Developmental Vision Exam

A comprehensive Developmental Vision Exam can determine if your child’s vision is interfering with reading comprehension and learning.  Vision is a learned and developed skill that we must nurture throughout life. As a Developmental Optometrist, it is possible to prevent vision problems by testing for a specific set of visual skills.

Vision is a dynamic process that involves the integration of the brain, eyes and body. During the initial evaluation, I will evaluate refractive status (nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism), test distance and near visual acuity and screen for signs of amblyopia or strabismus (crossed or lazy eyes). A complete assessment of the internal and external health of the eyes will take place.

 Binocular Vision Exam

• Distance Vision: visual acuity (sharpness, clearness) at 20 feet distance.
• Near Vision: visual acuity for short distance (specifically, reading distance).
• Focusing Skills: the ability of the eyes to maintain clear vision at all distances.
• Eye Tracking and Fixation Skills: the ability of the eyes to accurately and efficiently follow a line of print.
• Binocular Fusion: the ability to maintain single vision.
• Stereopsis: the ability to experience depth perception and peripheral vision.
• Convergence: the ability of the eyes to aim, move and work as a coordinated team.
• Color Vision: the ability to differentiate colors.

A complete assessment of your child’s Visual Processing skills is performed next. This includes visual memory, visual discrimination, hand-eye coordination, copy skills and handwriting, and visual spatial relations (understanding right and left side of the body & letter reversals). Understanding your child’s learning style is needed to provide a more accurate diagnosis and assist in determining the length of any individualized Optometric Vision Therapy program.

Visual Processing Evaluation

• Reversal Frequency: confusing letters or words (b, d; p, q: saw, was; etc.)
• Visual Memory: the ability to store and retrieve visual information.
• Visual Form Discrimination: the ability to determine if two shapes, colors, sizes, or distances are the same or different.
• Visual Motor Integration: the ability to develop hand-eye coordination for sports and handwriting.
• Visual-Thinking: the ability to manipulate and organize what we see (helpful for math and spelling)
• Timing-Rhythm-Motor Planning: We evaluate the auditory processing skills as they relate to the visual skills and motor skills; keeping a beat while clapping to a metronome.

 Vision Screening Questionnaire  click for link