Children and behavioural optometry
Behavioural Optometrists have a special interest in patients with reading & learning difficulties, traumatic brain injury, and binocular vision dysfunction.
If your child is not performing to their potential at school, a Visual Information Processing assessment may be required. This test assesses how your child perceives the things in their visual world and includes all visual, visual-motor and visual perception skills. The test will help to determine if Vision Training will be beneficial for your child.
When assessing your child, generally a full examination of the eyes is best performed first. This allows us to check if your child is using their eyes easily and effectively. Many problems occur with school work because children’s eyes get tired too easily and then lose concentration. Vision training or glasses may be needed to support and improve children’s vision.
vision training
Vision training for children is safe and easy to perform. Glasses for children are safe and easy to adapt to and are often not permanent. To help your child perform better at school we may need to improve their vision first, and then improve eye-focusing and eye-tracking, and then improve visual information processing with training.
Children find eye training fun. Most adults find it fun too. We use the Computerised Home Therapy System and Perceptual Training System (HTS and PTS) to train the eyes. In addition we do a lot of in-office hands-on Vision Training. Some people need just a couple of exercises. Many will need a full 18 week training program to really get the improvements that they want.
Vision Training helps eye-tracking, processing speed, memory and more.
Our optometrists are trained by the Australasian College of Behavioural Optometrists ACBO and Optometric Extension Program Foundation OEPF.
Signs that your child may need an eye test include
One eye turns in or out whilst the other points straight ahead
Eyes blink frequently
Eyes water
Holds book very close to read
Loses place when reading
Rubs eyes frequently
Tilts head
Covers or closes one eye
Poor handwriting speed or poor handwriting neatness
Complains of intermittent blurred vision
Squinting or sitting very close whilst watching television
