Vision Development - Children - Milestones in Vision Development

Everything about vision intrigues me. The color of eyes, how they work, how kids develop vision, and the list goes on. Vision is so important; it impacts not only fine-motor skills, but balance, communication, social-emotional, sensory processing, and cognitive skills. I'm posting this link, because I think it is important to consider these main visual milestones:


Vision Development - Children - Milestones in Vision Development

If you are concerned of your children's visual skills, discuss it with their pediatrician and ask for a referral to an eye doctor; depending upon your insurance, you may not need a referral. Be aware that an optometrist and an opthalmologist are not the same thing. An optometrist goes to optometry school (OD) and mostly deals with testing of near/far vision to identify the need for glasses/contacts; some do other things such as looking at the general health of they eye such as for glaucoma, macular degeneration, etc. An opthalmologist is a physcian (MD) who specializes in "eyes". Even though they can fit a person for glasses, they are looking for diseases/health of the eye and perform surgery if needed (e.g. for strabismus). Other eye professionals: 1. Optician is the professional who makes and fits the eyeglasses. 2. Developmental Optometrist: helps kids with learning problems or other disabilities to learn to use their eyes functionally, such as to not ignore an eye or to have fluid eye motions while reading. 3. Visually impaired (VI) teacher: works for school systems and early intervention programs with kids with a diagnosed visual impairment. 4. Orientation & Mobility (O&M) specialist: similar to VI teacher but emphasis is moving in environment around obstacles. 5. Dyslexia or reading specialists: private centers or school system professionals who have special training in these problems. Dyslexia is considered a learning problem (the brain) not a problem with the structure of the eye.