Hindsight is 20/20
/A common concern that we hear at Therapy OPS is, “my child’s vision is fine, they have 20/20, so why are the still having a hard time reading, writing and learning?!” While 20/20 vision is great to have, there is quite a bit more that goes into vision than meets the eye (see what I did there?). A large part of vision is the eyes ability to move and coordinate with the body, or what are called visual skills. Vision and skills include visual perception (being able to make sense of what they are seeing), visual discrimination (matching two objects that are the same), visual memory (remembering what they see), figure ground (how to find an object against a busy background) and more. Without full use of these skills, you may notice your child having a hard time with reading, writing, drawing and learning tasks.
If there are deficits in any of these skills, the symptoms that are present may not be what you think of as “typical” visual symptoms. Some of the symptoms to look for are listed below:
• Headaches, dizziness after reading
• Eye rubbing
• Blocking one eye while reading or tiling head to read
• Lose their place often while writing or drawing
• Poor reading comprehension
• Poor handwriting
• Switching letters around
• Poor performance in sports
• Confuses similar looking words
• Low self-esteem
• Short attention span
• May seem lazy or an underachiever
• Frequent crying • Fatigue and frustration
• May have been diagnosed with: Dyslexia, ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder
• And many more!
This list is not comprehensive and may also be symptoms of other learning conditions. It is best to visit an optometrist or speak to an occupational therapist if there are concerns in these areas. Therapy OPS has a great resource of the process and how OTs and developmental optometrist work separately and together on vision. If this is something you are interested in, please call 651-455-0561 or email info@therapyops.com. If you are looking for more, detailed information, check out www.covd.org!