Slow reader?
Dyslexic? What to ask your optician?
It is all very well my going on about visual processing
but I need to take you a little further.
When a child or most adults see an optician they get
checked for vision problems ‘at distance’.
For reading the person needs to be tested for vision issues
at ‘near’. Within an arm’s length.
Within the distance you would hold a book, or sit in front of your
computer screen, hold a pen.
It should take no
longer than an ordinary vision test. About 15 minutes.
Where will you find such a capable optician?
They must be rare, mustn’t they?
Well actually no EVERY optician (except dispensing
opticians who should not be testing you anyway) has done this stuff and passed
their examinations in it to get their degree!
So just ask your optician! …….Please test me/my child ‘at near’.
They might want paying for it (I am certain they will)
but it should not be much. It is not a specialist skill.
Now let’s think about eye tests at school. Here in the UK, it is school nurses who do the eye test. NOT opticians.
At school they
do not test at near.
If unsure ask your optician tell them what you want.
It should be cheaper than employing tutor for an hour!
If any of this advice is wrong in the opinion of the reader.
PLEASE let me know. Put it in comments.
This as my Optician colleague tells me is not rocket
science.
As the optician colleague, if you or your child has reading difficulties, you should ask your optician if they would check for accommodative insufficiency, convergence insufficiency or fixation disparity at near, and if found to prescribe accordingly. All the above should be possible within a normal eye examination without extra charge.
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