Vision therapy can help improve children’s reading levels, according to Dr. Julie Steinhauer.

Steinhauer is a developmental optometrists with 18 years of experience. She uses syntonic phototherapy and traditional in-office vision therapy to correct vision problems.

Steinhauer specializes in helping children with learning-related vision problems. She said the average child improves three to seven grade levels in reading comprehension following 10 months of vision therapy.

Vision issues often resemble more commonly diagnosed and understood learning disabilities, Steinhauer said. Unfortunately, that often leads to more serious issues such as misdiagnosis and treatment for a condition the child does not have. She said there are a number of possible reasons for a child’s vision issues, including prematurity, prenatal drug exposure, genetics, too much screen time, ear infections, sickness that includes high fever and a lack of motor activity during infant and toddler years.

About 80% of children have undiagnosed vision problems that affect their performance in school, she said; 90% of kids diagnosed with ADHD are misdiagnosed and have a condition called convergence insufficiency.

Once properly diagnosed, she said, vision therapy trains the brain how to process visual and other sensory information more efficiently to improve a child’s academics, processing and sport performance.

Source: The Telegraph (IL)