Importance of Vision

As I read the Down Syndrome Association of West Michigan's newsletter I was struck by something I read by the American Optometric Association regarding vision. Here is a stat from that article that really hit me.

• Approximately 80% of children's learning during a child's first 12 years of life comes through vision

Wow, think about the importance not only of being able to see, but knowing what is the most important thing to attend to. If our vision is good, but our appraisal skills are lacking, how much learning is being missed? Isn't this similar to a vision impairment if your child isn't focusing on the most important things in his or her environment? When appraisal or dynamic analysis is poor, the memories and the things being learned are inadequate. This is only one small part of why remediation for children with autism is so important.

80% of his learning is taking place through what he sees and these are the memories that are being encoded. Remember to slow down (both in the pace of life and in the midst of doing things with your child) to help your child encode the meaningful things in his or her environment and begin that critical element of remediation in your child's life.

In addition, make sure that you child is receiving regular eye exams to ensure there isn't a co-occurring eye condition taking place. Do you have regular eye exams for your children? To read more about the importance of regular eye check ups, click here and to see how often your child should be receiving check ups, click here.

Until next week,
Michelle