What Your Doctor May Not Notice That Can Cause Your Child To Struggle In School

Two weeks ago, I worked with Ivan, a third grade boy, whose reading and handwriting problems told me he had vision issues. As a reading specialist, I knew from experience, these were not the kind of problems he'd "grow" out of.

Not only was reading hard for him, but there were no spaces between the letters when he wrote the words in the book we were making.

Ivan is much like the one in 10 American kids that USA Today and the American Optometric Association say have undiagnosed eye problems. When I asked, Ivan told me he'd never had an eye exam.

What's even more worrisome, when nearly 70% of our kids do not read at grade level, is that an "estimated 85,000 children will enter kindergarten with lazy eye" (USA Today) - which can lead to serious eye and vision problems, and maybe even blindness later on.

Doctors can easily miss a lazy eye during a routine well child check, because it's not always obvious. It's not easy for parents to spot either, unless a child's eyes are crossed. Sadly, lazy eye causes so many problems both in school, in sports and at home, a child's self-esteem can virtually be destroyed if this problem is not diagnosed.

Ivan told me he thought he was dumb, but I knew better. I assured him that his eyes were playing tricks on him and that he might want to ask his parents for an eye exam.

This seemed to make him feel a whole lot better, and he even laughed out loud.

In the meantime, I had Ivan put one finger between his words, and write on paper with large lines and spaces. We also used graph paper for his numbers.

Then, we started practicing some tracking activities from the I Read I Succeed Kit and Ivan went home much happier that day.

Tip: If you have a child under 12 months, former President Jimmy Carter is the national spokesperson for a program called Infantsee at infantsee.org. Your baby can have a free eye exam and you can give your child the gift of good "eyesight" and "vision" to make sure reading is fun, and like James Patterson says, a "page turner."

Tip: If your child is older, go to http://www.covd.org/ or http://www.oep.org/ and find and eye doctor now. It's never too early, and definitely, never to late. Then make sure to tell your pediatrician the results so everyone is on the same page...