• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
 
Reprinted from:
ourna 
f
the American
Optometric
Association
Volume 51,
Number
5:
pp. 489-493
May
1980.
Optometric
vision
therapy -
results
of
a demonstration project
with
a learning disabled population
 
Optometric vision therapy
results
of
a demonstration project
with
a learning disabled population
ARTHUR
S.
SEIDERMAN,
O.D
..
ABSTRACT
-
Thirt:",-six children at
tending
a
priva
te school for learning
disabled
children u'ere
diagnosed
as
having
visual an&or perceptual
disorders.
The expen'mental
group received
individual
programming
in
visual
andperceptual development
attheir
ap
propriate
developmental
levels.
Thecontrol group
received
instruction
in
physical
education, art
or
music
classes.
Both
groups
received individ
ualized
reading assistance.
Statistical
analysis
of
the two year
demonstra
tion
;Jroject,
which included nine
months
of
actual
training,
indicated
that
the experimental group made
sig
nificant gains
in reading as
compared
to
the
control
group.
The improve-
ment
in basic
instructionallevel
of
The Informal Reading Inventory
(Temple University),
and
the Word
Reading and
Paragraph .Weaning sub
tests
of
the
Stanford
Achievement
Tests,
and
the
actual
classroom read
ing
levels were all
statistically
significant.
The Informal
Word
Recognition
Inventory
(Daniels)
and
the
Spelling
subtest
of
the
Stanford AchievementTestsshowed
a
definite
trend
ap
proaching statistical
significance.
KEY
WORDS:
learning disabled
children,
visual
and/or
perceptual
disorders,
optometric
vision
therapy
Introduction
While
the
etiologic factors asso
ciated
with learningdisabilities
M.A.
have gainedconsiderable
atten
tion
during the
past
twenty
years,
many
of
the
treatment
plans are
still controversial.
The
presence of
visual factors,
both
physiological
1.6
and
perceptual.
7'
14
have been
confirmedrepeatedly. The
pur
pose
of
this paper
is
to investigate
the
effect
of
optometric
vision
therapy
upon children who
have
been identified
as
having
learning
disabilitiesand
who
havevisual
deficiencies.
The
goal of optome
tric
vision
therapy,
in
the
case of
the
learning
disabled child. is
to
develop a level of functional
visual
and
perceptual readiness
whichwill
enable him/her torespondmore
effectively
to educational
procedures.
Purpose
of
the
studyThepurpose
is
to
test
the
hy
pothesis
that
visual
and
percep
tualtraining
will
result
in im
proved reading
skills in
learningdisabled
children who demon
strate
visual
andperceptual
deficits.
The
population
Wordsworth
Academy
is a
private
school for
learning
disabled children. located in
the
sub
urbs
of Philadelphia. Pennsylvania.
There
is a
multidisciplinaryorientation
with
heavy emphasison
specialized
reading
programming
for each individual child.
The
population of
the
school is essentially
reading
disabled
and/or
neurologically impaired. Prerequi
site
for
entrance
is
potential
for
average or
better
intellectual functioning.
Psychotherapy
is recom
mended
when indicated.
This may
take the
form of individual,
groupor
family
therapy. The
basic phi
losophy
of
the
school is
to
carefully diagnose
the
child' s
problem
and
design a
pragmatic programto remediate
the
difficulties.
If
achild
has
a
reading
problem.
then
teach
him/her in
the most
direct
and
efficient way possible.
Research design
Forty-three
learning disabled
children were
tested
to
secure
a
sample
of
thirty-six
children whowere
experiencing visual and/orperceptual
difficulties. Criteria forselection
of
these thirty-six
children included sub-normal performance on four of seven per'cep
tual-motortasks.They
included:Geometric Copy
Forms
Test
(Win
ter
Haven).
Southern
California
Figure
Ground
Test. Perceptual
Constancy
bub-test
of
the
Frostig,Divided
Form Board
(Getman).
Volume
51.
Number
5.
5/80
489
 
