Locations: Los Angeles | Torrance | Newport Beach | San Juan Capistrano
Call or Text: 424-407-3303 | Fax: 424-407-3309
Good Vision Requires More than just 20/20
About
At the Visual Processing Institute (formerly Performance Vision Therapy), we use the newest technologies in our therapy to treat various visual disorders and to train athletes as the professionals train.
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We work with pediatricians, neurologists, teachers, coaches, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and various professionals to treat disorders that a patient is born with as well as those caused by a brain injury or a stroke, but we also do so much more.
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Our Sports Vision Training program uses the clinically proven techniques of Vision Therapy and incorporates them to enhance athletes' visual processing and performance.
About Your Vision - It's Much MORE than 20/20
When we think of our "vision" we often think of the role of our eyes and stop there, however, the majority of the work providing you with your "vision" is actually done by the Visual Processing System involving multiple parts of your brain and not your eyes! The eyes are like 2 cameras that must work together perfectly to record a 3D movie, but there's much more work going on behind the scenes.
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Seeing 20/20 is only one of the 17 visual skills needed to function in our everyday environments. A problem with just one visual skill can lead to frustration and struggling at work or school.
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The visual demands of the classroom, studying at home, and in performing our everyday tasks require flawless coordination between the two eyes. They must work together as a perfect team and always be aiming and focusing on the same thing. If improperly aimed or if a child or adult has a deficiency in bringing their eyes in together to read or out together to see a distant object, double vision will occur. Problems with the focusing system can lead to blur.
Even if a child or adult can see 20/20, they may still have a vision problem that can hold them back in school or work and greatly interfere with their daily activities.
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Vision screenings ONLY check for the ability to see 20/20. There are many things they do not check and therefore miss such as:
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How well the eyes maintain focus at near (reading)
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How well the eyes work and move together (following an object smoothly without seeing double, like reading a line across a page)
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How well the eyes maintain alignment with each other (also needed for avoiding occasional double vision when reading)
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How well the visual processing system in the brain is working.
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There are several VIP (Visual Information Processing) Skills that may be deficient and greatly interfere with a child's ability to read, find material on the board, comprehend and learn from what they are reading, and more.​
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At the Visual Processing Institute, we are an advocate for our patients who struggle in school and don't know how to describe why they are struggling. These are children often labeled as "bad students" or cause frustrated parents to think it is the child acting out and not wanting to read or do their school work. Because children DO NOT OUTGROW these conditions, we treat many adults as well that have suffered their whole lives wondering what they were missing.
For children, the reality is that they don't know what blur, double vision, or headaches are.
They can't describe the symptoms because they don't know any different. They just know that reading is physically uncomfortable and they don't want to do it. Brilliant kids have fallen reading levels behind and struggle in school because of their vision disorders, and become the top of their class once that disability is cured with vision therapy.
As child advocates, we implore that parents give their children the benefit of the doubt and that adults finally take the step toward curing a life long struggle and schedule our Complete Vision Exam that tests beyond a normal eye exam.