She says about 15% of people, and many children diagnosed with ADHD, battle with uncoordinated eye movements caused by convergence dysfunction, which affects the degree to which both eyes, which function independently, are able to work together and move in such way as to bring their independent focuses together on an object that’s close by. 

If they overdo the required turn inwards by turning too far, the overzealous turning will result an excess of convergence which causes the teamed focus to fall far short of the object. But if, on the contrary, the eyes tend to move outwards instead of inwards, their teamed focus point or convergence will be far beyond the close-up objects like books or work that are being looked at, which is seen as being as being insufficient convergence. 

The Impact of Convergence Errors

Gattegno says that it has been suggested by researchers that if left untreated and uncured, convergence excess errors may result in myopia, a serious refractive error which allows only for close vision.

When it comes to learning skills, she says convergence issues do not affect children’s ability to learn how to read, but they can impact on how they interpret and understand what they have read because the focus on the words is blurred or doubled. And these errors can also affect the fluency with which children read, specially when expected to do so for a long time. 

The energy taken in attempting to correct the double vision or clear the blur by trying to move the eyes to the right convergence point by stopping them from turning too far inward or outward, can also result in frustration and other issues. This can affect a child’s ability to read and work close up and could result in eye strain.

Increasing the negative impact of this eye muscle dysfunction, Gattegno says, is that many of those affected by it may not even know they have it; what it means; and why or how it can be corrected. 

Testing and Treating

She says neither convergence insufficiency nor convergence excess can be identified using standard eye tests; nor can they be treated with standard glasses, both of which are aimed at improving vision clarity, and not at identifying and correcting dysfunctions.

On the other hand, a binocular vision (two eye vision) assessment can determine the presence of convergence areas. The use of prism glasses and office-based vision therapy assisted by home reinforcement, have been identified as very effective ways to diagnose and correct convergence issues.

HEAR: Ultra106.5FM Interview with Gary Rodney – Covid and Myopia: What you need to know!

For more information on behavioural optometry, convergence errors, and vision therapy, or to book an appointment, visit the Smart Vision website: Optometrists Sydney: Optometry Services For Children and Adults | Smart Vision; for specific information about Myopia treatment and prevention visit Myopia Prevention: Solutions, Control And Treatment In Sydney; and for detailed information about Myopia Treatment visit Orthokeratology In Sydney: The Non Surgical Alternative.

To book an appointment for a thorough eye check-up, click here or Call the Bondi clinic on (02) 9365 5047 or the Mosman clinic on (02) 9969 1600.

Syndicated by Baxton Media, The Market Influencers, Your Digital Marketing Agency.

She says the consequences of staring at smartphones too much and too long go far further than temporary “computer fatigue”, currently describing the side-effects of screen overtime and the short wavelength blue light screens emit. And not even those who’ve passed the standard 20/20 eye test with flying colours, and show no clear signs of vision problems, are totally immune to it. 

“In spite of this, children are still owning smartphones and using them far more than an hour a day. Instead they are using them almost all the time, whether they’re at school, at home, or even after getting into bed at night. And sometimes those whose eyesight is still developing, have not yet started school, and are still in prams or pushchairs, are doing the same,” Gattegno said. 

New Research Reveals Smartphone’s Threats

According to Gattegno, new research and statistics have suggested smartphones could be contributing to the epidemic levels of myopia, the shortsighted refractive error predicted to affect the vision of 50% of the global population by 2050. And other research has reported finding imbalances similar to those seen in people with mental illnesses in the brain chemistry of young smartphone users who spend a large amount of time staring at them. 

Other studies have linked even one hour a day spent staring at a smartphone screen with a significant rise in anxiety and depression among children. Gattegno says it’s also been associated with a drop in children’s curiosity about the world around them, and an increase in the amount of bad behaviour like bullying, short attention spans, and low performance at school, with most of these attributed to the instant gratification and constant streams of information, sound and colour, provided by mobiles, which could overwhelm the brain and distort the children’s perceptual vision skills.

Tips on How to Lower the Risks

Gattegno says that the best way to avoid these threats, is to reduce the time spent staring at screens by setting boundaries on the time young eyes spend focused on them. 

