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Behavioural Optometry

Behavioral Optometrists are optometrists who have medical expertise in ‘vision development.’ They check the health of their patients’ eyes to ensure they have clear vision. As part of a patient consultation, they also investigate problems that occur between the information the eyes take in and how the brain makes sense of it.

In clinical practice, a Behavioural Optometrist makes the distinction between ‘eyesight’ and ‘vision.’ 

‘Eyesight’ is only one of a number of visual skills needed for an efficient and accurate visual system.

Most people develop their visual skills in infancy, however, there are a number of children who don’t develop them  adequately. They need vision therapy. Vision problems can lead to difficulties in learning, reading, writing or participation in sports activities.

Vision problems are totally unrelated to intelligence and physical ability.

The goal of Behavioural Optometry is to determine if a patient has a problem with their visual system and to develop vision therapies that will ensure that their vision develops to its full potential.

The problem behind the problems

Our visual system represents 70% of the information coming into our brains. It is central to maintaining balance, reading and learning. Even so, if a child has a visual system that is deficient, it is often difficult for parents to understand or discover why.

Often, children who are affected by vision problems don’t understand why they are struggling. They see the words on the printed page ‘moving,’ or fail to track a football across a field, but they don’t understand that their vision problems are out of the ordinary.

If a child has a problem with their legs, for example, it will be obvious why they have trouble running in the playground. But children with vision problems may have trouble reading or learning and, because the cause is not immediately apparent, it can go undetected into adulthood.

Learning problems

Problems with visual processing development do not ‘cause’ learning disabilities, but they can interfere with learning and often thwart attempts to address them.

When you consider the fine ocular motor skills and abilities that are needed on a day-to-day basis, it is easier to understand how some learning difficulties can arise.

For example: if a child has a maladaptive strategy for reading, their eyes may move through text in such a way that they read words backwards, not because they ‘see words backwards,’ but because their eyes go to the end of the word first, and then come back to the beginning of the word.

Signs and symptoms of issues

If your child has developmental delays or struggles to read and write; if they struggle with everyday tasks or with visual demands and routinely exhibit visual development problems, you may want to arrange a behavioural vision evaluation with an Eyecare Plus Behavioural Optometrist. They will be able to provide diagnostic and management services.

Signs include…

  • Slow reading with poor reading comprehension
  • Avoidance of near visual work
  • Fatigue
  • Short attention span
  • Double Vision
  • Declining academic performance
  • Avoidance of sports (or games with balls or small flying objects)

Behavioural Vision Assessments

If your child has learning related vision problems, book an appointment with your local Behavioural Optometrist.

A visit to a Behavioural Optometrist will begin with a comprehensive assessment to determine functional vision ability and their ocular health. Like a traditional optometrist, eyesight and eye health will be assessed and a determination will be made if corrective prescription lenses are needed.

From there, the Behavioural Optometrist will investigate how efficiently the patient’s eyes are receiving information. This may involve vision therapy, tests of eye coordination, flexibility of focus, sustainability of focus and tracking.

A visual cognitive assessment may be undertaken, using a standardized written test that determines where the child’s skills lie compared to other children of the same age.

Beery Visual Motor Integration Test

A ‘Beery Visual Motor Integration Test’ is another written test that might be performed. It helps Behavioral Optometrists to develop a better understanding of a child’s visual motor deficits that can lead to learning and behavioural issues.

Readalyser

A ‘Readalyser’ may be used to obtain a clinically-measurable assessment of a child’s ability to track and keep their place on a page while reading. During this test, the patient wears goggles that have infra-red sensors to monitor how their eyes track as they read a passage of text.

Eyecare Plus Behavioural Optometrists

Eyecare Plus Behavioural Optometrists can help their patients achieve more effective visual performance in the classroom, in sports and in the workplace. They can develop strategies and visual skills to ensure the performance of your child’s visual system gets back on track.

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