Are school vision screenings enough?

School vision screenings are not enough and often give parents a false sense of security about the health of your child's vision and eye health. A comprehensive eye exam provides the full assurance of vision and eye health that a simple eye chart test or a school vision screening cannot. 

Eye diseases, many that can cause blindness, eye movement problems such as convergence insufficiency and binocular vision disorders, eye muscle control disorders and visual information processing deficits all go undetected in a rudimentary vision screening.  Many of these disorders can impact a child's school performance, their personality and their self esteem. Undiagnosed diseases can cause permanent vision loss.

Dr. M.K. Randhawa explains:




map | directions | FREE parking | book an appointment 

Vision Therapy improves reading comprehension and overall classroom attention

A study of  students with below average reading scores found that providing visual attention therapy can significantly improve their attention and reading comprehension.  Visual attention is one component of a group of skills related to visual information processing- the way the brain takes in and makes sense of the images received by the eye.

The developmental optometrists at ourVancouver eye clinic have witnessed this improvement first hand.  Kids who hate reading, can't do it very well and read a below grade level have improved following therapy to become kids who love reading and often can read at above grade level! Read more...

Family advice on Vision Therapy from the Washington Post

Here is a great family advice column from the Washington Post on what to do about a smart child who is hopelessly unmotivated in school.  The last piece of advice is about vision therapy:

Although an ophthalmologist will tell you how well your son can see, it usually takes a developmental or behavioral optometrist to tell you how well his eyes are working when he reads or when he looks back and forth from the blackboard to the printed page. Some children get headaches because they can’t focus well or their vision is blurry, but they don’t complain because they think that heads are supposed to hurt or that the world is a blur for everyone.

If your son has these or other vision problems, don’t despair. Vision therapy is to the eyes what physical therapy is to the body, and it’s effective 90 percent of the time. He’ll just have to wear special glasses for a little while every day, do some eye exercises every day and maybe play a couple of video games. To learn more, go towww.covd.org, the Web site for the College of Optometrists in Vision Development.

The article also gives excellent advice on parents who suspect that their child may have ADD.  The symptoms of ADD are often the same as treatable eye movement problems  It is smart to see a developmental optometrist for a vision evaluation before getting tested for ADD:

If your son is still quite distractible and fidgety, and if he still has a short attention span and makes careless errors, he might have attention deficit disorder. But not always. One study says that parents should always have their child’s eyes checked before he gets tested for ADD, because these disorders often have the same symptoms

Image courtesy of Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Mom of Struggling Reader Finds Help and Speaks Out for College of Optometrists in Vision Development's National Children's Vision and Learning Month

This blog post reproduces the content of a press release issued by the College of Optometrists in Vision Development to commemorate National Children's Vision Learning Month. It is a story that is familiar in my office and the office of every developmental optometrist. Patients are told by doctor after doctor that their child's vision is fine so long as the child can read the letters on the chart and there is nothing wrong with the physiology of the eye. However,visual acuity the the health of the structures that make up the eye are only part of an eye examination.

Developmental optometrists also assess the functioning and movement of the eye, the ocular muscles and the workings of the visual system. The latter assessments can uncover binocular vision problems or deficiencies in visual informaiton processing, which have been shown to adversely impact learning and academic performance.

Here is the press release:

Despite being told by five different eye doctors that her 8-year-old daughter Shelby's vision was fine, Lynn DeVore of Yakima, Washington continued to search for reasons why her daughter continued to struggle with reading. The pediatrician said that since the eye doctors said Shelby's vision was fine that Lynn "was just being paranoid and that maybe Shelby was simply not very smart." She continued to search until she found the answer and now DeVore is stepping forward to help other parents by sharing their story for National Children's Vision and Learning Month.

"We knew there was a problem early on, but we were told she would read soon. We struggled and struggled and still reading was a fight. Shelby was very frustrated with reading and had very little confidence in all areas of her life," shares DeVore. Fortunately she saw an ad in a local magazine that listed all the things Shelby struggled with. The ad was for a developmental optometrist who provides an in-office program of optometric vision therapy.

The evaluation confirmed that Shelby did in fact have a vision problem. It was convergence insufficiency, an eye coordination problem that can make reading very difficult. After completing the prescribed program of vision therapy, Shelby went from reading at 1st grade level to reading on grade level.

How could so many eye doctors have missed this? A very good question! When parents suspect their children have a vision problem that is contributing to their learning difficulties they often go to the pediatrician or the pediatric ophthalmologist only to be told their child's vision is fine and they can see 20/20. States Dr. David Damari, President of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development, "It is important for parents to know that when it comes to the diagnosis and treatment of vision problems which interfere with reading and learning, a comprehensive vision exam is needed. These children need to see an optometrist who provides an in-office program of vision therapy and performsthe in-depth testing required to determine if the child has all the visual skills required for academic success,".

Despite volumes of evidence-based optometric research, many pediatricians and ophthalmologists continue to state that vision has nothing to do with learning, referring parents to psychologists, learning specialists, etc. However, the limitations caused by convergence insufficiency and similar visual disorders can be disabling during reading and computer use according to the definitions of disability in the Americans with Disability Act, but these disorders are all easily treatable with optometric vision therapy.

The five most common signs that a vision problem may be interfering with your student's ability to read and learn are:

1. Skips lines, rereads lines

2. Poor reading comprehension

3. Takes much longer doing homework than it should take

4. Reverses letters like "b" into "d" when reading

5. Has a short attention span with reading and schoolwork

Any one of these symptoms is a sign of a possible vision problem. A more in-depth symptoms checklist is available on COVD's website.

It is vital that parents take the time to learn all of the signs that a vision problem may be interfering with academic performance. When a child has a vision problem, they do not outgrow it, and despite extensive tutoring or special services at school, very little improvement occurs.

Shelby was lucky that her mother didn't take no for an answer. Take 5 minutes in honor of August being National Children's Vision and Learning Month and visit the website for the College of Optometrists in Vision Development; then spread the word and share the information: www.covd.org .

Accommodative insufficiency is a common children's eye disorder that causes reading and other problems and is treated with vision therapy

Accommodative insufficiency can make reading look like this.

Accommodative insufficiency is one of the most common eye muscle disorders diagnosed by pediatric optometrists.  Accommodative insufficiency makes a child function like a middle age person who needs reading glasses.  It means that their eye muscles do not constrict enough for them to focus up close.  The condition can be treated in children but the only answer for adults is to wear reading glasses.

Accommodative insufficiency usually causes problems related to reading and other close work
activities.  Symptoms include blurred vision at near, intermittent blurred vision when looking up from near work, headaches,watering or burning of the eyes, tired eyes, loss of concentration, and avoidance of near activities.

Research has shown that Vision Therapy is an effective treatment for accommodative insufficiency. After vision therapy, the difference in a child's life can be dramatic when school activities that were once difficult, anxiety provoking and self-esteem destroying suddenly become easy, a source of confidence and an affirmation of the child's ability.  It is an inspiration for our doctors and vision therapists to see these results in our patients and its what makes paediatric optometry such a rewarding profession.

map | directions | FREE parking | book an appointment