Background

VisionMechanic.net is part of a continued long-term campaign to bring greater public and professional awareness to the world of vision, vision science, and vision development. As a former sciences teacher and now doctor working with vision rehabilitation, it is clear that a good portion of the adult world is blind to what vision is and means.

In many cases, not knowing something is of little consequence – like missing a question in a game of trivia. When it comes to vision, we all need to have a closer look and pay attention to it because it lies at the very foundation of what makes us tick, what makes us who and what we are as humans – a visual being. Even small errors in the system can have far-reaching effects.

Vision is one of those things that is easy to ignore because for most of us it works ‘good enough’. We know clinically that when the many components of visual function don’t quite line up in perfect synchrony and harmony, then something will falter. Because vision is tied to virtually everything we do as humans, visual dysfunction can and will impact broadly – from how we feel physically and emotionally, to how well we do in school, at work, and even what sorts of activities we enjoy. To clarify, I am referring to mostly non-blinding visual dysfunction that almost no doctors or therapists look for when diagnosing and treating our ills. The Vision Mechanics, behavioural optometrists and vision rehabilitation therapists, break vision down into its component parts, assess function in detail, then get people back on track to an optimized life. Sometimes this means a turned eye is straightened, a child can read, headaches disappear, or a career gets off to a great start.

Even with the key role vision plays in our cognition and emotional lives, it is barely touched on in schools of family medicine, psychology, and education. What is most often discussed are means of assessing cognitive skills, including ‘visual processing’, but nowhere are pediatric developmental professionals taught anything substantive about the inputs to vision. As an IT coder and technician, it’s basic troubleshooting dogma that before code can work (advanced cognitive and emotional skills), the machine must be intact (body and sensory inputs).

There’s a lot more to vision than eye charts, and the details count. The details are also important for parents and developmental professionals. Likewise vision matters for any therapist working with cognitively and emotionally challenged clients, or clients suffering the effects of TBI.

We all should have been taught a lot more about vision in our parenting training and professional training at university and college. PT’s, OT’s, psychologists, counsellors, school teachers and principles all need to read through this material, and take the courses as they come out – especially the Intro to Human Vision series. No doubt all students will have multiple moments where the light goes on with a flash of ‘Right, why DIDN’T they teach us that.’. The content is approachable and accessible, and we’re doing our best to make it relevant to primarily child development and medical professionals – so just enough science, and a lot of practical applications.

“Treatment options should never be assigned until vision is understood.”

Dr. Charles Boulet

Vision Mechanics are here to help, to answer questions, to open eyes to vision. It’s a lot more complicated and important than most of our training had led us to believe. Let us fill in some of the gaps. We have a lot of great content planned, so follow along by signing up for our newsletter.

Thanks for following along!

Dr. B

PS – You can learn a lot more about eyes and vision at VisionMechanic.net, so feel free to browse. You’ll be especially interested in spending time with us if you’re a parent, a teacher, therapist or doctor working with reading, developmental, and learning disorders, or even brain injuries.

We’d appreciate it if you Liked and shared this video series if you find it helpful. We’re planning a lot of new content so subscribe to ensure you see all the new videos as they come out. Go to VisionMechanic.net to let us know if there’s a topic you’d like us to cover in an upcoming episode of the VisionMechanic. 

All science, with just a little attitude and no filler. That’s the Vision Mechanic. See you next time.

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