January 30, 2018 - Eye Health
Hey everybody, it’s Dr. Sam. Good morning, I’m on my walk and I thought I’d bring you along for a few minutes.
I want to talk about the distinction between eyesight and vision.
Eyesight as a static measurement where you’re looking at the eye chart and it’s measured in terms of 20/20. This means you see a 1/3 inch letter at 20 feet.
Vision, on the other hand, is how the eyes, the brain, and the body work together – this is a dynamic skillset. There are certain skills in vision, like visual tracking, visual focusing, visual coordination, eye-hand coordination, and visual thinking and processing skills. So let’s go through the list of symptoms.
If you have a visual tracking problem you may have difficulty keeping your place while reading. You may need to use a finger to keep your place so that you don’t skip words – this is a visual tracking problem.
If you have a visual focusing problem, your vision may have blurred vision up close. So you have to pull in your reading materials much closer to see clearly. Your eyes may also get tired quickly while reading or focusing.
Visual coordination has to do with depth perception. You may experience things like double vision or blurriness. You might need to cover one eye to avoid double vision.
In terms of visual thinking and visual processing skills, you may have difficulty memorizing – we call this visual memory. In terms of language-based symbols, you may mix up your B’s and D’s, or was and saw. You may also struggle with not knowing your body sense, such as not knowing your right and life.
When getting a vision exam, you want to make sure to ask your doctor that you want more than just an eyesight check. You want to have a complete evaluation of your visual system. Then, if your visual system is not working properly, you could benefit from doing vision therapy, which is a form of physical therapy for your eyes. Vision therapy helps re-educate the brain, the eyes, and body to work together and process information effortlessly.
That’s my message today. I’m having a beautiful autumn morning. Thanks for tuning in. Take care.