The team at Vision+ Performance and Rehab in Blacksburg are dedicated to finding and addressing visual deficiencies that affect learning.
Deficiencies in our vision or visual processing can affect everything we do and can have a particularly large impact on performance in school. Fixing poor visual acuity with glasses or contact lenses is sometimes only the first step. Sharper visual acuity is needed, but someone with poorly developed visual skills or a problem with visual perception or visual information processing may still struggle.
Vision screenings will screen for visual acuity (how well you see, i.e. 20/40 or 20/20). Most comprehensive eye exams will investigate need for spectacle correction and overall health of the eye, to rule out disease. However, they normally do not properly evaluate other very important visual skills including focusing, tracking, teaming (the cooperation of the two eyes), and visual perceptual skills (visual memory, figure-ground, and more).
Undiagnosed deficiencies in the visual system can make difficult to concentrate and can make reading more than a battle. Students with visual skill deficiencies may be very smart and yet present with trouble in a specific skill like reading comprehension or math. If the visual system is struggling the patient may verbalize and talk to themselves aloud while studying to help compensate for visual skill issues. When the system is overwhelmed concentration is difficult and behavioral problems can arise. This can lead to many of the same symptoms found in problems such as dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Wouldn’t it make sense that attention will wander if the visual system can’t process information correctly, or if the eyes jump around on the page, or if sometimes the image turns double? Children who have 20/20 visual acuity may still take hours to do homework, having to read and re-read, trying to comprehend. These challenges can often affect the entire family.
With the right diagnosis and Vision Plus’s individualized vision development and rehab programs, reading levels and comprehension can start to excel. We’ve seen self-esteem increase, and negative behaviors decline, as the avoidance of and frustration with schoolwork improves. Perhaps you don’t really “hate” books, you just never developed the skills to enjoy them the right way. If you had a problem with your knee you may never discover a love for biking until that problem is fixed! Contact us to asking about scheduling an evaluation to see if you could benefit from therapy at Vision Plus Development and Rehab. Our doctors recommend a visual perceptual analysis and a complete binocular vision assessment to assess all areas that may need to be addressed.