Professional Resources
You are often the first person to notice that something isn't adding up — a bright child who can't finish a page, a therapy plan that stalls, an eye turn a parent has been told to wait out. Here's what a referral to Vision & Learning Center looks like from your side of it.
Functional Vision Is Easy to Miss — and Easy to Check
A child can read the 20/20 line and still be unable to keep two eyes aligned on a book for more than a few minutes. Eye teaming, focusing and tracking are separate skills from eyesight, and they are not measured by an acuity chart or a school screening. When they are weak, the fallout shows up somewhere other than the eyes: reading, handwriting, attention, balance, behavior, headaches.
That is usually where you meet the child first. Our role is to test those skills properly, tell you exactly what we found, treat what is treatable, and send the patient back to you. If you want a quick sense of whether vision belongs in the picture, the symptom checklist takes a parent about five minutes, and the symptoms we see most lists the complaints that most often turn out to be visual.
Not sure whether a particular patient is a good fit? Call us at (561) 462-1245 — we’re glad to talk it through before anyone books anything.
Optometrists
Identifying a functional vision problem and referring that patient to a behavioral optometrist gains you a patient for life. We send a full report on all results from the additional testing we perform, periodic updates on the patient’s progress, and — once the vision therapy program is complete — we release the patient back to your care.
The patient stays yours. We take on the binocular vision, accommodative and ocular-motor testing and therapy, keep you updated while the program runs, and hand care back when it’s finished.
A quick cover test, EOMs and NPC can be the difference between a referral that uncovers an undiagnosed visual problem and a child who keeps struggling in silence.
Teachers & Educators
Do you have children in your class who don’t seem to be performing up to their potential? Or a student you know is very bright, yet whose grades never match that expectation? Too many children struggle unnecessarily with an undiagnosed vision problem — one that a passed school screening can easily miss.
You see these students read, write and fatigue every single day. That makes teachers some of the most reliable referral sources we have.
We offer free developmental vision screenings for children you suspect may have a learning-related vision problem. Please complete the referral together with the child’s parent or guardian.
Pediatricians
A pediatrician is often the first person a parent goes to when they have concerns about their child’s development. Knowing who to refer to for further testing is crucial for building — and keeping — a parent’s trust.
Whether it’s an eye turn, a failed vision screening or a behavioral problem, a developmental eye exam is often the simplest next step toward the answers parents are looking for. We work together with health professionals across South Florida to get each child to the person who can help them best.
Psychologists & Psychiatrists
Anxiety, anger, frustration, inattention and poor behavior are common reasons children are referred for a psychological evaluation. Those same behaviors can have an undiagnosed visual problem sitting underneath them — a child who cannot sustain focus on a page will often look inattentive long before anyone looks at their eyes.
We strongly believe a child should have a full developmental eye exam before a diagnosis of ADD/ADHD or another behavioral or mood disorder is made. And we are always looking for like-minded mental health providers to help guide our patients through the changes vision therapy brings to their lives.
Occupational, Physical & Speech Therapists
We work closely with occupational and physical therapists to provide complete, comprehensive care. There is often overlap between functional vision problems and deficits in motor skills — balance, coordination, handwriting and visual-motor integration all depend on where the eyes are pointing.
If a patient hits a barrier in their progress and you think an undiagnosed visual problem may be behind it, please send them to us for a complete developmental evaluation. If there are underlying visual skill deficits, we can work together to help each person reach their potential.
Sports Medicine, Neurology & Concussion Clinics
Vision symptoms are common after a concussion: blurred or double vision, trouble reading, losing the place on a page, light sensitivity, and dizziness in busy visual environments. Most settle on their own within a few weeks. When they don’t, the cause is often an eye-teaming, focusing or eye-movement problem that a standard eye chart doesn’t measure.
We evaluate those skills in detail, treat what is treatable through vision rehabilitation, and coordinate with the sports medicine physician, neurologist, physical therapist and school, reporting back to you along the way.
Upcoming CE Courses
We teach a continuing education course for occupational therapists on the developmental aspects of vision — from the foundations of human development up to the high-level skills efficient reading and learning depend on, with the treatment sequence for working with the pediatric population and hands-on practice performing screening tests for visual efficiency and visual perceptual processing. Course details and registration are on the CE courses page.
Have a Patient in Mind?
Send them our way and we’ll evaluate, treat what we can, and report back to you. Patients and parents can book an evaluation directly.