Vision Therapy and Learning-Related Vision Issues #1 – Overview

Vision and learning are intimately related. In fact, experts say that roughly 80 percent of what a child learns in school is information that is presented visually. So good vision is essential for students of all ages to reach their full academic potential.

About 75% of students work twice as hard for their academic success because of a significant visual dysfunction.
When children have difficulty in school – from learning to read to understanding fractions to seeing the blackboard — many parents and teachers believe these kids have vision problems.

Ruling out simple refractive errors is the first step in making sure your child is visually ready for school.
Less obvious vision problems related to the way the eyes function and how the brain processes visual information also can limit your child’s ability to learn. Any vision problems that have the potential to affect academic and reading performance are considered learning-related vision problems.

Learning-related vision problems can be assessed with vision therapy. To determine candidacy for vision therapy to help improve clear comfortable vision and school performance, a 2-hour Initial Assessment is completed. This testing is a critical appraisal of 12 visual skills related to visual performance, that goes far beyond the basic eye exam and 20/20 vision clarity; it assesses visual efficiency (eye focusing and teaming), reading eye movements and visual information processing (VIP) skills. If two or more of these visual skills are significantly below normal then they are likely creating visual-anchors and reduced school performance. These deficient visual skills are remedial with diligent effort with vision therapy that is doctor directed.

Please visit my website www.oakvillecentreforvision.com or call the office 905-338-2020 or email us at vt@oakvillecentreforvision.com for more information.