The Wow Vision Therapy Blog

Help your child become a piano virtuoso with simple finger exercises!

What if your child is struggling to play the piano? Let say he is a bright 10 year-old boy who finds playing the piano difficult.  He just doesn’t get it! You ask yourself, why is he having this difficulty…he just seems to be unable to coordinate his fingers to play?   So, as any concerned parent, you seek professional help. But first,  you go on-line to research the possibilities for a solution to this problem and stumble across a website that says,   “Help your child become a piano virtuoso with simple finger exercises!”

Now wait a minute, that’s hard to believe right!? We all know that is illogical.  Doing simple finger exercises will not teach anyone how to become a skilled piano player! His fingers are strong enough to move the keys on the piano, his brain just does not know how to coordinate his fingers to play the music. The answer to his problem is found when you locate a good piano “coach” who can guide him along a process of learning the skills for playing the piano. Then with practice he will improve.  So, you dismiss the internet offer as another example of someone trying to promote an unproven and implausible self-help program.

Now let’s consider another scenario.  This time it is your 10-year-old son who is struggling to read and keep up in school. He  loses his  place easily when reading. He is  having trouble concentrating on a reading task and become very frustrated. He says his eyes hurt and sometimes he gets a headache when he reads. It sounds like he could be having a vision problem.

So you seek professional help and schedule him to have his eyes examined by your family optometrist, Dr. A.  Your son has his eye exam with Dr. A. and what you learn from the doctor is that his eyes are healthy and he has normal 20/20 eye sight. But,  he is having difficulty with coordinating his eyes together as a team when he tries to look at a book to read. Specifically he has trouble with his binocular vision (eye teaming). The doctor called it Convergence Insufficiency(CI). As it turns out, Convergence Insufficiency occurs in about 8-12% of children; affecting about 21.5 million people in the US (adults included).  Often times a person with CI (especially children) will experience symptoms involving  stress and strain around the eyes and have occasional double vision and avoidance behaviors. Often these symptoms look like ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) too.

Doctor A. turns to you and says your child has a problem with proper eye coordination. His visual brain has not developed the correct neuromotor coordination abilities resulting in poor eye teaming when he attempts to do near vision work. This condition is treatable with 25-30 hours of office-based, doctor supervised, optometric vision therapy. While Dr. A.  does not provide this service in his office, he recommends another doctor whose practice is dedicated to treating patients with office-based optometric vision therapy and makes the referral.

Gosh, you were hoping for an easy fix like a new pair of glasses!  But what you are hearing is that it is much more complicated and will take several trips to another doctor over an extended period of time.

In the mean time, you think about it and decide to check around on your own and take your son to another doctor, Dr. B. for a second eye examination.  Dr. B. completes his eye exam of your son and agrees with the diagnosis…yes, he has CI. But this doctor’s approach is entirely different.  Dr. B. describes the problem with your son’s eyes is that he just has “weak eye muscles”  which need to be strengthened. He advises you that  your child’s problem can be solved  with some simple “eye exercises”! All you have to do is make his eye muscles stronger by asking him  to look at the tip of a  pencil as you move it closer to his nose.  In addition you are given some “work books” that have your son doing “tracking exercises”. You are puzzled by the lack of consistent treatment recommendations between the two doctors but since the recommendation is coming from a doctor, it must be true…right? Besides he accepts the minimal payment by your insurance and the treatment plan sounds a lot easier than what Dr. A was recommending. 

So…who do you believe? Why if both doctors agree on the diagnosis, don’t  they agree on the method of treatment? Who has got it right, Dr. A or Dr. B?

First, let’s remember the first example of the 10-year-old boy who was having trouble playing the piano. Is it logical to think that doing simple finger exercises will help him learn how to successfully play the piano? The answer seems pretty obvious right?

Surely the coordination of a person’s eyes is equally as complex as coordinating ones fingers to play a piano. So it would seem illogical that doing simple eye exercises would be effective at treating a problem with both eyes coordinating when attempting to read. However, over 50 years ago, many doctors were  taught that Convergence Insufficiency (CI) was a problem with eye muscle strength. While techniques in the area of visual rehabilitation were also beginning to emerge about that time, there were still some text books that the had the old-fashioned remedy for CI as just  a “series of simple eye exercises”. The problem was that the eye-exercise model of treatment was based on an assumption and not based on research.  Therefore, many doctors to this day still hang on to an old outdated model of treatment that was never based on proven research. 

