Vision Development & Rehabilitation Volume 1, Issue 2 • August 2015 120 Article: Training the Brain to Learn: Beyond Vision Therapy Kenneth Gibson, OD Dick Carpenter, PhD Amy Lawson Moore, PhD Tanya Mitchell, BA According to The Nation’s Report Card in 2013, only 38% of students could read at or above the level of “proficient,” and less than 40% of graduating high school seniors were predicted to be academically prepared for college. 1 Although only 5% of students in the United States are officially diagnosed with learning disabilities, 2 these numbers indicate that many more students struggle in school. Practitioners in the field of visual therapy are continually challenged with finding effective interventions to minimize the impact of learning problems among their patients. 3 Like conducting an orchestra, learning is a complex act requiring the execution of simultaneous cognitive processes, each of which contributes to various aspects of learning. For example, visual processing is the ability to perceive, analyze, and think in images. If a student struggles with visual imagery, tasks like math word problems and reading comprehension are difficult. Auditory processing is the ability to perceive, analyze, and conceptualize what is heard. If a student struggles with blending, segmenting, or analyzing sounds, reading and spelling skills will be affected. Attention includes the ability to stay on task, to ignore distractions, and to handle multiple tasks simultaneously — all which contribute to academic success. Working memory is the ability to capture and retain information for short periods of time while simultaneously using it, and long-term retrieval is the ability to recall information learned in the past, including associations between visual and auditory stimuli. A student’s ability to produce correct responses or draw accurate conclusions is affected if his ability to store or retrieve information is weak. Together, these and other cognitive pro- cesses, such as processing speed and fluid reasoning, enable us to analyze, evaluate, retain information, recall experiences, make comparisons, and determine action. For example, in order to read, a child must visually process the letters and words as well as simultaneously recall and associate those visual images with sounds. At the same time, the child must mentally associate the words with meaning. A deficit in just one cognitive Correspondence regarding this article should be emailed to Kenneth Gibson, OD, at ken@learningrx.com. All statements are the author’s personal opinion and may not reflect the opinions of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development, Vision Development & Rehabilitation or any institution or organization to which the author may be affiliated. Permission to use reprints of this article must be obtained from the editor. Copyright 2015 College of Optometrists in Vision Development. VDR is indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals. Online access is available at http://www.covd.org. Gibson K, Carpenter D, Moore AL, Mitchell T. Training the Brain to Learn: Beyond Vision Therapy. Vision Dev & Rehab 2015;1(2):120-29. Keywords: cognitive training; vision therapy; LearningRx