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Show A i.L , n A f (J v ,, t -...-' X X y-vt.' I riON CARE SHOULD BEGIN EAFJLY The pre-school child nzzls good light and should be c'.cor.rased from long p?' ' cl c'oie visual concentration. FiEADING TOO SOON MAY LEAD TO A LATER VISUAL PROBLEM r:::arch Ehows Only 1 Child L: 5 is Ready to Eead at the Age of 6 C:,ly one child in five is mature e:.a.!3h at the age of six to start l racing without danger of devel-o;-l:ig visual problems that may be a handicap later in life, according to extensive research at the Tem-p Tem-p g University Reading Clinic, ."-out 18 per cent are not visually r:.'.uve enough to read until they 1 j nine. 'parents should recognize that t' "va are marked differences in children, particularly in visual ( vslopment," said Dr. Marguerite 1 ;c:-l, chairman of the Committee ( i Visual Problems in Schools of 1 .2 American Optometric Association. Associa-tion. "Serious harm can come from rxpecting every child to enter the l.rst grade at six, and then to progress pro-gress a grade a year in lockstep." Dr. Eberl said that most very young children are normally far-sighted. far-sighted. If they concentrate for 'ong periods on near-point focusing, focus-ing, as is necessary for reading, at too early an age, it may interfere inter-fere with the normal growth and development of the eyes and the muscles and nerves used in seeing. She said the child actually learns improper seeing habits in his effort to compensate for his immaturity, end these habits handicap him in later life. "Reading is not the only activity activ-ity that may interfere with proper development of vision," said Dr. Eberl. "Trying to button or hook tiny garments of a small doll or tinkering with the mechanism of an intricate toy for lor? periods of concentration may prevent normal nor-mal development of visual skills. "The solution is not to forbid such play activities because that often makes them more attractive, j but rather to suggest that the child play out of doors or engage in games that do not require near- point concentration. "If a child shows too much J fondness for small, intricate toys, it may be well to give him larger toys. The child who spends too much time drawing small designs with a sharp pencil may find just as much fun in drawing on large sheets of wrapping paper with a heavy crayon." Educators and vision specialists are in agreement that a child should not be encouraged to read before entering school, according to Dr. Eberl. It is the precocious child who is in greatest danger of damaging his vision, and the Temple Tem-ple University study shows that the intelligence I.Q. of retarded re-tarded readers" averages higher than that of their classmates. "Visual training, or orthoptics, a scientific method of retraining visual skills, offers the most effective effec-tive means of correcting the vision of the young child whose problem is caused by too much early concentration con-centration on near-point seeing," Dr. Eberl said. "We know that a child actually learns to see. Since he Cots, good vision can be taught. Glarr-3 alona cannot always solve thes-? retarded reading cases, but visu-1 r.ining, either with glasses ' ''hout them, usually produce "red resuKs." |