Vision and Visual Problems

Children with vision problems are often told they have poorly developed eye muscles. Control of vision, however, lies in three nerves originating in the brainstem. In the brainstem these nerves have to connect with information from the body and the vestibular system. This is why we have to involve the entire body to allow the child automatic control over his eye movement.
Gaps in the developmental process usually result in a problem with reading or seeing. Very often a regular eye test does not pick up any problem.
I have assessed children with very poorly developed eye muscles and nerves who cannot do things that an average person takes for granted. All of them had been declared problem free by their optician. These people ‘fall through the cracks’; eye tests show no problems but the person cannot learn to read. So eye problems are ruled out.
This happened to one of my patients, we shall call him Joe. When I assessed him, it was obvious he could not ‘track’, and his teacher had already suggested this. Tracking means keeping the head still and watching a moving object or reading a line of text.
Three days of corrective eye movements and the exercise programme enabled him to track. Joe continued the exercises for months to consolidate the nerve growth. His reading age jumped 15 months in the next six months whereas he had not improved at all for months.
The side effect of this new skill was an enormous leap in his confidence as he could now ‘see’ and interact properly in his environment. He no longer clung to his mother and panicked when he was in a new place.