A major portion (about 80%) of what we learn is taken in through the visual system. 

There are many aspects of vision problems which might affect an individual’s abilities to attend and respond to teacher instruction. 

• Refractive errors like nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism can result in blurred vision or eye strain, which will affect performance in the classroom. 
• Focusing problems do not allow them to rapidly change focus from book to chalkboard and vice versa. 
• Difficulty using both eyes together. This dysfunction can require excess effort to overcome and may interfere with visual information processing. 
• Difficulty controlling eye movements. This could result in loss of place when reading, frequent guessing of words, need for the use of the finger to maintain one’s place, or other subtler difficulties. 
• Visual information processing problems may result in children being overwhelmed the day they start school. The academic curriculum is designed on the assumption that children possess certain visual information processing abilities, as well as other skills, at certain chronological ages. 

In other words, is the child’s vision ready for school? 

The child who has not developed the required level of vision skills may have difficulty in school and life. These difficulties might manifest themselves as problems in reading, writing, mathematics, spelling, thinking, sports endeavors, playground activities, and even the social relationships with their siblings and peers. A child with learning related visual problems may benefit from the use of lenses and prisms combined with optometric vision therapy for both the prevention and remediation of these visual problems.