20/20 Vision is a measure of visual acuity, which is the ability to see a small image clearly at a specific distance. While visual acuity and good eye health are critical first steps, they?re only a piece of a much larger visual puzzle.
Functional Vision describes how your entire visual system - your eyes, your eye muscles and your brain - all work together to gather and process visual information. Difficulty with any part of this functional visual system can lead to significant performance problems - even when seeing with 20/20 clarity. Achieving clear, comfortable, and efficient visual performance is a complicated process that involves many components of the visual system.
The term “20/20 vision” refers to visual input – a clear image focused on the back of each eye. While a general eye exam is essential to evaluate eye health and determine any corrections needed to achieve that clear image, it is only the first step of the visual system.
Why does visual input matter? Blurry vision is the classic definition of a “vision problem”. While it is obvious that seeing clearly and having healthy eyes are essential for vision, it is important to understand the this is just the first step in a much greater process which goes far beyond just seeing 20/20.
When we refer to visual skills, we consider focusing (accommodative) skills, both eyes teaming and working together (binocular) skills, and eye tracking (oculomotor) skills.
Why do visual skills matter? Eye strain from focusing or struggling to keep from seeing double vision or constantly losing your place impedes our ability to gather visual information. When effort is wasted on just gathering visual information, comprehension and enjoyment of reading and other visual activities will be compromised. Efficient visual skills allow the free flow of visual information ready to be interpreted and processed by the brain.
The first two areas of vision are necessary to get visual information to the brain, whereas visual information processing is how the brain interprets visual information to create meaning from visual information and react appropriately to coordinate a response.
Why does Visual Processing Matter? Visual information processing is all about what we do with vision. Difficulty in any area of visual information processing, it can become much more difficult and time consuming to learn, read, or understand information academically or professionally. It can also become harder to be competitive in sports that might otherwise be enjoyable. Vision therapy allows us to strengthen and improve these skills so that we can understand and use visual information more rapidly and more accurately.
Visual difficulties and intervention fall along the lines of a spectrum starting with:
Visual rehabilitation to help recover from an injury or illness.
Vision skills therapy to develop optimal tracking, aiming and focusing skills necessary to achieve target visual performance for school and life
Advanced sports vision training to enhance visual and perceptual performance beyond “normal” to giving athletes an extra edge in competitive sports.
Visual Rehabilitation after an Acquired Brain Injury (ABI)
An acquired brain injury such as a head injury (traumatic brain injury), stroke, or viral insult (such as Lyme disease or long COVID) can significantly impact any component of the visual system. Visual input, visual skills or visual information processing difficulƟes can make overall recovery from an ABI much more challenging and time-consuming, and can contribute to symptoms such as dizziness, difficulty reading, motion sickness, difficulty navigating in space, light sensitivity. Vision therapy helps identify the areas where functional vision has broken down and re-train the brain to restore use of these skills, helping to reduce the symptoms that can occur after an ABI
Overcoming visual obstacles for more comfortable and efficient vision at school, work and play.
While blurred vision can certainly impact our ability to read and understand information, it’s equally important that the eyes be able to change focus (accommodation), work together accurately (binocularity), and smoothly follow a target and smoothly jump between targets (ocular motility). A deficit in any of these areas can lead to reduced comprehension, difficulty with math, and difficulty copying information or taking tests. Vision therapy helps train the brain so these skills can be age-appropriate and lead to better academic success.
Maximizing Visual Input with Eye Exams, Glasses, Contacts and Ocular Disease Treatment and Management.
Annual eye exams for glasses, contact lenses or the ongoing management of a medical eye condition like glaucoma, cataracts, dry eye or macular degeneration. Urgent eyecare for pink eye (conjunctivitis), styes (hordeolum), corneal abrasions, corneal foreign body removal, and flashes and floaters to rule out retinal detachment. This is the focal point along this visual spectrum to ensure that visual input is optimized while considering the entire visual system for possible functional vision or specialty care.
Going Beyond “Normal” Vision for a Competitive Edge.
Classic visual therapy shows how to address a functional vision deficit to achieve target visual performance, but what about when we want superior vision? An athlete must have optimal skills to be competitive, and this includes vision. Sports vision takes a normal visual system with the goal of optimizing visual input, visual skills and visual information processing to supranormal levels… allowing for the quickest reaction time and most accurate responses giving an essential edge for a multitude of sports.
At Eye Associates we consider the entire visual system to provide the full spectrum of eyecare for all ages Schedule your appointment now to see the difference.
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