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Vision Development Centre looks beyond standard vision treatment

March 15, 2019   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

Good vision is more than the ability to see 20/20 as determined by an eye chart.

There is a lot more going on in the way your eyes and brain connect than most people realize and a disconnect, whether an existing condition or caused later by injury, can cause everything from difficulty reading to impaired hand-eye coordination.

The Orangeville Vision Development Centre works with clients to diagnose and treat many hidden conditions not apparent with a simple eye exam.

Being able to read an eye chart clearly and accurately is a good first step, but that isn’t all vision does for a person. 

Good vision requires your eyesight, your visual pathways, and brain to all work in harmony. When they don’t, even a person with 20 / 20 vision can experience difficulty reading, writing and processing information. This can lead to problems with attention, comprehension, memory, and a child’s overall learning ability.

At the Vision Development Centre, Leanne De Palma, a Certified Vision Therapist, and Optometrist Dr. Brij Patel work with patients to diagnose problems then help clients through a series of well-planned treatments. 

“I work with kids who have vision problems that interfere with their ability to learn, to read, comprehend, and pay attention,” explained Ms. De Palma. “We’re trying to remove the stigma that 20 / 20 is perfect vision. That may mean you can see very well at 20 feet, but then we have to hope the target stays at 20 feet. But realistically targets come in, they go out, they move, you move, and your visual system needs to keep up with the demand.”

Ms. De Palma explained that there are actually 17 skills related to vision and seeing clearly is only one of them. The other skills are those that connect what you see, to what is delivered to your brain.

“Eighty per cent of your input comes in through your eyes. That means being able to pay attention, read, depth perception, memory, reading, writing, parking a car – all of these skills go beyond your 20 / 20 vision,” she explained.

Many children who don’t like to read are actually reacting to an inability to really see written words making the process difficult and frustrating.

For an adult, quite often vision problems can be the result of an injury.

“With adults we work mainly with patients with traumatic brain injuries such as the result of an accident or concussion in sports,” Dr. Patel explained. “Whenever we have a concussion or head injury the brain goes back to its primitive state – in some skills. A lot of skills can diminish as a result of a head injury and we do vision therapy to rebuild those visual skills to get them back to the pre-injury state.”

Dr. Patel said that determining if a person needs vision therapy begins with a physical examination of the eyes.

“We do an evaluation and check the back of the eyes to make sure that is healthy. If the eyes are healthy and everything is good, but just the visual skills are down, then we do vision therapy to rebuild those visual skills to get them back to how they were prior to an injury. We’re re-training the brain.”

During the course of evaluation, Ms. De Palma and Dr. Patel observe a patient to note how they use visual information when reading and with other tests, then they decide on a course of action to help the patient correct their way of seeing the world.

The results can improve everything from reading and comprehension skills to increased performance on the sports field. 

The Centre offers free visual skills screenings with the RightEye technology and primitive reflex testing.

Orangeville Vision Development Centre is located on First Street in Orangeville.

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