Vision develops rapidly after birth. Any undetected vision problem can have a significant impact on infant and childhood development. The earlier a problem is detected and treated, the less likely it is that other areas of development will be affected. Being vision 6/6 or 20/20 that is written during the examination or the prescription chart is not all that is only required for the child.

For children, there are other visual skills that are required to succeed in reading, learning, sports, and in life. We today will highlight some of the visual skills that are required: Eye movement control: The ability to move both eyes together to point to an intended target or follow a path, like a line of text. The other one is the ability of the eye to simultaneously focus at far: Forming a clear image of something in the distance. There are several others like

Sustaining focus at far: keeping an image of something in the distance clear

1. The simultaneous focus at near: forming a clear image of something close to the eyes
2. Sustaining focus at near: keeping a clear image of something close to the eyes.
3. Simultaneous alignment at far: lining up both eyes at some point the distance
4. Sustaining alignment at far: holding both eyes lined up at the same point in a distance
5. Simultaneous alignment at near: lining up both eyes at the same point up close
6. Sustaining alignment at near: Holding both eyes lined up at the same point up close
7. Then comes Central vision (Visual acuity): This is where 6/6 or 20/20 vision comes in which is a very small part of these visual skills. The other visual skills that are important are:

1. Peripheral vision: Being able to see what’s on the other side while the eyes are pointed forward
2. Depth awareness: Being able to tell that things are further away or closer up than each other (also known as depth perception). 3D vision has been described as “one of the glories of nature”.
3. Colour perception: Being able to tell different colors apart (if the person is not color blind)
4. Gross visual motor: Moving oneself through space without bumping into things by using information from the vision
5. Fine visual motor: Writing sewing, texting and doing other small and close up activities with accuracy by using information from the vision.
6. Visual perception: Being aware of the environment and what is going around us and our visual field (the area we can see).
7. Visual integration: Bringing together the vision and other senses to accomplish complex tasks like reading, walking a balance beam, etc.

These visual skills are the utmost for the optimum performance of academic activities by the child. During the vision screening or regular eye examination. These skills assessment can be missed. So, a comprehensive eye examination should be done for these visual skills assessments to rule out any difficulty the child has in his/her academic activities. Since 80% of learning is visual, visual problems can have a profound effect on a child’s education. Many children who experience academic difficulty often have a visual dysfunction in addition to their primary reading or learning problems. Fortunately, these conditions are treatable through vision therapy. Drishti Eye Centre, Kalanki has Binocular vision clinic, where these all skills are examined. Please contact 1660-01-16000 for details. These all above mentioned visual skills are cited from the College of Optometrist and Visual Development guidelines.