Dyslexia

According to pediatrician and parent advocate for the National Center for Learning Disabilities, Dr. Debra Walhof :

“It is important to remember that normal sight may not necessarily be synonymous with normal vision…That being said, if there is a vision problem, it could be preventing the best tutoring and learning methods from working. Now that certainly doesn’t mean every dyslexic child needs vision therapy, however in my opinion, skills such as focusing, tracking and others are essential foundational tools for reading. In general, if your child has trouble with reading or learning to read, getting a vision evaluation to assess these skills from a qualified Developmental Optometrist would be a smart move.”

A significant number of individuals with dyslexia have other visual problems besides the usual myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism. Poor visual perceptual skills causes problems with letters reversals, word recognition, spelling or cases of convergence problems which may show as the words moving, ultimately leads to poor or impaired reading abilities. A child can have both dyslexia and poor visual perceptual skills.

Nevertheless, when a child struggles with reading and learning, it is important to first rule out the possibility of a learning related vision problem. If a vision problem exists, treatment may involve glasses, Neuro-Optometric therapy, or both. Neuro-Optometric therapy treats visual problems that can interfere with learning to read, or reading to learn. Once the vision problem is treated successfully, tutoring and other special services can become more effective.

​At Vision and Perception Practice, we provide the latest equipment and skills to assess a child’s eye tracking matched with norms, visual perceptual skills, visual information processing skills, and more to fully understand their learning abilities.