3 Myths about Vision Therapy

Myth: If you have 20/20 eyesight, you have perfect vision.

Fact: When your child does a school screening and passes with visual acuities of 20/20, it does NOT mean they have good vision. The visual acuities have nothing to with how well the eyes function together and how they interpret or process what they see. The eye chart does not measure peripheral vision, depth perception, color perception or eye-hand coordination which is all part of vision. Eyesight and vision are different.

Myth: Vision Therapy is for kids.

Fact: No, vision therapy is for children and adults. Vision therapy is actually more effective for adults because they are usually highly motivated to improve their visual abilities. For adults, it is common to have visual problems with activities up close like reading, using the computer, or writing.  If an adult performs these activities daily and their eyes do not work well together for long periods of time, then it is not uncommon for them to experience eye strain or eye fatigue. 

Myth: If a child has a short attention span and behavior problems, then they most likely have ADD/ADHD.

Fact: Sometimes when a child exhibits behavior such as impulsivity, hyperactivity and distractibility they are diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, but they might actually only have a learning difficulty because their eyes might not be working together and it is hard for them to focus and learn. A child might have a short attention span due to the fact they have a hard time focusing on their work because of a vision problem. According to the website covd.org, “A recent study by researchers at the Children's Eye Center, University of San Diego, uncovered a relationship between a common vision disorder, convergence insufficiency, and ADHD. The study "showed that children with convergence insufficiency are three times as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than children without the disorder." Before an ADD/ADHD diagnosis is made, please consider getting your child a comprehensive eye exam. 

What other myths have you heard about Vision Therapy? Let us know and we will give you some more facts. 

It is Vision and Learning Month!

August is Vision and Learning Month! Since our children are starting to head back to school, it is important to educate parents and teachers about the link between vision and learning. Some children may struggle with reading or learning and it could be associated with vision problems, but that is often overlooked.

When a parent says, “My child has 20/20 vision, he can not have a vision problem.” That is not true.  The vision screenings that are done at school do not always test for eye coordination and eye movement disorders. With that being said, vision problems are often overlooked because these possible problems could be mistaken for behavior or attention problems.

If a child has a vision problem that goes undetected he or she may struggle with reading and doing their school work.  Some signs that the child may be struggling could be fidgeting, fatigue, headaches, and frustrations in the classroom.

As mentioned above, it is not about just having 20/20 vision. Many other factors go into vision and learning.  Please be aware of this if you notice your child struggling to read and learn. Early diagnosis and treatment is beneficial to help our children succeed. When scheduling your child's back-to-school eye exam choose a doctor that is a developmental optometrist. 

More on blogs that we have done in relation to Vision & Learning here:

Is there correlation between ADD/ADHD and vision problems?

How are Vision and Learning linked?

'My child gets vision screenings at school, isn't that good enough?' 

Teacher Resources

Learning Disabilities Awareness Month 

 

 

 

 

 

Concussion

Last week, I blogged about Traumatic Brain Injury. Today, I want to focus on concussions. This is such a hot topic these days. A month ago, PBS Frontline did an investigative piece called, "League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis." If you haven't seen it, watch the full story here. 

Leading up to that there were numerous articles about concussions:
Wall Street Journal
USA Today
New York Times
Time Magazine
National  Geographic


There are a number of symptoms that relate to the connection between vision function and concussions. These symptoms can include:

• –blurred vision – especially when reading

• –headaches associated with reading

• –double vision

• –eye pain

• –poor reading comprehension

• –light sensitivity

• –frequent loss of place when reading

So once a concussed person experiences these symptoms, then what? I will discuss that in our next blog. I will also discuss a screening test that provides an effective way to detect early signs of concussion. Stay tuned! 

It's a Brain Thing

Coming back from the seminar, I was filled with more knowledge and therapy procedures. I was excited to show my patients some new fun exercises. Today I am going to share some of my notes I  wrote down:

• Eye turn is not the problem- only a symptom.
• Eye turn is not an eye muscle problem- hence why surgery to correct an eye turn is just a cosmetic treatment. 
• Not an eye muscle problem- it is a brain thing
• 3-6 mounts of age is when eye teaming develops
• Eye turn is a binocular vision problem
• Goal in vision therapy is to make the patient a two eyed person
• 83% of the acuity goes back with just passive patching. Passive patching: just putting a patch over "strong eye" to use "weaker eye" for a number of hours without any stimulation. 
• Does your child have a constant head tilt? Head tilt to the left means your right eye is dominant. Head tilt to the right means you are left eye dominant.
• Head tilt compensates for what going on. It helps suppress other eye. 
• The eyes don't tell us what to see. The brain tells your eyes what to look for.
• Sue Barry- does Brock String exercise 5-10 minutes a day. Still!
• With Vision Therapy we try to develop a new neuro-pathway.
• If the visual system is not your child's dominant sense then they touch everything or are easily distracted. Who can relate with this?
• Call the "good/strong eye" the "teaching eye" and the "bad/weaker eye" the "learning eye".   

The is just a tidbit I took away from this past weeks seminar. I defiantly had a lot of "aha" moments. Have you learned anything new recently? Or have any "aha" moments? Share it!  Until next time! Have a great weekend.