Post date: Apr 12, 2014 3:12:53 PM
Visual Processing Disorders (VPD) involve the affected person having difficulty understanding information that they see. I believe Visual Processing Disorders often go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed because it is a complicated disorder and the symptoms are confusing. Children with Visual Processing Disorders have a difficult time knowing and communicating the issues they have. Struggling beginning readers should be assessed for a VPD.
For the visual processing assignment, I assessed a 7 year old male. First, I assessed his eye tracking with the pencil test and left/right moving object test. During the pencil test, when asked to look at me he said that he said that I had two faces. He also rubbed his eyes and said that they hurt. When he took the left/right moving object test, he continued rubbing his eyes and complained that they did not feel good. For the second assessment, I observed him reading. Interestingly, he had no issues when reading. I followed the Child Symptom Checklist to determine whether a vision evaluation should be administered on the student. He scored a 0 meaning he showed absolutely no signs of having a functional visual problem and needing a referral for further testing.
Out of sheer curiosity, while interviewing the child, I asked if he played video games and he admitted to playing video games several times a week. In 2009, Matthew Dye, Shawn Green and Daphne Bavelier from the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester published a relevant article titled, "Increasing Speed of Processing With Action Video Games". Their article states, "Recent studies published have established that playing action video games enhances performance on tasks thought to measure different aspects of visual attention, including the ability to distribute attention across space, efficiently perform dual tasks, track several moving objects at once and process streams of briefly presented visual stimuli" (Green & Bavelier, pg. 325). In today's technological society where children are being exposed to visual spatial stimuli at young ages by playing video games and apps on mobile devices, the big question is whether these actions help or hinder their intelligence. After reading the various research articles published on the subject, one would deduct that video gaming improves visual processing. Is it possible that the young man I assessed and other students who play video games are better readers?
CITATIONS
Dye, M., Green C., & Bavelier, D. (2009). Increasing Speed of Processing With Action Video Games. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 325.
Green, C.S., & Bavelier, D. (2003). Action video game modifies visual selective attention. Nature, 423, 534–537.
Green, C.S., & Bavelier, D. (2007). Action video game experience alters the spatial resolution of attention. Psychological Science, 18, 88–94.