Lake Forest Park, Washington (PRWEB) March 14, 2014 -- Children who are not able to read believe they are stupid.Twenty-five percent of elementary students see print as blurry or in varying shades of gray when they are trying to learn to read. These children do not know that they see print differently; they don't know that is why they are not successful in school.
"You are talking about my granddaughter," one of the audience exclaimed. "She was having meltdowns every single night trying to get her homework done. Finally someone suggested that she get her eyes checked and try vision therapy. It has changed all our lives."
Katie told several similar stories about children in her teaching experience whose vision issues were not detected early. "One of the problems is that the required school vision screening only checks for distance vision, not for seeing letters and words in a book at 10 inches away.
"We need to change that requirement in Washington state," Katie urged the parents and teachers in the group.
After the discussion, the attendees played with the games and activities Katie brought as examples of what teachers and parents can do "while you are waiting for an appointment with a developmental optometrist!" Some played with paper eyeballs, practicing their tracking; some played with pick-up sticks made of paper clips to practice their figure-ground perception; some drew the missing half of a small picture, checking their binocular vision.
"Thanks," said Aimee Miner, the school's principal. "You have given us a lot to think about and we hope you will come work with our teachers to help us identify the children in this school who are falling through the vision cracks."
All the activities and stories Katie used in the meeting are included in her book, Red Flags for Primary Teachers. She gave copies to the school principal and to the PTA presidents.
Katie Johnson, KatieJohnsonAuthor.com, http://www.katiejohnsonauthor.com, 206-548-0155, [email protected]
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