Good eyesight is an important factor in developing effective reading skills. To make sure your children develop both good eyesight and the visual skills needed for reading while using the computer, consider the following reminders:
1. Remember that "eyesight" is different from "vision". The former is the ability to "see" (which most children are born with) while the latter is the ability to organize, interpret, and understand what is actually seen. Vision is developed and learned like other abilities such as walking and talking. Your children require both good "eyesight" and good "vision" to become excellent readers - not just either of the two, as they are not the same.
2. 20⁄20 eyesight doesn’t always mean that your children see the printed page or computer screen the same way you do. It is actually the distance sight indicator and simply means that your children can see a certain size of letter from 20 feet away. It is not at all related to reading at near point. To monitor problems on vision grades, have your children read aloud to you often, to insure that what they see on the printed page and computer screen is the same thing you are seeing.
3. Good vision means that your children are being able to use both of their eyes as a team to track smoothly from line to line, see at far and near, copy from a book to paper, keep letters in proper order, and much more. Any disturbing behavior in the visual process can affect reading, especially if the visual memory is under stress due to excessive computer, TV, or gadgets use.
4. Train your children to look away from the computer screen and focus on something in the distance every few minutes while using the computer. Also, check to see whether their head is too close to the screen.
5. On a regular basis, let your children play catch outside, ride a bike, and participate in sports. These activities can improve crucial reading abilities like tracking, focusing, peripheral vision, eye teaming, and eye-hand coordination. These can strengthen near- and far- point vision. Many of these skills are not typically learned during sustained computer use.
6. Limit children’s computer use. Children, especially those under three years of age, should not be used to staring at the computer screen as it can ruin their eyesight while still at a very young age. Instead, they should be exposed more on developmental skills not involving computers like crawling, walking, talking, spatial awareness, tracking, and focusing, among others.
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