 Therefore the answer to the question, “Who has got it right, Dr. A. or Dr. B”,  can only be answered based on double-blind multicenter research. What’s more, the research on the best methods to treat CI  was completed in 2008. It is a landmark study called the Convergence Insufficiency Treatment Trial (CITT). The CITT was funded with a $6.1 million grant  by the National Institute of Health and conducted through the National Eye Institute along with several sites around the country including Mayo Clinic and Bascom Palmer plus 6 Colleges of Optometry.

What this double-blind, multicenter research did was to compare office-based doctor supervised vision therapy (OBVT) to home based eye exercises called “pencil push-up therapy” as well as compared to a placebo, called “placebo therapy”

What did the research prove? It found that the “eye exercise therapy” had about the same effectiveness as the placebo. In fact the research proved that both the “eye exercise therapy” and the placebo therapy were found to be ineffective in treating Convergence Insufficiency.

However, office-based vision therapy was found to be effective and in subsequent research found to be the cure for convergence insufficiency. Dr A was correct!

The research is clear. So why do some doctors persist to advise patients about old-fashioned and ineffective treatment for Convergence Insufficiency? This can be difficult to answer in each case, but certainly when this condition, Convergence Insufficiency (CI) is accepted by the entire optometric and medical community as an important public health issue, then and only then will the majority of doctors get it right.

To address this fundamental public health problem and its realitive importance in the eye-care community, I wrote an article that was published in the Journal of Behavioral Optometry (Vol 21/2010/#2) entitled:  "Does Convergence Insufficiency Really Matter"(download)

Dan L. Fortenbacher, O.D.,FCOVD

Children Vision Problems and why some doctors don't tell you... Answers found with Cats who Succeed

In my practice that specializes in vision therapy, the majority (about 70%) of our patients find their way to my care from a direct referral from another doctor or rehabilitation professional. Yet there are a significant number of patients, (often children) who are referred by a parent of a past patient who recognizes behaviors in a child that looks like what their own child struggled with before coming to see us for vision therapy.

This represents about a third of our practice that come to us directly because of a parent, teacher or friend who saw behaviors or recognized the problems described by the other parent. That means many children somewhat serendipitously find their way to our care because of a thoughtful  "goodwill ambassador" past patient or friend.

This group of patients are typically the kids with vision related learning problems. There can be a variety of clinically presenting conditions but some of the more common diagnoses are convergence insufficiency, accommodative dysfunction or oculomotor dysfunction or a combination of all three.They may also have a visual processing problem resulting in letter reversals, difficulty with visual memory and/or hand-eye coordination.

When a child has a vision related learning problem, it is also interesting to note that the diagnosis is typically very obvious as I will demonstrate to the parent directly their child's trouble with the sample visual test  and then let the parent see for themselves usually how effortless the test is if they have normal abilities. Once we establish the diagnosis and determine that this child has a vision problem that can be effectively treated, there is typically a three part response by the child's parents.

First there is a sense of relief that finally  a visual explanation has been found that answers why their child has struggled and it is not because their child was "not smart enough" or "not trying hard enough" and they are not "bad parents".

Second  there is a feeling of hope for their child's future because the solution I present just makes sense. We provide the "best practice" delivery of care, doctor supervised office-based vision therapy that is a proven and effective treatment and I have a solid track record of 30 years experience in this specialty.

Thirdly the parents then experience a momentary feeling of regret and disappointment (sometimes anger) that their previous eye care professional who saw their child did not not recognize the problem in the first place. As a result of overlooking their child's vision problem their child had to deal with often years of frustration and emotional side effects. It is this group of parents who will ask me, "Dr. Fortenbacher, why did our child's previous eye doctor not tell us about this problem with our child's vision?" Often I can not honestly say why with certainty, but try to emphasize the positive, we can leave the past behind and move forward now to solve the problem.

However now I'm pleased to have a better response to this question. Thanks to my friend and colleague, Dr. Leonard Press who has written 3 wonderful articles on The VisionHelp Blog there is now an answer to  the proverbial question, "Why did our other eye doctor not tell us about this problem?" The answer can be found in CATS WHO SUCCEED.

CATS WHO SUCCEED – Part 1

CATS WHO SUCCEED – Part 2

CATS WHO SUCCEED – Part 3

Dan L. Fortenbacher, O.D., FCOVD

Letter Reversals...Does my child have dyslexia or a vision problem?

