SPECIAL NOTICE: LUSD School Eye Screening Omission
Last year, LUSD included a list of eye doctors sent with eye screening failure notices. One listed doesn’t even see children! Our doctor, Bill Henshaw, OD, FCOVD, wasn’t on the list. Yet, he is the only eye doctor in Lodi with a specialty in visually related learning difficulties, plus training in computer vision from Berkeley. Chromebooks stress your kids' vision. Dr Henshaw helps children struggling with visually related learning difficulties one child at a time. Sometimes the answer is even simple. You can trust Dr. Henshaw to follow up on any school vision screening failure. For all your visual needs, call 209-334-2020 for children and adults. Remember, you never outgrow a visually related vision condition. Help is available for adults
Last year, LUSD included a list of eye doctors sent with eye screening failure notices. One listed doesn’t even see children! Our doctor, Bill Henshaw, OD, FCOVD, wasn’t on the list. Yet, he is the only eye doctor in Lodi with a specialty in visually related learning difficulties, plus training in computer vision from Berkeley. Chromebooks stress your kids' vision. Dr Henshaw helps children struggling with visually related learning difficulties one child at a time. Sometimes the answer is even simple. You can trust Dr. Henshaw to follow up on any school vision screening failure. For all your visual needs, call 209-334-2020 for children and adults. Remember, you never outgrow a visually related vision condition. Help is available for adults
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School Marches Along
We change lives through innovative vision care. School is in session now but how is your child doing? It’s great if your child is among the 75% who are doing well but those in the 25% who are failing are suffering. Yes, at least 25% of our students in the USA are failing in school. |
A portion of your child's system is at least 80% responsible for learning. As you may guess, that system is the vision system of your child. Could that be a factor in your child's success or failure in learning? Numerous studies have demonstrated the relationship between vision and learning. Go to research in vision therapy. However, the majority of schools can’t help you here and may even hinder. They rely on outdated, ineffective school vision screening that picks the wrong kids.
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Most school vision screenings only identify children who perform well, while those with visually related learning problems are often missed. At least 80% of those referred to us from failing school screening are A-B students. It’s even worse. When your child passes the minimal school vision screening, you, the child’s teacher, the school principal, the pediatrician, and even the family doctor think your child does not have a vision problem. You then think the learning problem has nothing to do with vision, and delay care after trying methods that don’t help.
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Why is this? The school vision screening was established in 1947 and has undergone little change since then. It was based on the long-held mistaken belief that if you can’t see the chalkboard, now Prometheans in front of the classroom, you can’t learn.
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This didn’t need to happen. In the late thirties, a well-respected eye doctor at Dartmouth College found that those with the worst visual acuity (the only thing tested in the current CA law) were the best students. Dr. Walter Lancaster was the doctor who proved that eye muscles are between 100 and 50 times stronger than necessary to move the eye, debunking the theory that weak eye muscles cause strabismus (crossed or wandering eyes).
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Why were the kids with the worst eyesight (visual acuity) the best students? They eventually realized that the screening only identifies students with nearsightedness, who, by definition, have poor visual acuity. How did they get nearsighted? It came from being good students and straining their eyes to read the books that educated them. Yes, well, more than 80% of school work is done at the desk, where books, Chromebooks, and papers are piled up and memorized for hours.
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The Dartmouth study then created two types of eye doctors. One type is the curious who wanted to solve this kink in the armor of traditional beliefs. The curious created developmental optometry.
The second group was caught in tradition and avoided a deeper view of this valuable study. Why would the traditional docs do this? Frankly, it may be a matter of economics. The screening identified those kids needing glasses, which the conventional docs readily supplied year after year. This state law literally ushered young patients into their offices. It wasn't easy to turn away such a lucrative source of money. On the other hand, it's likely that old ideas are challenging to release. |
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There is even more bad news. The minimal screening standard they have is too late. The bus has already left the stop. It only detects those who already have the eye problem, almost always too late to reverse the condition. The College of Optometrists in Vision Development reported that school screening only covers around 3% of the vision system.
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The above 25% figure, which we started in this section, does not count those struggling in school to remain in the 75%. Additionally, it overlooks the A students who may be overworking and potentially taxing their health and eyes.
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The one hope of teacher observation is discounted, underutilized, and even discouraged. Yes, it is the ignored portion of the CA school vision screening law (Section (e) of the vision screening law, CA Education Code 4945, that requires teacher and nurse training to recognize vision symptoms, which equip teachers to be informed of and observe signs and symptoms of your children exhibiting a visually related vision problem. This is the only part of the minimal school vision screening that actually helps detect a visually related learning problem.