The smartphones themselves provide some assistance in the form of anti-glare screens and settings which reduce the emission of blue light, which studies now show may actually damage the cornea and impact badly on vision. It’s also possible to adjust the brightness and contrast, as well as the size of the text, all of which go some way towards reducing potential harm to the eyes. Keeping the screen clean and clear of blotchy fingerprints, and teaching children to blink frequently when watching the screen, will help protect their eyes from getting dry and help reduce eye strain, as will ensuring the screen is at least 16 inches away from their eyes while they are watching.

Gattegno says it’s also wise to involve children in other activities which will help their eyes and at the same time distract them from the screen.  Time outside, engaging with nature under natural light and doing some exercise, is the best answer. It also creates an opportunity to implement the 20/20/20 rule of eye care, which recommends that every 20 minutes children should look at something 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds, and take a 15-minute break from any type of screen every 50 minutes.

HEAR: Ultra106.5FM Interview with Gary Rodney – Covid and Myopia: What you need to know!

For more information on screen usage, behavioural optometry, perceptual vision and vision therapy, or to book an appointment, visit the Smart Vision website: Optometrists Sydney: Optometry Services For Children and Adults | Smart Vision; for specific information about Myopia treatment and prevention visit Myopia Prevention: Solutions, Control And Treatment In Sydney; and for detailed information about Myopia Treatment visit Orthokeratology In Sydney: The Non Surgical Alternative.

To book an appointment for a thorough eye check-up, click here or Call the Bondi clinic on (02) 9365 5047 or the Mosman clinic on (02) 9969 1600.

Syndicated by Baxton Media, The Market Influencers, Your Digital Marketing Agency.

According to Rodney, the homeschooling approach to learning, with its flexibility in regard to the curriculum and free choice in terms of how, where and at what rate it’s supplied, provides an ideal opportunity, often not possible in public schools, to include some important extras in the home curriculum which will both protect children’s visual perception  and, at the same time, allow parents to keep their own eyes open to any signs of vision problems, and take action if they do so.  However, not taking advantage of this opportunity could have the opposite result. 

Learning by Seeing, Doing and Experiencing

Recommended steps include controlling screen time spent on both learning and entertainment; ensuring that regular physical exercise is part of the homeschool day; providing opportunities for children to focus on real objects at various distances; and taking frequent breaks outdoors engaging with the natural world under natural light. 

Specially when it comes to young children, Rodney recommends that learning tools such as puzzles, building blocks, and other educational toys should be used. Demonstrations, participation, and discussions on learning subjects should be included, to make learning fun, and real, and so assist in the development of children’s visual perception skills, which are vital for making what’s seen or read meaningful and usable in their lives.

Clues Provided by Lockdowns

“The lockdowns, in addition to providing parents with a trial run on homeschooling, also supplied researchers with data regarding the side-effects of indoor lifestyles and schooling on children’s sight and vision health, and on their attitudes, behaviour and performance when learning, as well as how much they participated and connected with the process,” Rodney says.

“Results were both positive and negative. On the one hand, academic outcomes seemed better than those produced in the classroom. However, the researchers also saw a significant decline in homeschoolers’ levels of applied thinking, engagement, application, and interest in the process, so lessening their understanding regarding what they saw on screens.” 

He says studies also showed a considerable rise in the number of very young children with myopia (shortsightedness), a refractive error which affects children’s ability to see anything that isn’t very close to them. And some researchers linked this directly to screen time during which the eyes maintain the same short focal length for long periods and viewers tend to forget to blink.

How the Visual Process Works

Sight is considered the most important of our senses as it collects about 80% of the information people need to respond to threats, understand the world around them, how to function in it, and where they fit into it. However, this information is initially received in an unusable “raw” state in the form of data provided by light rays which land in the eyes.   

“It’s the very complex visual system lead by the brain that’s responsible for processing this data from electrochemical signals into meaningful information that can be understood and used by those who ‘saw’ it,” Rodney says. 

To achieve this the brain relies mostly on built-up memories of shapes and sizes, construction, textures, colours and locations, to transform this data into thought processes which put it into perspective by setting it in context and giving it a meaning the viewer can understand, respond to, and apply. 

