Core Four Intro
Strong visual skills need a solid foundation for development. We can look at vision as a chair with three legs, if these legs are strong and balanced, the chair will support a lot of use.
Remember, vision is not simply a matter of clarify of what is seen, but is complex, a symphony of neuromuscular impulses to control direction, alignment, and focus (also known as accommodation). These skills are partly inborn, but mostly learned.
The Chair of Vision comprises three basic elements:
Ocular Inputs: Retinal imaging and somatoreceptors in the eyes to provide information about where they’re pointing.
Vestibular/Balance Inputs: We need a sense of how the head is moving in order to properly direct gaze and predict target movement.
Somatosensory Inputs: Body senses from the whole body, from your toes to your neck, to provide information regarding body position in relation to visual targets of concern.
We can add a fourth leg to the table, that is audition. It’s true that we can use sound to localize targets for visual acquisition, but sound is not ultimately required for strong visual function in most circumstances.
When children struggle with behaviour and learning concerns, it’s important to know why, but perhaps more important to know what to do next. This does not have to always be complicated or expensive. Attending to core physical and cognitive needs can and will always reap benefits to visual function, cognition, sleep, attention, and mood.
While there are hundreds of activities out there for visual development, many of which I and developing on VisionMechanic.net, I always like to recommend what I call the “Core Four”, these are accessible, non-team, inexpensive and effective activities to help develop the physical core, but to also strengthen the Chair of Vision. The Core Four are: Swimming, Climbing, Martial Arts, and Yoga.
Don’t limit yourself to these four, but they serve as easy examples to start with. Each activity answers basic needs for strong vision development. In related videos, I’ll have a look at each activity and why I recommend them in particular. You can then use this information to explore on your own, or to begin making your own activities with the same CORE principles.