 
When a child confuses and reverses letters, such as "b's" for "d's" and "p's" for "q's", parents often wonder, "does my child have dyslexia?". This is largely due to the fact that the media has drawn public attention to a problem in visual perception where the person who reverses their letters or numbers usually has trouble reading effectively. However, dyslexia is a broad term that indicates an unexpected reading disability that exists in a person who otherwise has no cognitive impairment and has had adequate educational instruction. The causes can vary as outlined in Wikipedia's review of dyslexia. A more general overview of "Vision and Dyslexia" has been written in a White Paper by the College of Optometrists in Vision Development.

Letter reversals are developmentally normal up to age 7, however several other developmental factors must be considered before assuming that a child is experiencing normal letter reversal tendency's at a younger age. When a child is behind in their visual processing it is referred to as a delay in visual spatial orientation or visual directionality. A child who is developmentally delayed in visual directionality will exhibit confusion in reading simply because of the letters that are symbolically the same, have a different meaning because of their visual spatial orientation, ie,  "b", "d", "p" "q"...same symbol different meaning!

Delays in the visual brain's ability to process information, such as letters, numbers and words, based on visual-spatial orientation,  will indeed complicate reading, writing and other learning activities. As a result, a child or adult who has this form of visual processing problem will also have a vision related learning problem. And yes this can be one of the causes for a reading disability or dyslexia...visual spatial dyslexia.

What should you do if you suspect your child has a problem with visual spatial orientation skills? Seek out help from a Doctor of Optometry who is Board Certified in Developmental Vision and Vision Therapy. Those doctors skilled in the diagnosis and management of a patient with these problems will utilize a complete battery of visual perceptual tests and be able to offer treatment, in the form of office-based vision therapy to treat and remediate the patients delay in vision.

To help doctors with the best methods of practice in treating patients with learning related vision problems, the American Optometric Association has published an evidenced based Clinical Practice Guideline entitled:Care of the Patient with Learning Related Vision Problems (CPG20)

The best treatment for a child (or adult) with a vision related learning problem is office-based vision therapy. An example of one of our patients success, ie "no more reversals",  can be seen at Hannah's Story.

Dan L. Fortenbacher, O.D, FCOVD

Research shows link...eye movement predictor of academic success

"Eye movement is a predictor of academic success". This month marks the 10 year anniversary when the Harvard University Graduate School of Education made this announcement. The research clearly shows that there is important association between effective eye movement control and academic success.

Ever since this breaking news a decade ago, further evidence of the association between eye movement and academic success continues to be recognized. For example, in Volume 27 Issue 8 of the Journal of Brain Development in 2005 the titled research is, the Voluntary Control of Saccadic and Smooth-Pursuit Eye Movement in Children with Learning Disorders.

While the testing of eye movement is relatively easy, the clinical presentation of poor eye movement control can often be missed and misunderstood. For example the testing of smooth-pursuit  eye movement control can be easily performed with a bead on a stick or the tip of a pencil or pen. The examiner simply asks the child to look at the target (held about 10 inches from the nose) and follow it with their eyes as the target is slowly moved horizontally, vertically (on the midline) and in a rotation. The child should be able watch the moving target with minimal head movement. Furthermore, the child who is years and older, should be able to "visually track" the target with a minimal amount of distraction such as asking simple questions (cognitive loading).

With the advent of web-based professional networking sites, like Sovoto, a platform now exists to help doctors and other professionals who work with children to see an example of a child with oculomotor dysfunction. To see an example of a child with oculomotor difficulty that was associated with his reading difficulty click here.

The American Optometric Association has published the symptoms of eye movement disorders in the Optometric Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) Care of the Patient with Learning Related Vision Problems. They are:

• Moving head excessively when reading
• Skipping lines when reading
• Omitting words and transposing when reading
• Losing place easily when reading
• Requiring a finger or marker to keep place when reading
• Experiencing confusion on return sweep phase when reading
• Experiencing illusionary text movement
• Having deficient ball playing skills

More importantly, once identified, the child who is diagnosed with a problem in eye movement, such as smooth-pursuits, can be treated with vision therapy. Specifically office-based optometric vision therapy provided by a vision therapist (supervised by the doctor), can effectively treat disorders of voluntary eye movement. The results can often be a dramatic improvement in the child's reading efficiency.

To see the same patient after 24 sessions of office-based vision therapy click here. His reading efficiency and fluency has improved and he is enjoying reading!

To learn more about optometric vision therapy  and find a doctor who provides office-based vision therapy visit the COVD website at www.covd.org

Dan L. Fortenbacher, O.D.,FCOVD

 

 

 

Home schooling mom learns impact of vision problems on her struggling 17 yr old daughter

Last week I saw a 17 year old girl for a new patient comprehensive vision evaluation. While most patients find their way to our practice as a referral from an eye doctor or an occupational therapist, this patient landed in my exam chair due to the determination of her mother to find an answer.

