About Vision
Vision is not the same thing as eyesight.
Sight is only part of vision. Vision is the ability to identify, interpret and understand what is seen.
Vision includes three parts:
While the eye captures images, we truly see with our brains.
Vision is part of development and accurate visual skills are vital.
Vision development is part of a process. Children sequentially develop gross and fine motor skills, auditory skills and vision skills. These skills develop as a "step-by-step" process, but occasionally, one of these steps is not completed or is skipped.
Additionally, sometimes children are required to complete visually demanding tasks and do not yet have the necessary visual skills in place.
Approximately 2/3 of the information we process is visual. Therefore, efficient visual skills are a critical part of learning, working and life skills.
Sight is only part of vision. Vision is the ability to identify, interpret and understand what is seen.
Vision includes three parts:
- Sight: the ability of the eye to see (what we think of as 20/20 vision)
- The Visual Pathway: the highway of images from the eye to the brain
- The Visual Cortex: the area in the brain responsible for interpreting or giving meaning to the images captured by the eye
While the eye captures images, we truly see with our brains.
Vision is part of development and accurate visual skills are vital.
Vision development is part of a process. Children sequentially develop gross and fine motor skills, auditory skills and vision skills. These skills develop as a "step-by-step" process, but occasionally, one of these steps is not completed or is skipped.
Additionally, sometimes children are required to complete visually demanding tasks and do not yet have the necessary visual skills in place.
Approximately 2/3 of the information we process is visual. Therefore, efficient visual skills are a critical part of learning, working and life skills.
About Vision Therapy
The goal of vision therapy is to develop and enhance visual skills. Vision therapy is a combination of exercises and games with the goal of improving the accuracy of a variety of visual skills.
These visual skills include:
These visual skills include:
- Tracking The ability to follow a moving object smoothly and accurately with both eyes, such as a ball in flight or moving vehicles in traffic.
- Fixation The ability to quickly and accurately locate and inspect with both eyes a series of stationary objects, one after another, such as moving from word to word while reading.
- Focus Change The ability to look quickly from far to near and vice versa without momentary blur, such as looking from the chalkboard to a book.
- Depth Perception The ability to judge relative distances of objects and to see and move accurately in three-dimensional space, such as when hitting a ball or parking a car.
- Peripheral Vision The ability to monitor and interpret what is happening around you while you are attending to a specific central visual task.
- Binocularity The ability to use both eyes together, smoothly, equally, simultaneously and accurately.
- Maintaining Attention The ability to keep doing any particular skill or activity with ease and without interfering with the performance of other skills.
- Acuity for Near and Distance Vision The ability to clearly see, inspect, identify and understand objects at near distances and at far distances.
- Visualization The ability to form mental images in your "mind's eye" retain or store them for future recall.
About Vision Problem
If an individual's visual skills are not adequately developed or the person's visual skills fail to coordinate with other sense, vision problems can occur.
Vision therapy alleviates the symptoms and eliminates the underlying cause - inadequate vision skills and visual stress.
- Headaches Especially near the eyes or forehead, or occasionally at the back of the head.
- Double Vision Two objects are seen when only one exists.
- Reduced Performance Losing your place while reading, rereading words or lines, difficulty understanding or recalling what you've read, reading slowly.
- Discomfort, Fatigue Body tension, stress or pain; weariness at the end of a school or work day.
- Suppression Information from one eye may be blocked or ignored to avoid seeing double.
- Nearsightedness Seeing more easily at near than at distances.
- Farsightedness Seeing more easily at distances than at near.
- Strabismus Crossed eyes.
- Amblyopia Lowered visual acuity that cannot be corrected with lenses
- Poor Vision-Body Movement Coordination Clumsiness, awkwardness, inefficient eye-hand or eye-body coordination, poor handwriting.
Vision therapy alleviates the symptoms and eliminates the underlying cause - inadequate vision skills and visual stress.
