Many people think they
understand eye sight, and vision. Until
I got my vision disorder diagnosis - over a year and a half after I got sick (and
one year after my MAV diagnosis) - I thought I knew what I needed to know. I had had 20/20 vision for much of my life,
which I thought was pretty cool since my parents and brother all wore
glasses. I had just started wearing low
level reading glasses. I now know - two
and a half years into vision therapy - that when it comes to vision, it's a
case of not knowing what you don't know.
Anyone who reads - or
listens - to my blog knows it's really important to me that this changes, that
vision becomes understood. Vision is
just too important. Your eyes are pretty
cool, but it's how the messages get processed in your brain that's really
amazing. People need to know that vision
is about comprehension, it's about processing all kinds of visual stimuli, about
tracking... it's about your brain processing, integrating everything so you can
function.
Being able to focus
properly - the term 20/20 acuity that we've all heard - is important. No one wants to look at a fuzzy world. Eye disease also matters; having something
physically wrong with your eyes is very important info. Whether you have something that can be fixed
(like a cataract), or a degenerative disease (such as Macular Degeneration),
you need to know.
Having 20/20 eye sight
only means that if you look at the something at a distance of 20 feet with one
of your eyes, you can see it clearly. It
does NOT mean that you can see it clearly with BOTH of your eyes (that's eye
teaming), nor does it mean that you can handle eye gaze switches, meaning
switching from 20 to ten, and back again.
Having 20/20 eyesight doesn't
mean you can turn your head, look at something in motion, and not have a
problem, such as getting dizzy or off balance.
This may have to do with your VOR, which I posted an explanation of in
my last piece.
Everything listed below
may be due to a functional vision problem:
1) headaches,
2) motion sickness
(feeling dizzy and/or nauseas) - for example, on car rides or plane rides,
3) inability to watch a
movie in 3D, or see anything that requires depth perception,
4) reading comprehension
- if you have to read something multiple times before it makes sense to you,
5) your child takes so
long to do homework, or avoids it,
6) have trouble with
your balance, and get dizzy doing ordinary household tasks, or have a
conversation with someone - particularly if you're standing up.
This actually doesn't
cover everything, but you get the idea.
Vision matters. It matters a
great deal.
80 percent of learning
is visual, and I don't think learning stops when you're out of school. Think about how much of the world is visual,
and think about how that info mixes, or gets integrated with other sensory systems,
such as taste or smell. If one piece of
your system isn't working properly, your sensory system as a whole isn't really
working properly. This can impact your
life in a wide variety of ways.
Neural ophthalmologists
and neural optometrist sometimes can correctly diagnose functional vision
problems; problems that have to do with the neurological functioning of your
eyes. However, the best doctor, in my
opinion, to go to for a complete eye exam is a Developmental Optometrist. They
have the training not only to understand disease, focal acuity, and neurology,
but also the functional elements of vision.
Most of them supervise various kinds of treatment, such as vision
therapy, work with special glasses, and more.
If you have a balance and/or comprehension problem, get yourself checked
by a neurologist to see if you have a vestibular problem, but make sure you
also get your vision checked - go to a qualified Developmental Optometrist for
a complete exam.
To find a qualified
developmental optometrist near you, check the College of Developmental
Optometrists at www.covd.org.
For a neurologist who
can diagnose a vestibular (inner ear) problem, go to the Vestibular Disorders
Association site - www.vestibular.org.
Great post!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you Kelly!
ReplyDeleteWhen my child was getting headaches and not doing her homework, I set up an appointment at the local eye center at Walmart. The doctor there was one of the most caring I have ever dealt with and actually covered many of the things on your 20/20 checklist. The test was very thorough and the eyeglass selection was vast.
ReplyDelete