You see, our patient - lets call her Mary, is a  bright, articulate high school senior who wants to go to college next year, but due to her difficulty reading, she and her family are concerned that she will be unable to handle the college work load. What's more, her avoidance behaviors and mannerisms started to make her mother suspect something was "a miss" with Mary's eyes, even though she had had previous eye exams and was fit with contact lenses for nearsightedness. Mary complained of words overlapping and would turn her head or cover an eye when trying to read.

Thanks to the persistence of her mother through her own personal research,  she began to find the answers to her troubling questions.  Why was her bright daughter complaining of words moving on the page when reading? Why did she turn her head or furrow her brow when doing her paper pencil tasks? What she learned was that there exists specific types of vision problems that can cause bright kids to demonstrate reading and learning performance problems. One thing led to another and the family found our specialty practice; dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of the vision related learning problems.

My examination revealed that Mary's eyes were healthy and her existing contacts properly corrected her eyes for a mild condition of nearsightedness. But, in spite of her 20/20 corrected eye sight, Mary was unable to coordinate her two eyes at near. She in fact had double vision for objects within 18-20 inches from her face! To further complicate this, Mary demonstrated poor eye tracking, eye focusing and poor visual processing skills. The diagnosis for Mary was convergence insufficiency, accommodative dysfunction,oculomotor dysfunction plus delays in visual information processing.

In spite of having the diagnosis, which explained why Mary struggled with reading and learning, it was painful for Mary's mother when she realized that Mary had been struggling with these symptoms since she was in 3rd grade.  Thanks  only to the determination of her mother through home schooling, Mary received the individual attention which enabled her to progress academically, albeit in spite of many compensatory strategies.

To restate the case, Mary's vision problems are not eye sight problems or eye health problems. Her eye muscles are normal and strong. Her neurology is normal. Instead, her vision problems are developmental. That means at age 17, Mary had simply not acquired the expected eye coordination and visual processing abilities that most us gain naturally through a process of normal childhood experiences.

The treatment required for Mary is  office-based optometric vision therapy (VT). VT is scientifically validated and proven safe and effective. Once Mary receives this treatment protocol, research has shown that she will not require any further treatment for these problems of eye coordination. Yes, there actually is a cure!

What makes Mary's case disheartening is that her visual issues could have been recognized early on. Mary should never have had to struggle for years with this binocular vision problem - convergence insufficiency. As a consequence of her binocular vision problem, Mary and her family have unnecessarily gone through years of frustration. They had to adjust their family around a home school model to support Mary's needs for individual attention primarily because she could not use her vision to apply herself academically.

On a positive note, Mary will soon be starting treatment...office-based vision therapy. And while she has had to tolerate her symptoms associated with these vision problems for years, within 4-5 months of treatment, I'm confident that Mary's binocular and other related "eye-coordination problems" will be resolved. What's more because she is bright and capable, once Mary no longer has near point double vision, she will be better prepared for the visual demands of college!

Fortunately, more eye doctors are becoming aware of the critical importance to recognize, diagnose and properly manage patients like Mary. For example, Dr. Dominick M. Maino, Editor of the journal Optometry and Vision Development and Professor of Pediatrics/Binocular Vision at the Illinois Eye Institute/Illinois College of Optometry has recently written a compelling journal editorial emphasizing this to the profession entitled, The Binocular Vision Pandemic.

Dr. Rochelle Mozlin, Associate Professor at State University of New York, State College of Optometry with a Masters Degree in Public Health also recently wrote on the COVD Blog, Vision Therapy — Where is the Evidence?, listing the evidence based Clinical Practice Guidelines, written by a team of optometric experts, and published by the American Optometric Association.

With greater professional and public awareness of the impact of binocular vision problems on reading performance, fewer children like Mary will have to struggle for years without getting the help that they truly need. For more information go to www.covd.org

Dan L. Fortenbacher, O.D.,FCOVD

Seeing is believing...vision is learned - A facinating lecture by Neuroscientist and Artist - Beau Lotto

As optometric clinicians who provide vision therapy, we find ourselves discussing the concept that vision is learned to patients and parents on a daily basis. Yet, when discussing to a parent, one of the goals of vision therapy is to develop proper binocular neuromuscular control, the parent may sometimes have the misconception that vision therapy is an eye muscle exercise process. This eye exercise myth can also be one of the reasons why educators could be confused about the "vision connection" to reading.

