I am farsighted and so is my son. I just got my eyes checked and the doctor said, My you are very far sighted. A few months ago my child was getting his eyes checked by another doctor and he made the same comment. Thus, yes we are far sighted. Now when I was a kid I remember some educational issues I experienced. I went to a Catholic school and the term learning disability did not even exsist. I know my spelling might not be correct at times so I always check myself. I have always worked hard and I have made it through college and graduate school. My son was labeled in 2nd grade with a written expression disability. Yes, his writing is terrible. It looks bad. It takes him a long time to actually do it. He misses letters in words. At times, he confuses the order of letters. His reading speed is a little slow. Comprehension is excellent. Understanding of school subjects is good. He understands ideas and content. He can compete with gifted studendts when the issue is understanding of the subject matter. His ability to take notes is bad. He gets very distracted when writing. Putting his thoughts down on paper is very hard. But when he uses all his tools (dictionary, computer, patience) he expresses himself nicely. The label has bothered me because it suggest that he can not perform writing. So many neighbors discuss how they don’t want their child in a certain classroom becasue learning disabled students are assigned to certain teachers. Heres what I want to know: Is being far sighted a condition that makes reading and writing difficult? (We have done OT, VT, and tutoring.) Have other parents experienced fellow parents who do not understand that a child with a disability has a problem area but is able to do many things that require intelligence? And finally, how many people haved a child who has used an alpha smart with the co writer function. Ideally, I want my child to use the co writer in the Alpha smart. Is it a good investment. I know that I could get it through the IEP. My son is in Middle School. Will it make him to different?
Re: Farsighted child and its relationship to writing
I am myself quite farsighted and have been since my youth. So were both my parents. My brother is severely farsighted, to the extent that he had glasses when he was nine *months* old.
The farsightedness has not affected our learning much if at all; in fact it’s an advantage in reading from the blackboard.
I had far worse trouble because of a *second* eye problem, astigmatism which led to amblyopia. The farsightedness confused untrained visual testers who then missed the more serious problem.
I would strongly recommend getting your child checked out by a qualified ophthalmologist — this can literally save the child’s vision.
Your child should definitely have appropriate glasses to make near work such as reading and writing less stressful.
I would be happy to send you my notes on handwriting; if you want them just email me at [email protected] Handwriting is a physical skill and a habit and it can be made much easier and faster with physical retraining. The big trick is to NOT worry about appearance and details at first but to get the rhythm and structure under control; then the appearance works itself out.
I worry about expecting a piece of technology to solve all problems. Sure being able to type notes is handy — but what if he’s also a slow typist? And you often have to write a note when the machine is not at hand. So getting handwriting under better control is always useful.
Re: Farsighted child and its relationship to writing
What I would suggest is that you do a cognitive skills training program with him. This is often a good idea after vision therapy, because it develops all the secondary skills that lagged because of the original vision problem. Good home programs are Audiblox (http://www.audiblox2000.com ) and BrainSkills (http://www.brainskills.com ). PACE is provider-based, and therefore much more expensive, but very fast (http://www.processingskills.com ).
The above programs may not help much with physical writing, but they should help with things such as reading speed, sequencing (mixing up letters in words), etc. and make it generally easier for your son to keep up with the other children on tasks that require processing skills (different from comprehension skills!).
Far-sightedness wouldn’t normally result in learning problems, but the types of vision problems addressed by vision therapy (i.e., visual efficiency deficits) certainly can be. VT followed by cognitive training is a one-two punch that can be very effective.
Nancy
I assume that the optometrist has provided your son with glasses if he needs them for near vision? Farsightedness is not the cause of a learning disability. Children with visual acuity problems usually do fine once they have correction. It sounds like you’ve tried the right therapies and are looking for accommodations that will help him be successful at school.
I think there are a lot of ignorant people out there, bottom line. Sometimes we have the opportunity to educate others regarding learning disabilites, and sometimes we have to hear ignorant comments and have to let it go. Letting your son get used to assistive technology now will make it easier for him to use it in high school since he will already be used to it and so will the other kids. Kids with disabilites will always have to deal with differences, so my preference would be to give them tools to allow them to be successful in the classroom as opposed to struggling.
Sorry, I have no experience with the AlphaSmart.
Janis