Chapter 8 dealt extensively with identification of specific types of disabilities. Table 8-1 provided a comprehensive overview of behaviors indicating the need for referrals for vision and hearing examinations by professionals. Identification and remediation of these problems usually result in improved school performance. Many times students are not aware of sensory difficulties because of their personal adjustment to seeing and hearing in a particular manner. Yet when modifications are made their performance may improve dramatically. Parents and educators should never ignore a complaint about a physical problem such as child not being able to see the blackboard or hear the teacher. Visual impairments such as muscular imbalances can result in reading disabilities because students are unable to track a line of print or sequence letters correctly. Strabismus syndrome requires early surgery to prevent blindness in the less dominant eye. Teachers should be aware that an eye should never turn inward or outward, even if the student is fatigued. Hearing losses can be easily confused with characteristics of other disabilities. The student may be judged as a slow leaner because of difficulties dealing with abstractions. He may seem to not pay attention or ask for repetition of directions from classmates. In others, hearing losses may be the cumulative result of a series of middle ear infections in early childhood, resulting in difficulty learning phonics. At times hearing losses are indicated by speech problems, as the student repeats sounds exactly as he hears them.