Vision and Learning

Vision affects learning.

Certain visual skills are important in order for efficient learning to take place. These visual skills include:

• Adequate Eye Sight
• Healthy Eyes
• Adequate Eye Teaming Abilities-Binocular Vision
  • Convergence ability/flexibility, at near and far
  • Divergence ability/flexibility, at near and far
  • Convergence/Accommodation Integration
  • Sensory fusion
• Adequate Focusing Abilities-Accommodation
  • Accommodative Amplitude
  • Accommodative Flexibility
    • Binocular
    • Monocular
  • Accurate accommodative response
  • Accommodation/Convergence Integration
• Adequate Eye Movement Abilities-Oculomotor Skills
  • Normal fixation ability
  • Efficient saccadic abilities-eye movements when reading
  • Efficient pursuit eye movements-the ability to follow a moving object

If these skills are inefficient then it can have a negative impact on the visual process and can cause difficulty with not just learning but in sports, the workplace and other areas of life. If you or your child are suspected of or has been diagnosed with Dyslexia there may be a visual component that could contribute to the reading difficulties. Recent research has discovered specific areas of the brain dedicated to recognizing words that is fed from the visual parts of the brain.

There have been textbooks dedicated to this subject and the American Optometric Association has published a clinical practice guideline which direct Optometrists on the comprehensive treatment of the child with vision and learning difficulties which can be accessed here.

If you are concerned about your child’s learning and had an eye examination but it did not include the evaluations listed above then contact us for an appointment today!