Visual issues and dyslexia

Answers to the most frequesntly asked questions about dyslexia and visual issues

What are the roles of professionals in eye care?

Optometrist:

Optician (or dispensing optician):

Ophthalmologist:

Orthoptist:

Behavioural Optometrist:

• concerned both with eye care and with how vision is processed into meaning uses both lens treatment and vision therapy (exercises) to treat visual and visual perceptual difficulties.

What are motor and visual perceptual difficulties?

Motor visual difficulties occur when the eyes are not being controlled well together (Binocular Vision) or when the focusing and coordination of the eyes is not working well making reading difficult. Visual perceptual difficulties are not about the eye being able to ‘see’ an image but how the brain processes the information that the eye has captured. They are not the cause of dyslexia but they can make reading, writing spelling and coordination more difficult and are found in many people.

Is this the same as being dyslexic?

No. Some of the difficulties caused by motor and visual perceptual difficulties may be mistaken for dyslexia because they interfere with reading . Dyslexia is primarily a language processing difficulty where learning the sounds in language and relating them to the visual appearance of letters is very difficult. However, motor and visual perceptual difficulties are present in a wide range of conditions and have varying impact on learning.

Some visual problems like binocular vision problems are more widely reported in those who struggle with reading and this may be contributing to the reading difficulties when someone is dyslexic but can be very easily corrected.

Not all dyslexic people have visual perceptual difficulties but they make may visual errors during reading. You can have any of these conditions and not be dyslexic.  It is possible to have more than one visual difficulty. It is also possible to be unaware that you have a visual difficulty.

What should I do if I suspect someone is having this type of difficulty?

Ask – what does it feel like when you read?

Pay particular attention to the way they describe how it feels physically. For example they might say it makes their eyes feel scratchy or makes their head hurt.

Ask – what does it look like when you read?

For example, they might say they have to ‘catch the words with their eyes’ to stop the words moving, or that it looks like the text is dissolving.

Ask – what seems to make it easier or more difficult?

Use different examples of text in different font types, sizes and background colours and talk about them.

Observe – do you notice any of these things?

Observe – when reading out loud do they do any of these things?

What should I do next?

When you have gathered information about all of the symptoms, go to your Optometrist.

It is important that all of the information is passed onto the person carrying out any eye test. Make sure that you describe all the symptoms and difficulties that have been observed.

Specialist tests are needed to detect all the possible motor and perceptual difficulties and not all practices do this.

Many of the difficulties might not show up in a standard eye test. For example you might be able to read the line of text shown to you but you might not be able to sustain this over a full page of text without difficulties.

The person you go to must be a fully qualified Optometrist/Orthoptist. They must be able to assess for a number of different difficulties, many of which will give similar symptoms. If they are not a specialist in reading difficulties they will be able to suggest someone in your area who has done additional training in dyslexia and reading difficulties.

Following the eye test, an Optometrist might carry out additional tests, prescribe lenses and if necessary refer you for further tests or treatment with an Orthoptist or other professional.