Information Mustn’t be Compromised

If the eyes, the original data, the processing system, or the processed information provided by the brain in the form of a thought image, is compromised in any way, including by how, when, and where it’s delivered and experienced, this can impact on sight, vision, behaviour, and physical and social activity. 

Rodney says where problems could arise is if homeschoolers are allowed to spend too much time studying on computers or spend most of their time indoors, as both have been shown to impact on vision health and visual perception. 

He says the jury is still out as to how much the single and short focal distance involved in screen viewing affects the data received by the eyes and brain. But concerns exist that because the screen information is not real, remains static (even if it’s supposedly moving), has no depth, and therefore no association with the brain’s memory bank, it may not fully meet the brain’s processing requirements, and therefore not be presented as information which is fully understandable and usable.

HEAR: Ultra106.5FM Interview with Gary Rodney – Covid and Myopia: What you need to know!

For more information on myopia prevention and management, perceptual vision, or to book an appointment for a visual perception test online, visit the Smart Vision website: Optometrists Sydney: Optometry Services For Children and Adults | Smart Vision; for specific information about Myopia treatment and prevention visit Myopia Prevention: Solutions, Control And Treatment In Sydney; and for detailed information about Myopia Treatment visit Orthokeratology In Sydney: The Non Surgical Alternative.

To book an appointment for a thorough eye check-up, click here or Call the Bondi clinic on (02) 9365 5047 or the Mosman clinic on (02) 9969 1600.

Syndicated by Baxton Media, The Market Influencers, Your Digital Marketing Agency.

A Vicious Cycle of Anxiety and Distortion

She says the strange relationship creates a vicious cycle in which those living and seeing in anxiety’s mental world, comprised of threats, fear, and the stress these create, can add strain and various levels of vision anxiety to the challenges already facing those whose eyes are misaligned and therefore unable to work  efficiently as a team. This vision problem, which also affects how people see their world, can, in return, increase the levels of anxiety in the already anxious.

According to Gattegno, vision anxiety shows itself in visual symptoms which include light-sensitivity; double-vision; blurs, floaters and shadows; short shifts in brightness; distorted images; and seeing non-existent shapes which may or may not appear to be moving.

Like anxiety disorders and even occasional stress, vision anxiety can occur before, during or after a particularly challenging period or any change in stress levels. It can also appear out of nowhere, stay for a short or long time, and disappear often or occasionally, only to return at another time. It can always affect the same eye, shift from one eye to the other and back, or affect both eyes simultaneously every time.

Anxiety and Eye Misalignments Impact on Perception

“Anxiety changes people’s perception of life, the world and their place in it, and leads to increased feelings of disorientation and confusion, as well as leading to a sense of being overwhelmed, all of which can have an impact on perceptual vision. This, in turn, can affect the visual system, and especially do so when the eyes already have their own form of perceptual dysfunction caused by eye misalignment,” Gattegno says.

“80% of the information we receive about the world, life, and sense of place are processed through the visual pathway. But when there is misalignment the chances are strong that this information would be compromised.”

She says the body’s visual system is based on the eyes working in sync with each other , with each eye sending its own data on what’s seen to the brain for processing into a single understandable image that’s processed  by the mind. But when the eyes don’t work in sync, their individual ‘reports’ may differ, and affect or distort the processing so much that the information from the weaker eye (or both) may be discarded by the brain as being irrelevant and senseless. This, in turn, can affect people’s perception of what they see, and raise the levels of confusion and disorientation which lead to feelings of anxiety and alienation.

Eye Misalignment: A Mysterious Problem

To see well, the eyes need to act as a team which look in the same direction and focuses on the same object. But eye misalignment, one of the most common eye problems faced by children, and affecting around 4 percent of them under 6, can’t do that. Instead it causes one eye, (sometimes both, and less often, alternating eyes) to turn inwards towards the nose, or away from it; look upwards or downwards instead of straight ahead; and in some instances, to move in more than one of those directions at the same time.

Gattegno says the mystery lies in what causes misalignment. Suggested reasons vary from high levels of farsightedness and thyroid eye disease, to injuries, cranial nerve palsies, and birth, brain or eye development problems. And it’s said to occasionally be a mixture of more than one of these.  

