Wow Vision Therapy Blog

Every August, parents across Michigan and Northwest Indiana begin preparing their children for another school year.

New backpacks.

New clothes.

New teachers.

New classrooms.

But there is one question that is rarely asked…

Is my child’s visual system ready to be at their best in school, reading and learning

Most parents assume that if their child passes a school vision screening or reads the 20/20 line at their annual eye examination, then vision cannot be contributing to school struggles.

Unfortunately, that’s often not the case.

At Wow Vision Therapy, we frequently meet bright, capable children who have perfectly healthy eyes and excellent distance vision, yet continue to struggle with reading, homework, attention, handwriting, or classroom performance.

The reason?

Learning depends on much more than seeing clearly.

Vision Is More Than Eyesight

When children spend six or seven hours each day in the classroom, they are asking their visual system to perform thousands of complex tasks.

They must:

• keep both eyes working together comfortably
• maintain clear focus from beginning to end of a page
• move their eyes accurately from word to word
• copy information from the board
• process and remember visual information
• coordinate vision with writing and motor skills
• sustain visual attention despite fatigue

These are called functional visual skills, and they are very different from simply seeing the eye chart.

A child can have 20/20 eyesight and still struggle with many of these abilities.

When Should Parents Wonder?

If your child experienced any of the following during the last school year, it may be worth asking whether functional vision played a role.

Perhaps your child:

• avoids reading whenever possible
• loses their place while reading
• skips or repeats words
• has lower reading scores than expected
• reads slowly despite being intelligent
• continues reversing letters beyond the expected developmental age
• struggles with handwriting
• complains of headaches or tired eyes
• has difficulty paying attention during reading
• becomes emotionally frustrated with homework
• has been diagnosed with ADHD but continues to struggle academically despite appropriate support

None of these automatically mean a child has a developmental vision problem.

But they are important clues that deserve further investigation.

Every Child Has Different Goals

One of the biggest misconceptions about vision therapy is that we simply treat diagnoses.

We don’t.

Yes, identifying conditions such as convergence insufficiency, accommodative dysfunction, oculomotor dysfunction, amblyopia, strabismus, or visual processing delays is extremely important.

But that is only the beginning.

At Wow Vision Therapy, every treatment plan is built upon two equally important questions.

What is the clinical diagnosis?

What does this child want to accomplish because of better vision?

For one child, that goal may be reading chapter books without frustration.

For another, it may be finishing homework independently.

Another wants to improve confidence in the classroom.

Another hopes to enjoy sports because improved depth perception helps them catch a ball.

The diagnosis tells us what needs rehabilitation.

The child’s goals tell us why that rehabilitation matters.

That is our Quality of Life Model of Vision Rehabilitation.

Research Continues to Support Functional Vision

Research over the past two decades has demonstrated that specific developmental vision disorders can significantly affect reading comfort, visual endurance, attention during near work, and academic performance.

Well-designed studies from the National Eye Institute-funded Convergence Insufficiency Treatment Trial (CITT) have shown that office-based vision therapy is effective for treating symptomatic convergence insufficiency in children.

More recently, neuroimaging research from the CONCUSS trial demonstrated measurable changes in brain function following office-based vision therapy for patients with concussion-related convergence insufficiency, providing additional evidence that vision rehabilitation produces meaningful neurological changes associated with improved visual performance.

While every child is unique and outcomes vary, the growing body of scientific evidence continues to support what developmental optometrists have observed clinically for many years: improving functional vision can make everyday visual tasks significantly easier for appropriately selected patients.

Our Patient – Landon’s Story

One mother recently shared these words from her son, Landon,  who recently completed vision therapy with our Grand Rapids Team:

“Since starting vision therapy, I have no more double vision.”

Simple.

Just ten words.

But those ten words represent something much larger.

Reading became easier.

School became less exhausting and he has significantly improved in his sports.

That is why we never measure success only by clinical test scores.

We measure success by what becomes possible in everyday life.

A Developmental Vision Evaluation Provides More Than Answers

One of the greatest benefits of a comprehensive developmental vision evaluation is not simply determining whether vision therapy is recommended.

Parents leave with a much deeper understanding of how their child uses vision during learning.

Our evaluation carefully examines:

• binocular vision
• focusing ability
• eye movements
• visual processing
• visual-motor integration
• visual memory
• and many other functional visual abilities essential for classroom success.

When appropriate, we also provide individualized recommendations that parents can share with teachers to help create classroom accommodations while treatment is underway or when vision therapy is not indicated.

Sometimes the evaluation confirms that vision is functioning very well.

Sometimes it identifies problems that have gone unnoticed for years.

Either way, families leave with clarity.

As the School Year Begins…

Every child deserves the opportunity to begin school with the visual skills needed for success.

If last school year ended with frustration, homework battles, reading avoidance, attention concerns, poor handwriting, or declining confidence, now is an excellent time to determine whether functional vision could be part of the picture.

Because the goal isn’t simply better eyesight.

The goal is helping children enjoy learning, develop confidence, and reach their full potential.

At Wow Vision Therapy, that’s what our Quality of Life Model of Vision Rehabilitation is all about.

We encourage you to contact our office to schedule a comprehensive Developmental Vision Evaluation for your child.

Dan L. Fortenbacher, O.D., FOVDR