Behavioural Optometry Services at Wicks Eyecare
Behavioural optometry is a holistic approach to eye care that extends beyond standard vision correction. Wicks Eyecare embraces this comprehensive perspective, focusing on how your vision relates to your physical, neurological, and cognitive health. We aim to improve not just how well you see but also how well you process and interpret what you see.
What is Behavioural Optometry?
Behavioural optometry examines the relationship between your vision and daily activities, considering how visual deficiencies affect learning, work performance, and general well-being. This approach integrates visual acuity, eye health, visual demands of your environment, and how you interpret visual information. It seeks to treat vision as a dynamic interaction with the world, addressing any deficiencies with personalised treatment plans.
Who Can Benefit From a Behavioural Optometry Assessment?
Individuals of all ages can benefit, especially:
- Children facing challenges in reading, writing, or maintaining attention in school
- Individuals with visual stress symptoms from prolonged computer use
- Athletes looking to improve their visual coordination and performance
- Anyone experiencing eye strain, headaches, or difficulties with visual tasks
What Kind of Testing is Involved?
Our behavioural optometry assessments include a variety of tests to evaluate how your eyes work individually and together, how well you can focus at different distances, and how you perceive visual information. These tests assess binocular vision, accommodation (focusing ability), eye movements and visual processing skills. The goal is to identify any issues that standard exams might not reveal, providing a more complete picture of your visual function.
Accessing Our Behavioural Optometry Services in Keilor
Our behavioural optometry services begin with a general eye examination to detect any need for visual aids, like glasses or contact lenses, and to assess overall eye health. This exam can uncover basic visual problems, such as myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, convergence excess, or accommodation issues.
If learning difficulties are suspected, we may recommend a visual perceptual assessment from the initial exam or our detailed parent questionnaire. This in-depth analysis is aimed at primary school-aged children and is most effective when performed in the morning. We typically ask parents to wait in the waiting room to minimise distractions.
Following the assessment, we provide a comprehensive report detailing the child's visual perceptual skills, diagnosis, and recommendations. Depending on the findings, these may include vision therapy referrals to other professionals like educational psychologists, audiologists, speech therapists, or occupational therapists. If no significant issues are detected, we recommend routine eye examinations as appropriate.