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 Occupational therapists trained in vision therapy look at functional visual skills which are skills  needed to carry out day to day tasks at school, home, and in the community.  Vision therapy includes taking a closer look at how the eyes are moving  together (eye teaming),  how coordinated the eye movements are when doing tasks such as reading (saccadic eye movement), following objects during play skills (visual tracking skills), and how well the eyes are able to fixate on objects from near to far (convergence/divergence) such as when copying from the board.

Once specific visual deficits have been identified, occupational therapists use a variety of treatment strategies such as computerized visual exercises, paper/pencil or manual visual exercises, or movement and/or sensory activities in conjunction with eye exercises to help develop better visual skills.  Improvement in visual skills can help the individual to gain skills in eye-hand coordination, reading, writing, copying, and attention.

Children with visual inefficiencies can be detected early in life.  But most go undetected until the work load at school becomes more demanding and the child is unable to keep up with the amount of writing and reading that school requires.  Note taking difficulties, attending in class, and falling behind grade level in reading and copying are often  associated with children in need of vision therapy.  Often times, it is necessary for the occupational therapist to make referrals to an optometrist for further investigation into developmental vision problems.