Video: Overlooking our Vision
Binocular Vision Disorders:
These are disorders of the eye teaming or focusing system. If the eyes are not able to converge (move in), diverge (move out) or focus appropriately, many problems can occur including significant eye strain, headaches, and double vision. As well, eye movement disorders can significantly impact our binocular vision system. We need both eyes moving together, accurately and with minimal effort to achieve comfortable vision. For treatment and relief of Binocular Vision problems visit Perspective Vision.
Subtle eye alignment problems called phorias, which may not produce a visible eye turn, can still cause eye strain and eye fatigue when reading also can be minimized or corrected with vision therapy (VT).
Specific eye disorders that can be helped by VT include:
- convergence insufficiency
- accommodative insufficiency or accommodative excess
- oculo-motor dysfunction
Strabismus & Ambylopia
Amblyopia: Amblyopia is a vision development problem where an eye sees poorly, even with glasses or contact lenses. There are a number of different causes of amblyopia:
- strabismus
- a significant difference in prescription between the eyes from nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism
- an obstruction in vision due to injury or disease
When the clarity or alignment of the images from the two eyes is very different, or if the child sees double, the brain may begin to ignore the vision in one eye; this can result in amblyopia. The favored eye compensates for the “lazy eye,” so the child with amblyopia may not be aware of the problem until the better eye is covered.
Strabismus: Strabismus, or crossed eyes, is the inability to point both eyes in the same direction at the same time. One eye may appear to turn in (esotropia), out (exotropia), up (hypertropia), or down (hypotropia). The eye turn may occur constantly or only intermittently. Eye turning may change from one eye to the other, and may only appear when a person is tired or has done a lot of reading. Strabismus may cause double vision. To avoid seeing double, the vision in one eye may be ignored, resulting in a lazy eye (amblyopia).
Learning Related Vision Problems
80% of learning in the classroom is visual! Thus, a learning-related visual problem directly affects how we learn, read, or sustain close work. Visual problems in any of the following areas can have a significant impact on learning:
- eye tracking skills: eyes following a line of print
- eye teaming skills: two eyes working together as a synchronized team
- binocular vision: simultaneously blending the images from both eyes into one image
- accommodation: eye focusing
- visual-motor integration: eye-hand coordination
- visual perception: visual memory, visual form perception, and visualization
As vision and learning are intimately connected, a vision problem can be easily mistaken for a learning problem. Youngsters with visual problems can be misdiagnosed as having Learning Disabilities, ADHD, or Dyslexia. There are various reasons for this misdiagnosis. For example, children who have learning-related visual problems cannot sustain their close work at school. They may be misdiagnosed as ADHD because children with ADHD also cannot sustain attention on their work: Same behaviors, different diagnosis.
Video: How Vision Therapy Can Help your Struggling Reader
Video: Why Smart kids Struggle with Reading
Sport Proficiency
More information to come
Traumatic Brain Injury/Concussions
More information to come