Optic Antics

The Eyes Can Be Deceiving

My guess is that you did not notice that the words in the picture are not mirror images but the quite different words of Teach and Learn. This was an intentional optical illusion. Unfortunately, 25% off ALL children have a vision problem significant enough to affect their performance in school. It is not enough to check visual acuity. You are also looking to understand what they see, how they understand what they see and how they can use and process what they see.

VISION AND LEARNING

Most vision problems in children emerge between 18 months and 4 years old.

• A crossed or wandering eye, occurs in 3% to 5% of children.
• Uneven focus, where one eye is more farsighted than the other, affects 2% to 3% of children. This is the hardest to detect, because children cannot tell you that their vision is compromised.
•  

1 out of 4 children in the US have learning problems.

25% off ALL children have a vision problem significant enough to affect their performance in school.

To identify learning-related vision problems, each of these interrelated areas must be fully evaluated.  Unresolved visual deficits can impair the ability to respond fully to educational instruction.  OT's cannot provide as comprehensive an evaluation as Developmental Optometrists, as related to visual motor processing.

DEVELOPMENTAL OPTOMETRISTS PROVIDE MECHANICAL AND FUNCTIONAL EVALUATIONS WHICH ADDRESS:

• Low vision
• Visual impairment
• Functional vision
  • Visual acuity: distance and near vision
  • Ocular motility: pupil response and fixation, convergence, accommodation, tracking, and VOR (vestibular ocular reflex)
• Color deficiencies
  • red/green (most common)
  • blue/yellow (less common)
  • Achromatopsia: total color blindness: see black and whites, and shades of gray
  • Severity: mild to severe
  • Affects both eyes if inherited
  • Affects one eye if the cause is injury or illness

VISUAL PERCEPTUAL SKILL DEVELOPMENT

Visual Perception: Gathering of visual information and integrating it with our other senses.

HIERARCHY IN DEVELOPMENT OF VISUAL SKILLS

From most advance to least advanced developmentally

1. Adaptation through vision
2. Visuo-cognition
3. Visual memory
4. Pattern recognition
5. Scanning
6. Attention
7. Alert and attending
8. Ocular motor control
9. Visual fields
10. Visual Acuity

OCULAR MOTOR CONTROL

• Control of all eye muscles and nerves working together efficiently

VISION VOCABULARY

Eye Dominance:  Which eye does the child use for distance and which eye is used for near?

Monocular movement parallax: The rate of speed that objects appear to move during side to side head movements.   Different distances move at various speeds and velocities.  Closer objects move in the opposite direction of the head movements and farther objects move with our heads.

Monocular vision: The ability of the visual system to create an image from the color intensity that it accesses from the retina of one eye.

Binocular Vision: The ability of the visual system to combine the information from right and left eyes.

• Stereopsis: The ability to appreciate depth based on binocular input.
• Stereoscopic: The ability to see objects with height, width, and depth.
• Convergence: a reduced ability of the eyes to turn towards each other,
• Divergence: the turning of the eyes outwards in order to fixate an object farther away
• Saccades: Eye movements that enable us to rapidly redirect our line of sight.

“The pursuit, optokinetic,and vestibular systems

act to maintain a steady image on the retina.”

Dr. Sheiman

Thus, vestibular dysregulation impacts a child’s ability to see.

VISUAL FIELDS

The extent of physical space visible to an eye in a given position. 

AVERAGE EXTENT IS:

• 65 degrees upward,
• 75 degrees downward,
• 60 degrees inward, and
• 95 degrees outward.

VISUAL ACCUITY

The ability to see small details at a particular distance.

This is what is corrected with eye glasses.

• Recognition acuity: The ability to recognize or identify a series of targets.
• Detection Acuity: The ability to detect or find a target.
• Refraction: Evaluation of the optical system of the eye. Will the client benefit from glasses?
• Visual Efficiency: The effectiveness of the visual system to gather information
• Contrast Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in reduced contrast. Difficulty seeing pictures unless the lighting is adequate.

VISUAL ATTENTION

The ability to be aware of the body and spatial environment around the visual field. Visual inattention: is also called neglect.

VISUAL ALERTNESS/AWARENESS

The ability to be aware that something is in the visual field.

VISUAL ATTENDING

The ability to focus on an object in the visual field or ignore it.

This is where Visual Perception begins.  All information that is prior to this point is neuro-muscular controlled disorders of the eye and required Visual Therapy to effectively treat the problems.  Muscle strengthening is required for functional change.

VISUAL PERCEPTION begins

Visual Processing involves the ability to extract and select information from the environment.

VISUAL SCANNING

The ability to locate a specific stimulus in a complex visual schema. (Where’s Waldo)  This skill is required to be able to read

• left to right.
• Right to left )Hebrew)
• Top to bottom (Oriental languages)
• from one line to the next.
• set up your multi digit addition problems correctly.
• set up your algebra processes properly.
• What is missing?
• Laterality: The ability to be intentionally aware of and identify right and left of one’s own body.
  • Won’t use parts of body on one side of the body.
  • Doesn’t use helper hand to write without verbal cuing.

• Directionality: The ability of the individual to interpret right and left directions in three separate components of external space.
  • Poor right/left discrimination
  • Poor up/down/front/back/side/over/under, etc.

• Bilateral Integration: The ability to be aware of and use both sides of the body separately and simultaneously.
  • Difficulty with cutting
  • Won’t move crayons from one side of body or paper to the other

• Visual Tracking: The ability to maintain visual attention on an object as the object is moving. Tracking is the ability to follow a moving object with your eyes.
  • For example: Following a ball on the playground or a person running on the track.
  • The difference between visual scanning and visual tracking has to do with the object. In tracking the object is moving, in scanning the object is stationary.

The next blog will continue looking at all the ways vision can support or interfere with learning.

NSEAI's online courses efficiently lead parents and professionals to an expert level of education advocacy in just 12 modules of on-demand courses that you can do at your convenience.

OUR CHILDREN DO NOT HAVE TIME TO WASTE.

LEARN TO DEVELOP A CHILD FOCUSED IEP

CORRECTLY FROM THE START vs

 JUST ACCEPTING A LEGALLY SUFFICIENT ONE!

CHANGE THEIR LIVES NOW!!

  CLICK HERE

AUTHORS

Marie Lewis is an author, consultant, and national speaker on best practices in education advocacy. She is a parent of 3 children and a Disability Case Manager, Board Certified Education Advocate, and Behavior Specialist Consultant. She has assisted in the development of thousands of IEPs nationally and consults on developing appropriately individualized IEPs that are outcome based vs legally sufficient. She brings a great depth of expertise, practical experience, and compassion to her work as well as expert insight, vision, and systemic thinking. She is passionate and funny and she always inspires and informs.

MJ Gore has an MEd in counseling and a degree in elementary education and natural sciences. She worked as a life-skills and learning support teacher She has been honored with the receipt of the Presidential Volunteer Service Award. She is the Director and on the faculty at the National Special Education Advocacy Institute. Her passion is social justice, especially in the area of education. She is a Board Certified Education Advocate who teaches professional advocates, educators, and clinicians the best practices in education advocacy.