Dr. Ruggiero Speaks to Special Educators About the Critical Link Between Vision and Learning
In recognition of National Children’s Vision and Learning month, Dr. Ruggiero was invited to give a full-day professional development workshop to special educators in Springfield, Massachusetts. The goal of the workshop was to give educators a deeper understanding of the role vision plays in the learning process, along with the prevalence of vision disorders and their correlation with misdiagnoses of ADHD and learning difficulties.
The presentation, titled “Vision and Learning,” began with a lecture and theory component in the morning and concluded with an afternoon of interactive workshops where participants were able to try various vision therapy activities and equipment. Thirty-five educators attended the event, which included occupational therapists, physical therapists and teachers of visually-impaired students. “They were a great group and asked a lot of questions,” Dr. Ruggiero said. “It was an exhausting day, but I loved it!”
Every participant left with a copy of the manual Dr. Ruggiero prepared for the event, titled, “An Educator’s Guide to Visual Readiness.” The manual serves as a valuable resource for educators in learning to recognize the signs of learning-related vision problems, creating a daily classroom visual readiness sequence, structuring a visually sound classroom and minimizing visual stress from electronic media.