How does it work?
Even if your students have perfect visual clarity they may still suffer from eye movement problems which affect reading and learning. Our unique service includes on site assessments of the complete visual system.
We start by performing a normal eye test for visual clarity. Then we do a complete binocular examination which helps to assess any problems with convergence, focusing, 3D, perception and eye movement issues that may affect reading.
If required, a full binocular report is sent to the school and parents with recommendations.
There is a chance that these visual issues can masquerade as other common problems. A parent may have been exposed to many other types of therapies, when the root of the issues may be as simple as an eye movement problem. In this case, the system uses an inordinate amount of brain power to make up for the inefficient eye movements.
Tracking, Binocular Vision, and Focusing
Even with great clarity of vision, or 20/20, your child may be experiencing eye movement problems.
Eye Tracking Problems
Eyes need to move rapidly, accurately, and smoothly during reading. The eyes need to be able to make very small movements between the words and is a fine motor skill. If this skill is lacking the person may move their head to compensate or use their finger as a pointer to create a reference point.
When a child looks from the board to their work on the desk, the eyes must move quickly and accurately. During reading the eyes need to move from one word to another, and from one line to another. If they aren’t able to this smoothly and accurately, they may experience losing their place while reading, skipping lines or words and replacing words during reading.
Tracking skills are considered the fine motor aspect of vision.
Tracking is also important for following moving objects in sports, and for directing our eyes to move our hands towards a target. Eye-hand coordination in any activity starts with accurate eye movements.
Symptoms
- reading being more difficult than it should be
- comprehension challenges
- missing out small words
- misreading sentences
- rereading lines or moving down to another line at the wrong time
Eye Teaming Problems
Both eyes need to work together in an exact and synchronised way. Each eye produces a marginally different image that is sent to the brain. The brain then needs to join these two images into one image. We call this binocular vision and it is an essential visual processing skill.
Binocular vision allows for uninterrupted, single, and comfortable vision, and is the basis for 3D perception.
If we cannot do this easily, objects can appear double and unstable, creating an unclear and uncomfortable view of the world. Binocular problems typically cause blurred vision, double vision, headaches, and eyestrain, especially while reading and performing close work.
Convergence insufficiency is caused when the eyes drift outwards during reading and close work, whereas convergence excess occurs when the eyes turn in.
In both cases unnecessary effort needs to be exerted to keep the eyes stable, and the effort involved in trying to achieve this causes uncomfortable symptoms. Brain power is being utilised to get the image clear, and now less brain power is available to process the incoming information.
Symptoms
- double vision
- headaches
- strain
- subconsciously working harder to keep text ordered and clear
- can affect sports ability
Eye Focusing Problems
We are constantly refocusing our eyes when we look from one place to another. We don’t even realise that our eyes refocused as they do so so quickly that everything stays clear. However for some people this process may take more time. For example when a child looks at the board and then back to his desk, it may take time for each target to become clear and in focus. If this time lag is too big, it will result in frustration and appear that a child is not coping with the work.
The same may happen when a child is reading. The book could be going in and out of focus, even though in this situation the eyes are only focused on one target.
Symptoms
- having to work hard at keeping text in focus
- expending more energy on focusing so that there is less energy available to comprehend what is being read
- intermittent blur
- board copying issues
Some children use 80% of their energy to get the information into the brain and then they have only 20% left to process it.
Our aim with our sessions of Vision Therapy is to reverse this ratio as much as possible. Ideally we would prefer to use 20% of energy efficiently to get the info through an efficient visual system into the brain and then we have 80% left to process the information correctly.
Why us ?
Experience plus software
We have been running vision therapy centres for over 6 years and have developed our own unique software. The software is built to make VT fun in the form of games and to motivate learners to have fun while they automatically get treated. Treatment plans are customised and automatically increase in complexity as the student progresses.
We come to you
Instead of having another after school activity, VT sessions are performed at school, twice a week for about 8 weeks. One less task for busy parents!
We are a team
Our team combines Ariella Meyerowitz who specialises in behavioural optometry and paediatric optometry, Daniel who is also a behavioural optometrist who has been helping students with vision therapy for over 6 years, and Stephen who has designed the software and will setup the lab in your school.[/fancy-ul]