Children's Vision Month

6 Children's Vision Month 2014 Supplement to the Winnipeg Free Press | Saturday, October 18 Saturday, V ision therapy can be used to treat eye conditions that require more than merely a prescription for glasses. The therapy works to train the muscles of the eyes and deals with the systems in the eye that provide binocular vision and allow you to focus and can be especially important for children, as 80 per cent of learning relies on vision. Vision therapist Dawn Grandmont of GRAND Developmental Vision Institute says kids with vision disorders often struggle in school and may have difficulty learning to read. "They don't see the print the way everybody else does. They don't see the world the way everybody else does. They start to get a little bit behind and they lose their confidence. They may avoid reading or doing anything up close because their eyes are bothering them," said Grandmont, who practises at GRAND Developmental Vision Institute along with three other vision therapists and three optometrists. "They often lose their place and have to use their finger to read. Others may omit or reread words that aren't there. They confuse words that they've just seen and don't recognize words they've already seen in a paragraph. In the end, they have poor reading comprehension because it takes them so long to read the text that they can't remember what they've read by the time they come to the end." Other physical clues of a vision problem include fatigue, headaches and squinting. Kids might also rub their eyes, blink excessively or tilt their head to look at something. Some students might avoid doing their homework by resorting to excuses, temper tantrums or withdrawing from participation. "It's highly stressful for kids," Grandmont said. "Often these are smart kids and people can't figure out why they won't do their work." Vision therapy can help treat conditions such as convergence insufficiency, which occurs when the eyes don't stay locked on a target and instead slip outward. "Words can go blurry, they can go double. They can appear to move on a page. It's the brain that actually determines how much your eyes turn. There are more visual pathways going to the brain than all other senses combined, so it's a very demanding system," Grandmont said. "Vision therapy can change how the brain operates the visual system because vision is a developed skill that is different from sight. The brain is the driving force behind our vision." Vision therapists work with tools such as prisms, lenses and filtered glasses, Grandmont said. In many cases, improvements can occur over 20 to 30 weekly sessions, while more complex cases can take up to 50 sessions. "We have wonderful success stories here," Grandmont said. "We thoroughly enjoy what we do." Optometrist Dr. Matthew Anderson of GRAND Developmental Vision Institute says it's very important to diagnose vision problems early in kids' lives. "It's especially important for those who suffer from anything that prevents clear vision such as amblyopia or disrupts binocular vision such as an eye turn (strabismus)," Anderson said. "A child should be checked at six months, three years, before school, and about every two years after that. A person can suffer for years without recognizing that many of their physical and learning-related problems are the result of a visual dysfunction." Anderson says the good news is that it's never too late to treat developmental vision disorders. "A person doesn't simply outgrow having poor visual skills," he said. "Through vision therapy, even adults can successfully improve their vision." By Jennifer McFee For the Free Press Benefits of vision therapy clear to see Vision therapy can change how the brain operates the visual system because vision is a developed skill that is different from sight. Dawn Grandmont (left) and Dr. Matthew Anderson from GRAND Developmental Vision Institute. Photo by Darcy Finley

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