Developmental optometry postulates vision skills, excluding some
refractive errors, are not innate, but are learned as the child grows and
develops. [A few of these skills are] eye movements; focus ability;
convergence (to keep images single), and visual memory.
Developmental optometry postulates vision skills, excluding some
refractive errors, are not innate, but are learned as the child grows and
develops.
Groundwork for developmental optometry was laid at the Yale University
Clinic of Child Development in studies done from 1941 to 1948 under the
supervision of Dr. Arnold Gessell, world famous developmental pediatrician .
. . In these optometric studies, norms were established for those visual
functions which develop at different ages. These studies culminated in the
publication, in 1949, of the landmark book, Vision: Its Development in
Infant and Child.
Typically, children with problems in their vision development may have
some of the following behaviors: poor general coordination; poor eye-hand
coordination (cutting, pasting, tying shoelaces, catching or throwing a
ball); must feel things to "see" them (a toucher); confusion of
letters or words; . . . may squirm, fidget, and be hyperactive. . . .
Furthermore, these children will frequently score at least ten points higher
in the verbal sub-tests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)
than in the performance sub-tests. [They are usually labeled
perceptually-handicapped or learning disabled. On the other hand, they often
have good distance vision and healthy eyes.] The usual opthamological
evaluation will indicate "nothing wrong."
we must not ignore the chemical (including nutritional) aspect and the
total sensori-motor part of the evaluation and treatment