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Is Your Child Struggling in School? Know What to Ask Your Eye Doctor
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Is Your Child Struggling in School? Know What to Ask Your Eye Doctor

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Physicians are busy people. With a long list of patients to see, they have to work quickly and efficiently and, unfortunately, may not get to spend a lot of time with the patient. The same goes for eye doctors. While in some cases, a quick 15-minute exam is all that’s needed to evaluate a patient and diagnose a condition, when it comes to a child who’s been having issues at school and struggling with learning and reading, a comprehensive examination that includes a binocular vision evaluation is necessary.

Is Your Child Struggling in School? Know What to Ask Your Eye Doctor

The Importance of a Comprehensive Visual Exam

In order for teachers, parents and other concerned family members to be able to help a child they care about, they must first understand exactly what they’re up against. It’s especially important for kids who are having reading and learning problems, have an IEP or have been diagnosed with ADHD to receive a comprehensive visual exam, as many of these problems can be vision-related. Problems with focusing, tracking, eye teaming and visual processing can often be resolved with the right treatment, leading to a vast improvement in the learning and reading performance of the child.

Knowing What to Ask Your Doctor

The best way to be an involved parent when it comes to your child’s vision is by understanding the cause of problems and knowing the right questions to ask your eye doctor. You’ll first need to find out if the practice is able to perform the comprehensive testing necessary to identify and diagnose visual problems such as Binocular Vision Dysfunction (BVD) and Vertical Heterophoria (VH). Ask if they can evaluate the following:

  • Binocular vision
  • Visual processing
  • Eye teaming
  • Eye focusing
  • Eye tracking

Finding the Right Treatment

Many primary care optometrists have neither the training, the specialized equipment necessary or the time for such exams, at which point you’ll need to get in touch with a NeuroVisual Specialist like those here at Vision Specialists of Michigan. Our detailed, thorough examinations enable us to identify even the smallest eye misalignments, which are what lead to binocular vision problems. Once identified, alignment issues can be treated with our innovative micro-prism lenses.

 

To find out more about how we treat and diagnose binocular vision disorders and whether we can help your struggling child, give us a call at (248) 258-9000 or fill out our BVD questionnaire.

 

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Dr. Sandy DiPonio earned her optometry degree from Illinois College of Optometry in 1996. She is a highly skilled and experienced eye care professional dedicated to giving her patients of all ages excellent and compassionate care. She has a wide variety of experience in binocular vision, pediatric and adult eye care, ocular disease and contact lens fitting. She strives to provide each of her patients the best quality of life they can achieve with their vision through knowledge and education of treatment options.

Dr. DiPonio is a member of the American Optometric Society and Michigan Optometric Society.

Dr. Sally Hoey has been practicing optometry since graduating from Michigan College of Optometry in 2001. During her time in optometry school, she developed an interest in binocular vision, culminating in a senior thesis involving binocular vision.

Prior to joining Vision Specialists of Michigan, Dr. Hoey specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of vision-related learning problems as well as other binocular vision disorders. Her other areas of interest include specialty contact lens fittings and treating dry eye. Dr. Hoey strives to provide her patients with clear, comfortable vision while meeting their individual needs at the same time.

Dr. Hoey had the opportunity to provide eye care on an optometric mission trip to Guyana, South America and vision screenings at a local medical clinic. She is a member of the American Optometric Association, Michigan Optometric Association, Metropolitan Detroit Optometric Society and the College of Optometrists in Vision Development.

Dr. Jennifer Place graduated with honors from Michigan College of Optometry in 2001.

Before joining Vision Specialists of Michigan, she specialized in treating pediatric and adult patients with binocular vision disorders and vision-related learning problems, as well as fitting specialty contact lenses and managing various types of ocular disease. She enjoys working with patients with unique visual needs, and she takes great pride in providing all patients with highly customized care.

Dr. Place has volunteered for Opening Eyes, a program that provides eye exams to the athletes of the Michigan Special Olympics, and she participated in an international mission to St. Lucia to provide eye care to those in need. Dr. Place is a member of the Detroit Optometric Society, the Michigan Optometric Association, the American Optometric Association, the College of Vision Development, and the Optometric Extension Program Foundation.

Dr. Mary Jo Ference has been practicing optometry since 1990 upon graduating from Ferris State University- Michigan College of Optometry, and is certified in Low Vision Rehabilitation. She has worked at Sinai-Grace Hospital systems for over 20 years before joining Vision Specialists of Michigan in 2013 to work with binocular vision disorders. Her clinical areas of expertise include visual rehabilitation of pediatric and adult patients who have suffered from brain trauma, injury or disease. She has taught both optometry and ophthalmology residents at Sinai Grace Hospital. Dr. Ference has sat on numerous boards, including Sinai Grace Hospital, Berry Out-Patient Surgical Center, and Seedlings Braille Books for the Blind. She is actively involved in area school districts to provide education, training and access for students, teachers, OT’s and PT’s to eye care service rehabilitation information. Dr. Ference has lectured extensively nationally and internationally.

Dr. Debby Feinberg began practicing Optometry in Oakland County in 1983, upon graduating from Illinois College of Optometry. She joined her father, Dr. Paul C. Feinberg, at Mall Optical Center, which was located in Summit Place Mall.

Since 1995 Dr. Feinberg has been developing the field of NeuroVisual Medicine which is the optometric subspecialty that identifies and treats neurological / medical symptoms that originate directly or indirectly in the visual system.

Dr. Feinberg has been performing pioneering work with Binocular Vision Dysfunction (BVD), a condition where a vision misalignment (frequently subtle) creates difficulties with the two eyes working together to create a single 3-dimensional image, and difficulties with the two eyes following that image as it moves.

The symptoms caused by BVD are not usually associated with problems with the visual system, and include headache, dizziness, anxiety and panic, persistent post-concussive symptoms, gait instability and balance problems, frequent falls, neck pain, motion sickness, nausea, and reading and learning problems.

In 2004. Dr. Feinberg established Vision Specialists of Birmingham, specifically designing the practice to accommodate the needs of the NeuroVisual Medicine patient.

In 2011, the office moved to its current location in Bloomfield Hills and updated its name to Vision Specialists of Michigan.