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Visual Skills and Learning
Behavioral Optometry 
Not all optometrists practice behavioral optometry. Many will see children for visual exams but do not test for visual exams but do not test for developmental problems with their vision.

Behavioral Optometrists check for problems with vision, visual skills, and visual perception. In other words, Behavioral Optometrists test for how your child's vision affects their learning and behavior.

Vision Problems and Learning 
When Learning problems are related to vision, three are three potential reasons, which are discussed within this brochure:
  1. Refractive Error
  2. Visual Skills
  3. Vision Perception

Signs and Symptoms of Some Visual Problems
Focusing (Accommodation) Problem
  • Vision alternatives between clear and blurry while reading
  • Far vision is blurry after reading or becomes worse by the end of the day
  • Headaches after reading
  • Eye rubbing, blinking or fatigue with reading
  • Distance between reading material and eyes fluctuates (ex: moving book closer to face)
  • Confuses similar words Vergence (Using both eyes together) 
  • Periodic double vision, especially when tired
  • Printed words run to swirl together
  • Skips lines, re-reads lines, loses place while reading
  • Difficulty copying from board
  • Eye rubbing, blinking, fatigue
  • Headaches with sustained tasks

Tracking (Ocular Pursuits) 
  • Need to re-read to obtain meaning
  • Excessive head and/or body movement while reading
  • Skips lines, re-reads lines, loses place while reading
  • Problems keeping place when copying from the board
Visual Testing 
Most Visual problems that cause reading and learning frustrations are NOT discovered during visual screenings in schools or in physician's offices.

Less than 30% of children with visual difficulties are diagnosed using an eye chart or depth perception tests. 

20/20 Vision? 
Did you know that older people with early cataracts, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and other diseases often still have 20/20 vision? 20/20 means that an object that should be able to be seen from a distance of 20 feet can be seen at 20 feet. It has nothing to do with the quality of vision. For example: when you look at an object or letter, does it stay clear while you continue to look at it, or does it go slightly in and out of focus? Does it have nice, sharp features or is it somewhat cloudy? Can your brain adequately interpret the information it sees?

Did you know that you can have good vision, yet there can be a disconnection between what you are seeing and how your brain interprets what is seen? 

Vision Problems Teachers are often the best visual screeners outside of an optometrist's office. They can observe your child's performance in the classroom. Some signs of visual dysfunction that they may notice are:
  • Frustration while reading
  • Irritated Eyes
  • Eye rubbing
  • Blinking excessively
  • Yawning while reading
  • Head tilting
  • Constantly shifting position of reading material
  • Head movement while reading
  • Writing with poor spacing
  • Writing uphill or downhill
  • Writing letters backwards
  • Inability to keep writing on ruled lines
  • Problems copying from the board
  • Misaligning digits in math problems
  • General avoidance behaviors when assigned reading or paperwork
Visual Skills and Learning 
Visual and cognitive development is NOT a process of passive absorption. Only active exploration and interaction with the environment via the maturation of visual skills needed for efficient use of the eyes in learning are as follows:

  • Vergence: The ability to turn the eyes inward together when viewing a near object or outward together when viewing a distant object
  • Accommodation: The ability to focus the eyes together and keep them precisely focused
  • Accomodative Facility: The ability to efficiently change the focus of the eyes from near to far or far to near
  • Ocular Pursuits (Tracking): The ability to smoothly and accurately follow a moving object or to scan your eyes across a printed page with minimal effort
  • Ocular Saccades: The ability to direct your eyes from one position in space to another with accuracy and minimal effort
Contact Us
1674 North Limestone Street
Springfield, OH 45503
Phone: 937-399-4101
Office Hours

COVID-19 Update: Our practices are temporarily closed for scheduled patient care March 19th through April 3rd.  Please visit myeyedr.com for additional updates. 

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