over time, as the child's body and brain develop, the child learns to understand and use input from all of the senses in their body. As they gain control over motor functions they also learn to integrate the information they receive.
Perceptual skills
What we learn through play as a child provides the building blocks for all our future learning. Perceptual skills needed for reading, writing and mathematics develop as a result of understanding shape, size, direction, similarities, differences, sequencing (time). Physical activity gives us the fine and gross motor control we need to translate what we see and hear into action needed for handwriting, copying, drawing, playing sport and tying our shoelaces. Memory and visualisation skills become increasingly important as school progresses.
Visual skills
Visual demands change as we grow and move through school and life.
Kindergarten to Year 1
Learning to read and write; increased times of working and concentrating at closer distances (working at a desk) with smaller and more detailed targets (letters, numbers and words): Focusing, convergence skills
Finding and keeping our place: eye movement skills
Perceptual skills are critical
Primary Reading to learn; more sustained concentration, smaller writing and greater need for comprehension to follow written instructions: flexibility and stamina of all visual skills More copying from the board: accuracy and speed of changing focus
High school
Increased intensity, multiple subjects, more homework, increased computer time, long hours of close work and pressure to succeed: All systems under pressure. Greater danger of visual stress and computer vision syndrome. Induced Myopia (short-sightedness).
What to look for:
- Poor reading
- Sudden drop in performance
- Loss of concentration at near tasks
Problems with visual or perceptual skills and efficiency can affect learning and performance at any age. Behavioural optometry can help to rectify these problems.