Sometimes others can say it better. In this case Neuroscientist Beau Lotto uses a variety of interesting demonstrations to show that vision is learned.

 

Dan L. Fortenbacher, O.D., FCOVD

From Temple Grandin to Moms Fighting Autism...seeing the vision connection

Statistics from the Autism Society shows that autism is the fastest growing developmental disability in the US. Current studies are suggesting that Autism is occurring in 1 in 110 children with nearly 1.5 million living with this condition. Autism is a spectrum disorder that typically includes pervasive developmental delays in sensory processing. One critical area to a child with Autism can be vision development.

One of the most famous adults with autism is Temple Grandin, PhD., who has been able to rise above the challenges associated with autism. Her story is now being told in the HBO full length feature film entitled  Temple Grandin, staring critically acclaimed actor, Claire Danes. As a testament to her ability to apply herself, Dr. Grandin describes the impact of her vision in her book, Thinking in Pictures, and Other Reports of My Life with Autism.

Expanding this awareness is a new group, Moms Fighting Autism. Moms Fighting Autism is a monthly webinar service dedicated to helping moms who have children with autism. And this month the Moms Fighting Autism Webinar is featuring one of Optometry's leading lecturers, writers and clinicians in the area of Developmental Vision...Dr. Carl Hillier.

Dr. Hillier's webinar is occurring on February 16, 2010 at 6:PM PT. Dr. Hillier will be discussing “Vision and Living Within the Autistic Spectrum,” including Vision Therapy.  To register for this FREE webinar click here.

Dr. Hillier was also recently featured on San Diego 6 News. Click here to see Dr. Hillier's interview with reporter Greg Phillips. The topic was how hidden vision problems can be the cause of your child's reading disabilities.

With greater public awareness of the vision problems associated with autism, more children (and adults) can find the developmental vision care that will help those with autism to lead a more happy and productive life. A good way to find a doctor who specializes in developmental vision care is to go to the College of Optometrists in Vision Development website and search for a Board Certified Fellow in your area.

Dan L. Fortenbacher, O.D.,FCOVD

Vision Therapy Isn’t Just About Eyes

As a 4th year Optometry student at Michigan College of Optometry, I had assumed that the goal of vision therapy was only to target the eye coordination skills that our patients have trouble with in the clinic and improve on them to eliminate symptoms or prevent symptoms from arising in the future.  After my rotation here at Wow Vision Therapy, I have learned that vision therapy is about so much more than just the eyes.

 

There is a phrase that I heard when I first started here, and I’ve never forgotten it.  “If you can’t coordinate your body movements, you can’t coordinate your eye movements.”  I have found this to be so true.  When a patient doesn’t have good control over simple body movements, then it is difficult to control the eyes in a coordinated fashion because all of the mind’s attention is on controlling the body, not the eyes.

 

Here at Wow Vision Therapy, we work on not only eye movements but body movements as well.  We do something called “Chapters” which is a series of coordinated body movements that focus on being able to make the upper half of the body move in sync with the lower half of the body.  As the difficulty increases with each Chapter, vision plays a more significant role in the successful completion of them by requiring balance or noticing simultaneous movements between the arms and legs.  Just in the short amount of time I have been here I have seen many children graduate from the program that are less clumsy and are able to ride a 2-wheel bike now when they never could before.  The coordination learned through the combination of vision and movement during the Chapters plays a significant role in this successful outcome.

 

Also during my time here at Wow Vision Therapy, I discovered that vision therapy can also help eliminate motion sickness!  Motion sickness and how to cope with it is not only related to movement, but it also has a visual aspect to it.  During our “see-sick protocol”, patients are taught how to cope with motion by using their vision to help stabilize and balance themselves to eliminate the woozy feeling that excessive motion can cause.  I have suffered from getting car-sick my whole life, and after doing our “see-sick protocol”, I was able to study in the car all the way to Pennsylvania and back without even a hint of car-sickness!  I have also had many of my own patients experience a huge improvement in their motion sickness after completing this protocol.

 

If you or your child is experiencing trouble with coordination, balance or motion sickness, give Wow Vision Therapy a call (if you are in South West Michigan) or contact the College of Optometrists in Vision Development at www.covd.org for a doctor near you.  You may be surprised at how many issues can be corrected and improved with vision therapy!

Erica Oosting

Michigan College of Optometry 4th Year Intern

Signs and Symptoms of a vision-related learning problem...Teachers need to be on the look-out!

