Blog

This is a myth on multiple levels, and here is why:

1. Not all vision therapy practices perform vision therapy in the same way

2. When done correctly, each patient's vision therapy program should be individualized to that person and their specific binocular vision condition.

Do you ever feel like kids get all of the cool stuff? Summer break, toys that provide endless entertainment, and a metabolism that eliminates “diet” from their vocabulary. Well there is good news for adults who are interested in vision therapy to improve visual symptoms on the computer, enhance their sports performance, or who are recovering from an acquired brain injury...

Sometimes it is hard to know if a kid is “just being a kid” or is their behaviors are an undiagnosed vision problem that is impacting learning. We see the full spectrum in our clinic: kids who pretend to have a vision problem so they can get glasses like their best friend, kids who can barely see the board but say nothing is wrong, and kids who are begging their parents to bring them in for an eye exam because things are blurry and uncomfortable at school.  

The topic of vision and learning comes up on a daily basis. Parents, teachers, therapists, and even students are always asking if vision could be the cause of academic struggles.

Considering that 80% or more of classroom learning occurs through the visual system, it is quite possible that academic struggles are due to a vision problem. During this blog we will discuss vision problems that can affect academic performance and clarify the differences between vision-related learning difficulties and non-visual learning difficulties.

During our last blog "Oculomotor Dysfunction Following an Acquired Brain Injury," we discussed an article that reported 90% of traumatic brain injury patients and 86.7% of stroke patients experienced vision problems classified as oculomotor dysfunction. This week we will discuss how the various types of oculomotor dysfunction can be treated and rehabilitated.  Fortunately there are multiple treatment options available to patients, some of which you may already be familiar with and others that you may not have heard of yet.

Sports Vision Training is an under-represented part of an athlete's overall training program. Athletes train nearly year round for their sport; honing their skills, strengthening their muscles, and conditioning. Despite these efforts, many athletes fall into slumps, perform inconsistently, or fail to reach their personal goals for the season. For some of these athletes, faltering performance is linking to deficient visual skills.

Fortunately, many of these vision skills can be improved quite easily. Improving vision for sports may be as simple as wearing glasses or contacts to improve clarity of vision during competition. For those looking for a competitive edge, Sports Vision Training provides an opportunity to improve visual functioning; eye teaming, eye focusing, peripheral awareness, and split attention.

You may be surprised to find out that 90% of the traumatic brain injury patients and 86.7% of the stroke patients experience a vision problem that can be classified as oculomotor dysfunction.

These vision problems can result in double vision, blurry vision, difficulty following/tracking targets, oculomotor-related reading problems, and eye discomfort. Despite the presence of oculomotor dysfunction, many of these patients are still able to see 20/20 on the eye chart and have eyes that are deemed “healthy”.

It is estimated that 4-5 million concussions occur annually, making a concussion the most common type of mild traumatic brain injury.

A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury that changes the way your brain functions. The vast majority of concussions do NOT result in a loss of consciousness, making diagnosis more challenging than previously thought. The majority of concussions result by blunt trauma, or a blow to the head. In children, the most common cause of concussions is sports, specifically contact sports such as football, soccer, lacrosse, and hockey. Concussions can also be caused by violent shaking of the head or upper body, so direct contact in the form of a "bump of the head" or "getting your bell rung" is not required to cause a concussion.

 Last week we talked about some of the most common conditions affecting children of preschool age. This week we are going to outline some of the signs that parents and teachers can look for that may indicate an undiagnosed vision problem.

If a vision problem is suspected, we recommend a comprehensive examination with a residency-trained pediatric optometrist.

10% of preschoolers have an eye or vision problem that can affect success in school. During this entry we are going to discuss some of the most common vision conditions that affect children of preschool age.

During preschool, a child is developing at a rapid rate and so is their visual system. they are refining the visual skills they already have and are developing new ones as well. Vision plays a major role in eye-hand-body coordination, fine motor skills, and overall development and learning.