Before I express my concern, I realize that dealing with any learning difficulty is challenging and often frustrating.
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Yet, should teachers, school principals, pediatricians, and state legislatures look beyond traditional methods?
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In 2020, we unnecessarily shut down our economy and schools due to a real airborne virus that minimally affected kids. The governor, the teachers' union, and teachers pushed for Zoom learning, which harmed our children's eyesight and education. I saw many with bizarre vision conditions after. Within two years, I saw more kids with keratoconus (usually a rare condition that could result in a corneal transplant) than in the previous 4 decades.
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Our schools receive Federal funding for special education. Despite its good intentions, special ed is expensive, and National studies show it is less than successful.
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The pediatricians found psychotropic drugs, but no study has proven they help. Research shows that after three years, those treated with drugs were behind those not given the drugs.
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Officials may need to take a closer look, as did AM Skeffington, who was the driving force behind developmental optometry. Certainly, developmental optometry doesn’t have the only answer, but we can definitely help and deserve a closer look. As one example, we treated a 10-year-old with vision processing difficulty. He had failed every year in special education from kindergarten to the fourth grade. After our care, he not only stopped failing but also achieved his first 100% on a test. Yet, at his IEP meeting, a school psychologist, in front of the teacher, school principal, and the child, stated that vision processing does not help. The only response was from my patient, who said," It sure helped me!"
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That was reality. That was the bad news.
Now, HOW ABOUT THE GOOD NEWS? What can we do about our kids? There is a lot we can do:
1. Have a routine yearly vision examination by a developmental optometrist, which we all should do anyhow. Every exam in our office will detect a visually related vision condition.
1. Have a routine yearly vision examination by a developmental optometrist, which we all should do anyhow. Every exam in our office will detect a visually related vision condition.
2. Ask your school to do efficient, cost-effective vision screenings. In the current antiquated school screening, an official is hired to oversee the program. School officials’ time is also allotted to the program. People are paid to provide the screening. Notices of the results are sent out to the parents and tracked. Records are kept of the screening. This is wasted money that could be used for the three R’s.
What can be done for effective and efficient vision screening to detect a possible vision condition interfering with learning? I offer a straightforward method. Base vision screening on the child’s grades by including a simple notice with the grades:
Your child’s grades are a reflection of visually related vision conditions. You are advised to seek an eye doctor trained in visually related vision corresponding to the following grades:
1. D & F’s: definitely seek an appointment
2. C’s: hold off the appointment unless two cycles in a row
3. B: No need for the appointment
4. A: If you note your child pushing themselves
Children’s grades are at least 80% due to the vision system, but other factors should not be ruled out. If you provide yearly routine vision exams, no school eye screening is needed.
What can be done for effective and efficient vision screening to detect a possible vision condition interfering with learning? I offer a straightforward method. Base vision screening on the child’s grades by including a simple notice with the grades:
Your child’s grades are a reflection of visually related vision conditions. You are advised to seek an eye doctor trained in visually related vision corresponding to the following grades:
1. D & F’s: definitely seek an appointment
2. C’s: hold off the appointment unless two cycles in a row
3. B: No need for the appointment
4. A: If you note your child pushing themselves
Children’s grades are at least 80% due to the vision system, but other factors should not be ruled out. If you provide yearly routine vision exams, no school eye screening is needed.
3. If #2 above is not adopted, please make sure that your teacher is instructed in visually related learning signs by a trained eye doctor.
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4. Request your district to return to book learning and minimize the use of Chromebooks. We are not against digital devices. We currently have fourteen computers in our office, not including our individual smartphones. Classroom instruction via digital devices is detrimental to eyes and education. Obviously, there is nothing wrong with teaching the use of digital devices. Just don’t teach exclusively from them.
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5. Get lens therapy glasses for your child, prescribed by us. Dr. Henshaw, as a developmental optometrist, has prescribed lens therapy for decades. He also has special training in digital vision from Berkeley College of Optometry. Lens therapy is the number one thing your child can receive to alleviate eyestrain caused by digital devices. It will also help with all desk work and prevent the worsening of eyesight. |
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Lens therapy helps with the majority of visually related learning difficulty and is relatively simple. For the more challenging cases, there is highly successful binocular vision therapy, as well as even more successful vision processing therapy. Yes, there is more time and expense in vision therapy, but the reward is worth the effort. As one example, Bobby, before treatment was finished, gained two years in his reading ability. See Testimonies on another page.
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6. Follow vision hygiene suggestions. Go to Lens Therapy explained, then to Visual Hygiene.
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