preschoolers

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How to Know if Your Three-Year-Old Preschooler is Behind in Visual Development

August 3, 2010 in Visual Development by admin | No comments

Visual development in children is extremely important in producing good gross motor development, fine motor development, and to achieve the proper cognitive stages for child development.  Children with poor vision development will often exhibit learning problems when they start grade school and may tend to be clumsy and disorganized.

So it’s important to know if your preschooler is on track for good visual development or if they are tending to lag behind.

Three-year-old preschoolers should be able to perform the following motor tasks:

  • String beads
  • Copy a circle and cross
  • Build with blocks – making towers or three piece bridges
  • Change directions sharply when walking
  • Catch and throw large balls
  • Ride a tricycle
  • Walk down stairs
  • Hop on one foot

They should also be able to perform the following cognitive tasks:

  • Repeat three digit sequences
  • Repeat four word sentence
  • Know his or her last name
  • Know colors and can match colors
  • Understand the concepts of “in”, “under”, and “behind”

Please keep in mind that developmental milestones are a set of skills or tasks that most children can do within a certain age range.  However, every child is unique, so the actual age when a normally developing child reaches each milestone may vary.

However, if your child seems to be behind in these milestones, it is recommended that you pursue a visual development program for your child either through a developmental optometrist in your area or a program to use at home.

For more information or to purchase the Visual Development for Preschoolers program, go to www.VisionTherapyAtHome.com.

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Five Reasons Why Vision Development in Children May Be Delayed

July 23, 2010 in Visual Development by admin | No comments

Visual development in children is a very important part of child development including fine motor development, gross motor development, and visual perceptual development. Without good vision development in children, many cognitive stages of child development may be delayed and learning problems could occur once the child enters kindergarten and grade school.

So why is visual development delayed in some children? There are five main factors that can cause delay or even inhibit certain stages of child development including visual development.

The first is the development of complications during pregnancy or during the birthing process. Because visual development in children starts before the baby is born, any complications during pregnancy could affect the natural progression of vision development and maybe even cause the skipping of stages of development if the complication is severe. C-section births, forceps births, vacuum births, and any other artificial means of aiding in the birth of a child can also delay visual development in children significantly.

Many childhood illnesses can also delay or interfere with visual development in children. High fevers, frequent infections such as ear infections, and chronic illnesses prevent the body from using its energy to develop the visual system properly and instead has to put that energy towards healing the body. Another effect of chronic illness on vision development in children is the necessary lack of movement that the child experiences when sick which delays motor development and, in turn, visual development.

Head trauma and injury can also delay vision development in children. Bruising of the brain which will not show up on brain scans can occur which may cause the visual pathways of the brain to be damaged. Even if the injury is not enough to cause brain damage, the healing of the injury and the healing of the brain’s reaction to trauma can once again take energy away from necessary visual development in children.

Good visual development in children can also be affected by genetics. Developmental optometrists frequently see visual-related learning problems run in families, so children with family imembers who have visual-related learning problems (which are often misdiagnosed as ADD, ADHD, or dyslexia) are more at risk for poor visual development.

Finally, environmental factors can influence the quality of visual development in children. Everything from not enough movement in play, too much television or video games, or contaminants such as mercury or lead in their environment can delay or stall the most effective vision development in children.

Fortunately, good visual development in preschoolers can be enhanced by the use of home activities which can supplement the delay or lack of cognitive stages of child development and motor development. For more information on Visual Development in Preschoolers, go to my website at www.visiontherapyathome.com.

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