Behavioural Optometry

“Behavioural Optometry is a vision care system based on the understanding that vision is the dominant process in the human species & develops throughout one’s life.  Behavioural Optometrists use lenses & vision training to facilitate the development of a more efficient & complete visual process.”  As described by BABO “British Association of Behavioural Optometrists”.

It not only takes into account the ocular history, signs & symptoms but also behavioural factors of the patient & his/her environment.

Vision is a fundamental factor in the learning process. 87% of all a child learns comes to him/her via the visual pathways, 6% through hearing and 7% from the rest of the body.

Vision is much more than simply seeing clearly

Research has shown that 60% of children with learning difficulties have problems using their two eyes together. There are many children in our classrooms that have 20/20 or 6/6 vision eyesight but cannot maintain/ sustain that 6/6 clarity for more that a few minutes at a time.

• Is your child struggling in school to keep up with their reading/ spellings?
• Do they avoid reading, colouring, puzzles, and jigsaws?
• How are their ball skills? Are they labelled as clumsy?

Imagine a competent and healthy child, with an active mind, who could do a complicated maths problem and discuss the 1916 Easter Rising in detail, yet their reading is slow and tedious. Homework taking hours and reading leading to blurred vision headaches and the child finally crying out “I’ve read it and read it—and I still can’t understand it all”.

Children with any level of learning difficulties very commonly have undiagnosed and untreated vision problems. Behavioural optometry can help resolve many of these problems. At the very least, parents of children with learning problems should have their children examined by a behavioural optometrist to determine whether or not visual problems exist.

A typical Behavioural Optometry Assessment can take up to 1½ hours to complete. It covers all areas of vision including eye health, visual acuity, eye dominance, colour vision, eye movements, focussing skills, eye teaming ability, visual perception, visual integration with movement, perception, left-right awareness and directionality, peripheral/ spatial awareness, handwriting, letter/ number reversals, tracking and more….

Types of Problems Benefiting from Behavioural Vision Care

These would include:

• Dyslexia
• Dyspraxia
• Any learning problem in the classroom (poor concentration, poor handwriting, low reading, poor comprehension, poor maths, fidgety etc.)
• Eye strain in the office including computer eye strain
• Improving sports performance
• Traumatic brain injuries
• Eye turns (squints) and lazy eyes (amblyopia)
• Headaches, double vision, fatigue
• ADD and ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)
• Children with behavioural problems
• Poor co-ordination, clumsy, poor at sports especially ball games and team games