Document Type

Capstone

Abstract

Objectives: Occupational therapists focus on increasing the occupational performance of individuals, especially students in the school system. Reading is a major occupation of a student's life. Since there is evidence that reading disorders, such as dyslexia, involve the visual system, occupational therapists can help support these students in the school system by improving their visual perceptual and ocular motor skills. The focus of this paper and project is to provide teachers and staff members in a Lower School information on the correlation between the lack of visual skills and dyslexia. Methods: Conduct a presurvey of teacher feedback on their levels of experience working with students with dyslexia and their current knowledge of visual skills. After providing these teachers a presentation on the development of visual skills in the classroom, a post-survey will be conducted on how it may affect future classroom instruction. Results: The feedback provided by the teachers from the pre-survey concluded that most have an extensive background on reading disabilities through training at the university level and through continuing education courses, however, there is a lack of knowledge of visual skills, and how they are linked to dyslexia and other reading disorders. Conclusions: With the development of this project and the analysis of the surveys competed, there is evidence of a lack of knowledge of visual skills in the school system. Development of strategies should be a focus of a school-based occupational therapist in order to help students increase their academic performance in school.

Publication Date

4-2018

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