Eyesight is a measure of how well a child can read letters at a given distance. Reading the “20 line” on an eye chart at 20 feet, for instance, translates into “20/20 eyesight.”
Vision is more complicated. It specifically refers to the health and abilities of the eyes themselves and how well they work. A child with good vision has strong eye movement control (including focusing and tracking), good eye teaming skills (how well the eyes work together as a team), good eye-hand coordination, strong abilities in recognizing symbols and images, and skills in connecting those visual images with auditory and tactile signals (sounds and feeling).
None of us know exactly how others see, and especially children do not often recognize when some aspect of their vision is not “normal.” As a result, children with vision problems will often attempt to compensate for a vision problem through behavioral changes. For example, a child with reduced eye teaming skills may cover one eye when reading, giving preference to the “good” eye.
Dr. Wonderling tests a child’s visual system as well as his or her eyesight and can help diagnose any problems that can be corrected with vision therapy or specially-designed lenses.
When undetected, a vision problem can manifest itself in much the same way as many, more popularly understood, learning disorders such as attention deficit disorder, ADHD, and dyslexia. In turn, this may lead to a misdiagnosis and subsequent frustration when treatment for that disorder is unsuccessful.
With many children thought to suffer from a learning disorder, a vision problem may be the actual cause or may contribute to the problem.
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