Vision Therapy and Academics
Vision and Reading
At Focus Academy, we can help students with any variety of reading problems. Because reading is largely visual, proper eye movement skills are necessary for successful reading.
Students with reading difficulties often have trouble with:
The vision therapy program at Focus Academy is designed to improve the visual skills needed for reading through a variety of specialized exercises and games.
Additionally, our program addresses the cognitive skills needed for successful reading, like visual memory and visualization. We teach students how to:
Vision and Writing
Spelling: English is a visual language, not a phonetic language. For example, these words all sound similar: true, do, you, brew, through. However, the visual appearances of the words are very different. To be a successful visual speller, students need to understand form discrimination of the letters and have good visual memory and visualization skills. Focus Academy teaches students to be accurate at spelling through a variety of techniques. Additionally, we address the fine motor skills necessary for correct pencil grips and neat handwriting.
Writing: Visualization is the key to successful writing. Visualization is taught at Focus Academy through a variety of methods. These new skills are applied to writing, leading to excellent pieces of writing filled with description.
Vision and Math
To be successful at math, students need a variety of skills that can be improved by vision therapy. These skills include:
At Focus Academy, we can help students with any variety of reading problems. Because reading is largely visual, proper eye movement skills are necessary for successful reading.
Students with reading difficulties often have trouble with:
- Losing their place while reading or skipping lines
- Occasional or persistent double vision
- Blurriness or perceived movement of the text
- Eye strain or fatigue, sometimes even after very brief reading exercises
- Sub-vocalization while reading silently
- Can read a text, but does not remember any details
The vision therapy program at Focus Academy is designed to improve the visual skills needed for reading through a variety of specialized exercises and games.
Additionally, our program addresses the cognitive skills needed for successful reading, like visual memory and visualization. We teach students how to:
- Read aloud with fluency
- Read silently with speed and precision
- Identify sight words and decode unfamiliar words
- Comprehend the text
- Make connections, recognize prior knowledge and apply new learning
- Use study skills, note-taking skills and more.
Vision and Writing
Spelling: English is a visual language, not a phonetic language. For example, these words all sound similar: true, do, you, brew, through. However, the visual appearances of the words are very different. To be a successful visual speller, students need to understand form discrimination of the letters and have good visual memory and visualization skills. Focus Academy teaches students to be accurate at spelling through a variety of techniques. Additionally, we address the fine motor skills necessary for correct pencil grips and neat handwriting.
Writing: Visualization is the key to successful writing. Visualization is taught at Focus Academy through a variety of methods. These new skills are applied to writing, leading to excellent pieces of writing filled with description.
Vision and Math
To be successful at math, students need a variety of skills that can be improved by vision therapy. These skills include:
- The ability to clearly see the problem
- Organizational skills, such as lining up the problem correctly
- Being able to recognize the numbers without error (directionality)
- Visualization skills to automatically know facts, rather than counting aloud or on fingers
- Spatial awareness as applicable to math problems
- The ability to follow written and verbal directions
- Reading skills necessary for reading word problems
