![]() ![]() That’s why she believes it’s so important that her fellow music teachers-and all teachers for that matter-learn to look at their students’ behaviors through a health lens and push for more rigorous vision testing. Janice believes these mischaracterized vision issues can go on to have serious repercussions not just in the way children see the world, but in the way they see themselves-ultimately affecting their self-esteem. But I don't feel that you can diagnose any of these conditions without first having a comprehensive eye exam to rule out a vision problem.” And they carry that label for the rest of their lives, which can be very influential in the learning process and in their eventual success. He adds, “Kids with an undiagnosed vision disorder often are mislabeled with something else: ADHD, dyslexia, some kind of behavioral issue or learning disability. Foster agrees with Janice’s list of red flags. A child who relies heavily on memorization because actually looking at a piece of music is just too hard.Īs an optometrist who has given presentations on the subject, Dr.A child who regularly acts out, changes the subject, acts silly or simply puts their head down as a way of deflecting when asked to sight read.She’s identified a number of red flags that, in her experience, often point toward a vision issue, including: The trick is knowing what to look for-and what to do about it. Janice believes this gives music teachers the unique ability to identify when something is standing in the way of a child learning to his or her fullest potential. Fosterįor many young children, one-on-one music lessons are their first exposure to uninterrupted and focused brain work with someone other than a parent. And they carry that label for the rest of their lives, which can be very influential in the learning process and in their eventual success.” -Dr. "Kids with an undiagnosed vision disorder often are mislabeled with something else: ADHD, dyslexia, some kind of behavioral issue or learning disability. I didn’t have a clue about different types of vision or vision processing problems,” says Janice. I have even wondered about my own ability to teach kids how to read music. Or maybe they’re just unintuitive or unmotivated. I used to think, well, there’s a learning disorder here, or an attention deficit, or a behavior problem. “Throughout my career, I have struggled mightily to figure out why some students cannot distinguish the difference between a step and a skip after three years of lessons. But it is not that simple.”Īfter seeing examples of how a piece of sheet music appears to students suffering from a variety of eye disorders, Janice came to believe that many students were mistakenly being labeled as auditory learners when, in fact, they simply couldn’t see very well-a belief that turned out to be well-founded when a number of her students were formally diagnosed with eye disorders after she persuaded their parents to get them examined by a doctor of optometry. ear “controversy” among musicians: some musicians play mainly by ear and may never learn to read music, so therefore they must be auditory learners some musicians become great readers and never learn to play by ear, so they therefore must be visual learners. His presentation completely changed the way I think about the whole eye vs. ![]() And something in Janice just clicked.Īs she describes it, “Dr. Foster discussed how these vision problems can influence learning-including the ability to read music. It’s not often a person has a career-altering epiphany 50 years into their vocation.īut that’s exactly what happened to piano teacher Janice Cook at a music teachers’ conference in 2013 when she happened to catch a presentation on children's vision, vision development, binocular vision problems and eye movement disorders by Shane Foster, O.D. ![]()
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