Vision Therapy is not a last resort

New Year, Try Something Different!

Happy new year, you made it! How did your year go? How was your child’s first semester in school? For some parents this semester revealed new academic struggles for their children. For others this was yet another year and semester of struggling, constant homework battles, depleted self-esteem and either no academic gain or falling further behind. You may have asked yourself why is my child not achieving?

A question was asked during the last vision therapy session before closing out the 2022 calendar year at Forest City Vision where we provide vision therapy services in Cleveland, OH. This question is worth further discussion. This is one of the most difficult questions to answer in the therapy room, “why hasn’t anyone figured this out before now?” This is not the first person to ask this question. The question always comes with so much frustration behind it, as that child has typically been through so much. They have often gone through countless evaluations including educational and neuro-psychological testing. They may have been evaluated by other therapists including Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists, Speech Language Pathologists. They may have tried other treatments, reading tutors, medications etc. Many of these parents have even been told to rule out vision issues, only to go to their eye doctor to be told their child is fine and “they have perfect vision, they see 20/20”.

We often hear of 20/20 being a gold standard and that is “the goal” of the eye exam. However, there is far more to vision than having 20/20 vision. In fact, this measurement of best distance vision is only 1 of 17+ visual skills required for academic achievement. To give you an example of this, think back to your last eye exam. How long did it take you to read the 20/20 line? Understandably this is sometimes stressful during the eye exam, but I would like you to think back to how long it took you to read the 20/20 line. It may have felt like forever, but you read the line in a matter of seconds. You didn’t have to do much as far as moving your eyes. Now, compare that to reading the first paragraph of this post. How much longer did you spend reading the paragraph in comparison to the 5 letters you were asked to read at the bottom of the chart at the eye doctor? When you read the paragraph did you feel like your eyes were moving or staying still? Did they move from the left side of the page to the right? Were you able to keep the letters and words clear? When you get to the end of one line do your eyes move like a type-writer and find the next word on the following line directly or do you have to put effort in to find the next line, skipping words, losing your place? Vision is very dynamic, reading a paragraph helps us to show those dynamics. As you read the paragraph you also used many of the visual skills required for reading, writing and academic achievement. If we are only testing for the “goal” of 20/20 vision, are we testing for all of the visual skills required for reading, learning and overall academic achievement? Hopefully you have come to the same conclusion that I have, which is no. If only looking for clear distance vision, we are absolutely not testing all of the visual skills required for reading, learning and academic achievement.

This exercise should illuminate why some vision issues may go undetected. It doesn’t have to be this way though. 2023 is a new year. As you make goals and resolutions for the new year I implore you to add “trying something new.” If your child is beginning to struggle or if this has been yet another year or semester of struggling, constant homework battles, depleted self-esteem and either no academic gain or falling further behind then you should have them evaluated by a developmental optometrist who will test for all the visual skills required for reading, learning and academic achievement. Not only are we able to evaluate all of these visual skills we’re able to offer a variety of treatment options for your specific needs.

Call today (216) 468-8020 to schedule.

Email: info@visiontherapycleveland.com

Unsure if vision is getting in the way of your child achieving their full potential? Use our symptom survey. It has been found that a score greater than 20 is highly symptomatic of a vision disorder disrupting quality of life in academics, work, sport etc. Check out our survey by clicking here.