In Michigan, school officially begins the first day after Labor Day. Students are eagerly coming into the classroom and teachers are ready with their lesson plans. The parents have high hopes for their children.

However, some children will be entering the classroom with a hidden vision disability. These are bright children who are smart enough to catch on quickly particularly with verbal teaching presentation yet when given visually demanding reading or written tasks they will begin to have problems. Yes, studies show that about 5-15% of children in the classroom will have performance problems caused by an underlying vision-related learning problem. Teachers need to be on the look out for these signs and symptoms.

What does it mean when a child has a vision-related learning problem?

A vision-related learning problem describes the signs, symptoms and behaviors of a bright child who under-performs in reading and learning due to one or more deficiencies in vision development. These deficiencies in vision development have a medical diagnosis and are treatable with office-based vision therapy.

Even though a child may have normal eye sight (20/20 visual acuity), to be visually ready, a child must enter the classroom with over 15 visual skills essential for reading and learning. These visual skills encompass eye-coordination, visual perception and visual-motor integration (eye hand coordination).

Below are examples of the essential “eye-coordination” visual skills necessary for reading and learning:

Eye teaming skill – the ability to coordinate the two eyes together is called Binocular Vision. A child who lacks Binocular Vision skill will often experience eye strain, fatigue, poor attention and avoidance of reading activities. The child will often experience words over lapping with extended reading, yet will rarely tell their parents that they are seeing double. Imagine how strenuous is would be if while reading you were seeing double.

A common medical diagnosis is Convergence Insufficiency.

 

Eye focusing skill – the ability to focus our eyes for sustained reading as well as shift focus from near to far when copying from the chalkboard requires good eye focusing known as Accommodation. A child who lacks Accommodation skill will often miscall easy words, complain of headaches with reading, tire easily and have poor attention and concentration for reading. The child may complain of blurred vision while reading or will just give up quickly when reading.

A common medical diagnosis is Accommodative Dysfunction.

 

Eye tracking skill – the ability to “point” our eyes on the printed material as well as skillfully move our eyes from word to word and through rows of sentences is known as Oculomotor function. A child who lacks Oculomotor function will typically lose their place easily when reading. They often require the use of their finger to keep their place on the page. The child with poor eye tracking will be much slower in their reading and have poor fluency and comprehension. They will lose attention easily and have difficulty coping from book to paper. It is hard to pay attention what the meaning is when words seem to jump around on the page.

A common medical diagnosis is Oculomotor Dysfunction.

 

When a child has a medical diagnosis in one or more these essential "eye coordination" vision skills, your doctor may prescribe treatment involving office-based vision therapy which may also include prescription reading glasses. With treatment a child can acquire the necessary “eye coordination” visual skills essential for better performance in reading, learning and attention in the classroom.

 

It is important for teachers to be on the look-out for these signs and symptoms. It is equally important, however to be sure to recommend a doctor in your area who looks for these problems in children and will prescribe office-based vision therapy (if necessary) or refer to a doctor who provides office-based vision therapy. One good source to find a doctor is the College of Optometrists in Vision Development. Click on Doctor locator.

 

Dan L. Fortenbacher, O.D., FCOVD

 

Vision-related Learning Problems...parents be aware, 20/20 sight is not enough!

Your child may not be visually ready for school due to a vision-related learning problem even though they have excellent eye sight (20/20 or better). How can that be? Your child's visual "readiness" for learning involves over 15 visual skills. It is very important for parents to have their children's vision evaluated before school to make sure that they have good eye health, eye sight AND to see if they have the essential visual skills that are critical for reading, learning and attention and concentration.

Public awareness is growing for children's vision-related learning problems. August is the National Children's Vision and Learning Month.

Helping to spread the word about vision-related learning problems,  two of the nations top doctors in developmental vision and vision therapy have been interviewed by TV News stations. The following news segments provides vital information to parents.

First, lecturer, private practitioner and recipient of the prestigious the COVD 2008 GN Getman Award, Dr. Carl Hillier from San Diego: Click here to view Dr. Hillier.

Second, private practitioner and Vice President of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development Dr. Carole Hong from San Francisco: Click here to view Dr. Hong.

It is important that your child be tested prior to school by a primary care optometrist who is experienced with children's vision problems. An important question to ask your doctor is, "If my child has a vision related learning problem do you either provide or will you refer me to a doctor who provides office-based vision therapy?"

Dan L. Fortenbacher, O.D., FCOVD