The Value of Educational Vision Assessments

It is not a bad idea for a child to get an educational or developmental vision assessment done when a school evaluation or assessment reveals some visual spacial or visual processing difficulties, that the student skips words or even lines while reading without notice, or when there are unexplained attention or focusing issues when the student is reading.

An educational or development vision assessment is a lot more involved than your traditional eye exam, and so it is not typically done when a child goes in for their annual optometrist or even an ophthalmologist visit. Such educational vision assessments are typically found at vision therapy centers and these vision assessments screen for things like visual memory, visual perception and integration, tracking, light sensitivity, visual fine motor and gross motor difficulties. An example of such an exam can be found at http://www.lighthousevt.com/testing/developmental-learning-visual-exam.html, and a little further exploration on this website about the testing available gives a general idea of what you want to look for in such exams wherever it is you live.

Among other things, the educational or developmental visual assessment results can reveal that the child over-focuses while doing school work, causing them to see double or for their vision to blur after just 10 or 15 minutes of work, and making something such a reading or copying from the board very difficult. Maybe, it will reveal the student has difficulty with scanning, leading to loss of place, poor comprehension when reading, or difficulty with the use of scantron testing forms. Or, such an assessment may reveal that a student’s eyes do not work together, especially with up-close work, or that the child has difficulty with processing information, which can impact all areas of academics and reduce comprehension, storage or recall of information. There are so many ways vision can impact learning and, in many situations, vision therapy may help improve the child’s struggles in these areas.

Of course, vision therapy will not remediate dyslexia as you need a certain type of reading instruction to do so. But, vision therapy can remediate other visual issues your child has such as those identified above. Since so much of our world is accessed through our vision, just a small increase in your child’s visual skills through vision therapy can make a huge difference and reduce a lot of school-related stress and anxiety for the child.

In California, vision therapy is a related special education service as defined by section 3051.75 of the California Education Code. So, if a child receives special education services, vision therapy can be considered as a “related service”. If a parent believes that a student’s vision is impacting his/her educational performance, they should discuss it with the IEP team and request a developmental vision assessment (if not already done privately) and/or vision therapy as a possible related service. Here is more inofrmation on how one California school district handles such requests https://www.sandiegounified.org/academics/special_education/departments/vision_therapy_services

Unlike in California, there is no mention of vision theory in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 2004 or the 2006 Part B regulations. And so, in some states, school districts refuse to consider vision therapy. Yet, it has been said that some school districts will nevertheless agree to vision therapy if it is proven necessary for the child to access his education and receive FAPE. So, go advocate for your child and find out more about the availability of vision therapy in your district if your child requires it and you do not want to or are unable to privately fund it.