Siwoff Low Vision Center has helped many children and adults who have reading concentration issues, and we would love to help you as well. This test is designed to determine whether your child is a candidate for our work.
The best way to find out if the child may be helped by Dr. Siwoff would be for you to do a simple test: hold a pencil or penlight up in the air in front of the child (or adult), with the pencil eraser or penlight facing him. Ask him to touch the end of the pencil with his index finger. He should use only one finger on one hand, and not switch hands, as you are going to continue to ask him to touch the pencil after you move it again to the right, to the left, and up, and down. As you repeat to him, “Touch the pencil” each time you move it, allow just enough time in between each movement of the pencil to say to yourself “Mississippi”. It really doesn’t matter what you say to create just enough time between pencil touching, but this word can be said in just the right amount of time. So, as the child reaches to touch the pencil eraser, you can say to yourself “one-mississippi”; move the pencil and again say “touch the pencil”, then (to yourself) “two-mississippi”; move the pencil again and say “touch the pencil”, and (to yourself) “three-mississippi”, move the pencil again, etc., and continue 6 or 8 times. If your child does not touch the end of the pencil quickly, don’t hold it in one place until he does. Just move the pencil again. If he misses the end of the pencil most of the time, he definitely is a candidate for our work, and has a good chance to be helped to read and to concentrate.
Note: This test is only for the purposes of checking on a child or adult who has reading concentration issues. There are other diagnoses and complaints that can be treated at our center, but we would not use this test to evaluate if patient should be seen. Usually, parents or patients know if they have a serious vision problem, such as nystagmus, corneal problems, retinal problems, etc., and those who are seriously visually impaired are helped by our doctor through other treatments