Cutting the Bond

Several options are available for treating eye misalignments, including vision therapy, which uses a structured program of training to improve eye coordination and the teamwork between the brain and the eyes; as well as glasses, contact lenses, prism lenses, and eye muscle surgery.

However, she said that although correcting misalignments (and other eye problems) may reduce or remove vision anxiety, it will not cure the anxiety disorder or stress that appears to increase its impact. That requires rest, relaxation, and therapy of a different kind, aimed at treating the disorder itself.

For more information on vision therapy, or to book an appointment for a visual perception test online, visit the Smart Vision website: Optometrists Sydney: Optometry Services For Children and Adults | Smart Vision; for specific information about Myopia treatment and prevention visit Myopia Prevention: Solutions, Control And Treatment In Sydney; and for detailed information about Myopia Treatment visit Orthokeratology In Sydney: The Non Surgical Alternative.

To book an appointment for a thorough eye check-up, click here or Call the Bondi clinic on (02) 9365 5047 or the Mosman clinic on (02) 9969 1600.

Syndicated by Baxton Media, The Market Influencers, Your Digital Marketing Agency.

He says that when the human visual system’s processing program operates as it should, it is so efficient that technologists have for decades been producing models of it to boost their technology. But it is not that easy for them to get a totally perfect match.

“It’s a bit like putting together a jig-saw puzzle. The end product is a perfect, colourful and meaningful picture, but that’s only if and when the pieces are all in the right places, fit together perfectly, and the last one isn’t missing. But connecting the different pieces in the complex visual system, is far more difficult,” Rodney says.

How the Visual System Works

The vision system, like in research, development, or journalism, relies on the accuracy and relevance of information provided by various sources which use different approaches and methodology. These are then processed into a meaningful and useful study, report, essay, or product,” says Rodney.

“It uses all three eyes, the two practical processing organs (the brain and the eyes), and the mysterious and intangible mind, to provide information that is as accurate and relevant as possible, so that the brain can process it into an understandable image. And it does so in as little as 13milliseconds.

The Difference Between the Three Eyes

To kick start vision processing, the eyes collect data about what is seen. Made up of various wavelengths, it’s carried by the sun’s rays into the eyes through the cornea and directed to the retina. There it’s processed into electrochemical signals which are transferred back-to-front and upside down to the brain through the optic nerve, and processed into a usable image which is then sent back to the eye.

The Brain’s Eye

The brain, the chief processor, includes about 30 different visual areas, each of which contain parallel streams of processing and are distinct modules, which kick into operation processing the millions of new signals received every time the eye focuses on something different.

According to Rodney, the brain is selective, so it ignores what it considers to be incomplete or irrelevant, and processes the rest into three-dimensional visual images.  Taken into account during processing are the location, colour, size, shape and texture of the object seen, as well as relevant memories of similar images stored in the brain’s “library” of visual memories.

 The Mind’s Eye

The mental Mind’s Eye is not a processor, and according to neuroscientists share parts of the visual sections of the brain. Rodney says it’s a thinker and dreamer, emotional and perceptive, and a builder of memories and images. And it is increasingly being thought to be what adds reason and perception to the visual process and gives understanding and meaning to what is seen.

While some people don’t have this eye, (its absence is called aphantasia), most see its mental images as dreams or thoughts. Occasionally they are unclear or hazy, as if being viewed through a dirty piece of glass, and are written off as not being real or relevant, but often they will be clear and meaningful even with the visible eyes closed.

For more information on vision therapy, or to book an appointment for a visual perception test online, visit the Smart Vision website: Optometrists Sydney: Optometry Services For Children and Adults | Smart Vision; for specific information about Myopia treatment and prevention visit Myopia Prevention: Solutions, Control And Treatment In Sydney; and for detailed information about Myopia Treatment visit Orthokeratology In Sydney: The Non Surgical Alternative.

To book an appointment for a thorough eye check-up, click here or Call the Bondi clinic on (02) 9365 5047 or the Mosman clinic on (02) 9969 1600.

Syndicated by Baxton Media, The Market Influencers, Your Digital Marketing Agency.