Dr. Tod Davis of Developmental Optometry and Vision Therapy Services spoke at the August 2 FHLC dinner meeting. Dr. Davis, who has been treating vision disorders for over 30 years, currently has offices in Fredericksburg, Gainesville and Winchester, Va. He was a Fellow at the Gesell Institute of Child Development, Yale University, in 1980. It was Dr. Gesell who claimed “Vision is the key to a child’s whole development.”
In his presentation entitled “Lions Club Vision Screenings for Learning-Related Vision Problems,” Dr. Davis noted that vision is our dominant sense. More than 70 per cent of all information we receive throughout the day is through the visual system. “The purpose of vision” Dr. Davis emphasized, “is to help us understand what we see from the world around us.”
It seems that seeing 20/20 is not the issue. 20/20 just means that the person can clearly see a certain letter on the standard eye chart (equivalent to what a person with normal vision should be able to see at 20 feet). A recent study funded by NIH indicated that pediatricians and school vision screenings miss 40 per cent of the learning-related vision problems. Indeed, ophthalmologists and optometrists do not often diagnose the problem. The impact of vision problems is “life-altering.” In Special Education classes 75 per cent of the students have vision problems; the same percentage occurs in juvenile delinquents.
Students can be smart in everything but school due to seeing double images in a text of words or having trouble tracking lines of text. “Double vision is extremely disruptive to reading. It often gets worse as the day wears on, or as reading extends beyond a few minutes. Many children block the vision of one eye in order to avoid seeing double.” Three in four children in every classroom see print double or actually see the print moving.
The good news is that once the problem is diagnosed, it can be treated. “When a vision problem is at the root of a child’s difficulties,” says Dr. Davis, “the symptoms can be easily detected, if you know what to look for.” The most common symptoms of learning-related vision problems experienced by students are:
- double vision
- headaches
- skips lines
- head tilt, covers eye
- avoids near work
- misaligns digits
- reading comprehension is poor
- holds books too close
- poor memory
- poor handwriting
- a short attention span
- reverses letters like b’s into d’s when reading
- takes too much time to complete homework
Few people have ever heard of vision therapy. Basically, this refers to a type of physical therapy for the eyes and brain. It is the non-surgical treatment for common visual problems such as lazy eye therapy as well as for crossed eyes, double vision, convergence insufficiency in which the patient sees double because the eyes cannot work together at close range, and some reading and learning disabilities.
Vision Therapy is an individualized, supervised, treatment program designed to correct visual-motor and/or perceptual-cognitive deficiencies. Vision Therapy sessions include procedures designed to enhance the brain’s ability to control:
- eye alignment,
- eye tracking and eye teaming,
- eye focusing abilities,
- eye movements, and/or
- visual processing.
A packet of material distributed at the meeting included a 30 question predictive checklist, similar to the Vision History/Teacher Assessment form which can be found on Dr. Davis’ web site.
For more information contact Tod R. Davis, OD, PLC, Developmental Optometry and Vision Therapy Services at (703) 753-9777 or visit his web site at www.davisvisiontherapy.com
“Vision is learned – experience it”
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children,
Dr. Tod Davis,
low vision,
vision
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