BEHAVIOURAL OPTOMETRY
ABOUT
The Behavioural Difference
Helping people to reach their potential through vision.
What is Behavioural Optometry?
Behavioural optometry is an extended form of optometry that aims at helping people get the most out of their entire visual system.
It specialises in finding and fixing vision related problems ranging from eye strain and headaches to learning problems and brain injury rehabilitation.
What is a Behavioural Optometrist?
Once they have finished their optometry degree, a behavioural optometrist spends years in ongoing, post-graduate study and continuing education. This is to learn to prevent, reduce and eliminate visual and visual perceptual problems and improve visual efficiency and comfort.
Not all optometrists practice behavioural optometry.
Like David Evian, many behavioural optometrists have a particular interest in children’s vision and learning problems.
What does a Behavioural Optometrist do?
Behavioural optometrists conduct in-depth examinations of visual abilities which include everything that standard optometrists do and more. Behavioural optometrists look at visual skills, efficiency, and visual processing as well as the effects of visual stress.
A behavioural optometrist uses visual training, lenses and prisms to improve visual skills so that the eyes can work efficiently and without stress, and where necessary, improve visual information processing skills.
What can a Behavioural Optometrist help with?
When the eyes cannot perform their tasks easily and comfortably they become stressed. Responses to visual stress can be physical – headaches etc., or behavioural – avoidance of tasks and drop in performance.
- Eyes under stress – strained, tired, itchy, burning, headaches, migraine.
- Computer eye strain
- Assessing children of all ages including school readiness
- Children reading and learning below their potential
- Poor eye-hand co-ordination as in handwriting, copying and ball sports
- Poor concentration at close tasks
- Sports with high visual demands
- Recovery from traumatic brain injury
- People with special needs such as physical, behavioural or intellectual disabilities who often have visual problems and spatial awareness difficulties.
How can the Behavioural Optometrist help? The behavioural optometrist will firstly perform a thorough eye examination including:
- Health and sight: Are the eyes healthy? Can they see clearly?
- Function and efficiency: Do the eyes have the visual skills to see comfortably for as long as they need to without effort and without interfering with the performance of other skills?
- Visual perception (when applicable): Do we have the skills to interpret and understand what we are seeing in a way that it makes sense?
- Integration: Do our visual skills and information work together with input from our other senses and our bodies?
The optometrist may recommend glasses to correct vision or relieve stress. Sometimes stress relieving glasses are prescribed as a temporary measure until the eyes are able to cope by themselves. The optometrist may also recommend visual therapy to build up visual and perceptual skills.
For more information on behavioural optometry,please visit:
http://www.acbo.org.au/
http://www.covd.org
http://www.optometrists.org
http://www.visiontherapy.org
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