Vision Therapy to Address Learning Disabilities? One L.A. School Official Says ‘Scam’
I know there are well-meaning people who advocate for vision therapy as an effective way to treat certain aspects of learing disorders. As with most enterprises there are scams and a risk of over-selling. Certain kids need vision training. Most kids with reading problems will not however be helped with this approach. The most common reason kids struggle with reading is that schools do not teach them in a way that fits their cognitive profile of weaknesses (phonological processing and/or rapid naming) and strengths.
The problem in that regard lies within the colleges that prepare teachers of reading:
“Teachers in teacher training are not being taught in reading and reading instruction,” Handler said. “It has not been properly incorporated in teacher colleges, so they cannot teach children right…so they look for other reasons kids have problems [learning to read].”
“There is absolutely no evidence it’s helpful at all,” said Sheryl Handler, co-author of a 2011 joint technical report on vision therapy and reading disabilities that found vision therapy to be an ineffective treatment for learning disabilities.
A handful of other published papers, including an assessment by the American Academy of Ophthalmology, claim there is no valid proof that vision therapy benefits learning-disabled students.