20/20 Sight Does Not Mean Good Visual Skills

This is a closed Event for Leaps & Bounds Staff Only.

Dr. Neil Margolis is a Developmental Optometrist whose practice is specialized towards the evaluation and treatment of visual skills and visual processing. He will be sharing the "secret" of how these visual skills develop in infants and toddlers. The telltale signs and symptoms of visual skill problems that affect the achievement of developmental milestones and learning will be shared. Accommodations and compensations to lower visual skill demands in the natural environment, as well as techniques to develop these skills, will be presented. This is an opportunity to learn how to become a better screener of visual skills so they can be explained to caregivers, as well as how to support children with visual skill difficulties, so that they can avoid frustration and achieve their full potential.

Objectives:
1. Participants will better learn the sequence of development of visual processing skills.
2. Participants will learn how to differentiate fine motor difficulties from primary visual processing difficulties with respect to visual motor integration responses.
3. Participants will learn the signs and symptoms of specific visual skill deficiencies.
4. Participants will learn how to screen for age appropriate pursuit and saccadic fixation eye movements.
5. Participants will learn how to screen for age appropriate binocular vision skills.
6. Participants will learn how to recognize strabismus (eye turn) from phoria (ocular muscle imbalance).
7. Participants will learn how to screen for convergence insufficiency.
8. Participants will learn the difference between central/peripheral vision processing.
9. Participants will learn how to recognize signs of overly peripheral (hypervigilant) responses from overly central (tunnel vision responses).
10. Participants will learn examples of activities to develop tracking skills.
11. Participants will learn examples of activities to improve central/peripheral vision balance.
12. Participants will learn examples of activities to develop visual processing in infants and toddlers.