directionality,
alternate
hopping
and alternate
ball
bouncing
TABLE
I
(Kephart).15 Difficulties in visual
Pass-Fail Criteria
functioning were also considered;e.g., convergence
or
divergenceproblems, binocular coordination,limited
ranges
of
fusional reserves,
and/or
accommodation.See Table I for pass-fail criteria.The
group
of thirty-six visuallydeficient children was divided into
eighteen
pairs matched
for age,sex, I.Q
.
severity
of visual
and
perceptual difficulty.
and
degree
of
reading deficit. Initial
testing
included a complete
optometricvisual
analysis, developmental
and
perceptual testing,
the
Wechsler Intelligence Scale forChildren,
The
Stanford
Achieve
ment
Tests,
The Informal Reading
Inventory
(Temple University),
and
The Informal Word Recogni
tion
Inventory
(Daniels).
The
eighteen pairs
of matched
childrenwere
then
randomly divided into
eighteen
experimental
children
and
eighteen
control children.
Both the
experimental
and
control
group
children
continued
to
receive specialized reading programming.
The
experimental group received vision
therapy
for
thirty
minutesper
day,
four
days
per
week. The perceptual
therapy and
visual
training
stressed the
correc
tion
of
deficient functions
and
skills.
Each
child in
the
experimen
tal
group was programmed individually according
to
his/her specific
needs
and
his/her specific
development
level.
The
control
group participated
in
adaptive
physical education,
art
or
scienceclasses for
an
equal period of time.All
of
the
children in
both the
experimental
and
control
groups
re-
ceived daily specialized reading in
struction
with a reading specialist,which included individualizeddirect reading
activity
(DRA) withfollow-up class.
a
The
program
of
remediation included
techniques
described
by
Getman,
16
Kephart,
15
Barsch,
17
So-
TestGeometric Copy Forms (Winter
Haven)34
Southern California Figure Ground Tesp5Perceptual Constancy Subtest
of
Frostig
36
Divided Form Board
37
(Time in seconds)(Level)DirectionalityAlternate HoppingAlternate Ball BouncingNear Point
of
ConvergencePhoriasFailSubjective judgment based on visual·
motor
development and organization
of
reproductionsBelow 20th percentileAge equivalent test score 1 year belowchronological ageGreater than
120
secondsAppropriate hierarchical
shift
from
re-
liance on tactual information
to
visual
1. 
Inability to
correctly
respond
to
questions relating
to
left and rightorientation on self
2. 
Inability to
correctly
respond
to
questions relating
to
the examiner's
left
and
right
when
facing
the examinerUnable
to
alternately hop
two
times oneach foot for three complete cyclesUnable
to
alternately bounce nine-inchball
two
times with each hand for threecomplete cyclesGreater than three inches Exo
or
Eso Deviation
without
compensatory
fusional
ranges
of
operation.
b 
(Findings which would
customarily
re-
sult
in the
diagnosis
of convergence excess, convergence
insufficiency,
accommodative insufficiency, etc.) 
TABLE
II
Age and
1.0.
(WISC) Full Scale at Onset of Project
1.0.
(At Onset
of
Program)RangeAgeMonths (At Onset
of
Program) Age Range (Months) Experimental ControlGroup GroupT·Test
(n 
=
18)
(n
=
18)
102.9 98.8
Not Significant
(SD 
12.6)
(SD15.8) 127
-
77
125
-
76 
116.8 120.6Not
Significant
(SD 
=
14.5)
(SD
10.7) 
90
145
95
-
141 
TABLE
III
Covariance Analysis of Visual and Perceptual Measures
of
Experimental and Control Groups 
A. 
Percentual Measures
1. 
Frostig Test FormConstancy(Raw Score)ExperimentalControl
2. 
Divided Form BoardLEVEL
Ex
peri men talControl1
=
Tactual Low2
=
Tactual HighMeanMean
Pre
TestPost Test F
P
9.7
13.44.3*
9.6 11.5
4.3
5.8
6.1
*
5.0
5.0
Continued next page490 Journal
of
the American
Optometric Association
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...