Many children come to us because they’re having problems at school. Usually the first person to notice is the classroom teacher who sees the child falling further and further behind the rest of the class.
Classroom learning relies on good reading skills. Reading in turn, requires fine motor control of eye movement. There are two main movements to be concerned about. One is scanning back and forth along a line of print and the second is drawing the eyes in or converging so that attention is focused on a point.
To achieve adequate fine motor control of eye movement, messages need to travel through the nervous system between the brain and the eyes without hindrance. If a child has retained reflexes; allergies; gut issues; parasites, or even minor structural issues, then this nervous control is being physically hampered. The role of the chiropractor is to remove the physical block.
Fine motor control is a learned skill. The visual system in children with learning problems will usually need to be retrained so that both eyes work together to scan and converge. This is where the behavioural optometrist comes in, using colours and exercises to develop this skill. Often glasses will be prescribed – not to correct a physical problem but as a temporary crutch to help the eyes converge automatically until the skill is learned and becomes automatic without any help.
The combination of chiropractic adjustment and behavioural optometry will allow for significant improvement in reading and learning.
Feel free to contact us if you want to know more.