Is poor visual learning the reason why your child is having difficulty at school? For a long time, visual perceptual tests have helped diagnose children with vision related learning problems. Now with the Buffalo & Nak app, it is available to you!
This app is a children's storybook that is not only great for reading but will also help you make a decision whether further assessments by a trained professional is needed.
Buffalo and Nak is a storybook app for children age 5 to 8. It was created by Behavioural Optometrist Shaun Chang in association with makeMind. The app assesses the risk for learning difficulties based on three visual perceptual skills. If a risk is determined the app will find the closest practitioners that can assist you.
All our practitioners are required to perform visual perceptual evaluations for patients referred by the App. Have the security knowing that all our practitioners are committed to giving your child the best Behavioural Eyecare.
The story of Buffalo and Nak comes from Sherpas living in the Mt Everest National Park. It is a heart warming story of friendship and we are sure your child will enjoy reading it. The story can be narrated for those who have not learned to read. However as Behavioural Optometrists we highly recommend you read with your children to aid their learning process.
2nd place for the 2015 ODMA Awards of Excellence
Vision in the traditional sense revolves around clarity of sight. While this is important, there are other aspects of vision that are important for reading such as steady eye fixation, tracking, focusing and convergence.
More importantly how do we interpret the image we see especially when it comes to learning and reading? This is known as vision perception and is what we are assessing with this app.
Visual sequential memory involves memorising a sequence of visual images. On the app the child has to memorise the way to the temple. It is a skill that plays an important part in spelling and remembering a pattern. It also plays a role in planning and conducting tasks in the correct sequence.
Visual Discrimination allows us to see differences between objects that are similar. On the app the child is shown five visual symbols. A quarter of each symbol is missing and has to be found. Good visual discrimination helps with learning alphabets, words, checking for mistakes, maintaining neat handwriting and avoiding confusion like 'was' and 'saw'. It is very important in early stages of learning.
Auditory visual integration (AVI) is the ability to match what we hear with what we see. This is essential for matching letters with their corresponding sounds, phonemes with graphemes and so on. For the app Buffalo is listening to a bell ringing a particular tune. The child must then match the tune with the correct dot sequence.
Dear Colleagues,
As Behavioural optometrists, we manage many children with vision related learning difficulties and can agree it is an emotionally rewarding profession. This storybook app was designed to connect you with more children in need, so you can help them. Signing up for this app will not only help people find your practice, but also give theses children the opportunity to reach their full potential. In time your support will allow us to build a better app for visual perceptual evaluations that will allow for automatic calculation of scores and observations, comparison of results before and after treatment. For those reasons, please sign up below and we will contact you about creating a listing for your practice and contact details.
Regards,
Shaun
Buffalo & Nak is a joint effort between Eyes2Learn & makeMind Pty Ltd.
Eyes2Learn was developed by an Australian Behavioural Optometrist to help parents, caregivers and teachers to screen their children for vision related learning difficulties. We understand that investigating the cause of your child's learning difficulty can be demanding physically, emotionally and financially and hope this app will help you make a decision whether you should come in for further assessments.
makeMind is an Australian company founded on the principles of encouraging people to learn and helping them to to learn more efficiently. The company is made up of talented software developers and aided by education professionals.
