Behavioral, or developmental optometry is an expanded area of optometric practice. When you visit your developmental optometrist, you may notice a difference in your examination. You will find that you are tested for very specific visual skills. You will find that many of your questions about vision care are answered. And you will receive the clinical guidance you need to develop the skills which provide for an efficient visual system.

Our ancestors had hunter's eyes for survival in the wilderness; their vision was designed for spotting game and enemies at a distance.

In the last 100 years we have been forced to deal with sustained, near visual tasks and the resulting stress on the visual system has produced many symptoms and problems.

If you experience headaches, blurred vision, tired, itchy or watery eyes, or other vision related problems, you may already know how uncomfortable sustained visual stress can feel. Your discomfort may be related to the heavy vision load of working at near distances.

If you are a student, you may read almost three times the number of textbooks your grandparents did. If you work in an office, you probably use your visual system for hours of close-up work, and you may spend much of your day looking at a computer screen. The use of handheld devices for both work and leisure activities also adds a tremendous amount to the near focus demand. All of these tasks can contribute to visual stress.

Even if you have 20/20 eyesight, you may have difficulty working at close tasks. The term 20/20 means you can see well at distances of 20 feet or more; it does not usually refer to how well you see at 12-18 inches, the distance at which you do most of your close work.

When you look at something, you don't just see with your eyes, you inspect, discriminate, identify and interpret - all being part of your visual system.

You're developmental optometrist takes a holistic approach to vision care. You are treated as a whole person and your visual problem as a part of the whole system.

You and your children will receive help in developing the important visual skills you may need to reach academic, professional, and personal goals.

Even the visual achievement of successful learners and earners can be enhanced through developmental optometric care.

 

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