One problem which teachers may need to deal with is that of the visually limited child. Of course, one must keep in mind that there are several theories and methodologies available on resources for teaching a child who is visually handicapped. Basically, though, there are two distinct schools of thought regarding the visually handicapped child. One holds that vision therapy is the only solution, often with the services of a specially trained technician. Others believe that vision training can be accomplished through adaptations made by the regular classroom teacher. This paper will present a brief overview of the problems associated with the visually limited child, will progress to some typical solutions offered, and then look at the two sided argument of visual therapy or vision training. Finally, the two arguments will be compared and contrasted, in the attempt to answer whether they are all that different or what kind of a combination would be best for children in the classroom. Throughout the paper, it will be assumed that the type of vision problems are not among the most severe, and also that the problems are limited to those of vision.
As reported by the National Society to Prevent Blindness, the leading types of legal blindness in children birth to five years are 16.7 percent cataract, 30 percent damage to the optic pathway, 13.4 percent atrophy of the optic nerve, and 10 percent from a problem called retrolental fibroplasia.1 These, and other, problems are also common in school age children and may pose significant challenges in the classroom. In fact, one vision problem alone, that of amblyopia, occurs in an estimated 127,000 persons per year.2 Moreover, the incidence of vision problems in school age children is quite high. Recent research has shown that among learning disabled children, as many as 80% show a deficiency in one or more visual skills.3 Thus, one may assume that vision problems can adversely affec...