As a parent, you may be wondering why your child is having a hard time in school, why learning does not seem to be coming easily to your child, and/or why your child is struggling to reach their potential. In these kind of situations, a psychoeducational evaluation may be needed to provide some answers. Psychoeducational testing looks at your child’s entire learning profile (strengths and weaknesses) and often is sought to rule out the presence of a formal attention-deficit disorder and/or subject-specific learning disability. However, psychoeducational testing further focuses on assessing fundamental skills needed for successful learning such as (but not limited to): memory, executive functioning, auditory processing, processing speed, and visual-motor integration. As we do our assessments, we oftentimes find patterns of weaknesses that may suggest your child is struggling from a vision-related issue. These may include eye-hand coordination issues, weaker visual-spatial reasoning skills when compared to verbal reasoning skills, visual directionality and/or discrimination struggles, poor spatial planning on paper, visual information processing weaknesses, skipping lines when reading, and becoming visually overwhelmed or overloaded when presented with visually busy material on paper.   

If your child is struggling in reading and learning, he/she may have a less than optimally developed vision system. This is often confusing to parents because they are unaware that there is a significant difference between sight versus vision. In sum, “sight is the act of being able to see clearly (20/20, etc.)”, while vision is “getting meaning from what is seen with minimal energy and maximum understanding.” I often say to parents think of vision as the functional aspects of your child’s eyes versus just ability to see clearly and read letters, words, numbers on a poster from a basic eyesight exam. Further confusing is that children can have 20/20 sight and still have vision issues prohibiting them from performing optimally in school, sports, and over time may manifest as behavioral issues in the classroom. 

Signs for parents to look for that may suggest your child may be struggling from vision problems include issues in one or more of the following categories:

• Eyesight Clarity
• Visual Comfort (e.g., eye fatigue, headaches, etc.)
• Double Vision
• Light Sensitivity
• Dry Eyes
• Depth Perception (e.g., clumsiness, poor spacing/sizing when writing, etc.)
• Peripheral Vision (e.g., balance and movement, side vision is distorted, etc.)
• Reading (e.g., skips words, loses space, words move on page, etc.)
• Visual Function (e.g., confusion between left and right, etc.)

If you are wondering about the possibility of a vision-related struggle in your child, contact us to discuss the need or benefit of pursuing a psychoeducational evaluation to thoroughly explore and determine what may be behind their struggles.  We can identify any red-flags for a vision-related issue and can provide you with trusted resources for pursuing a comprehensive developmental vision exam by Certified Developmental Optometrists. Reach out to us today at 703-938-9090, ext. 1 to learn more. 

Maria Kanakos, Psy.D.

Licensed Clinical Psychologist

About the Author:

Dr. Maria Kanakos, PsyD has been a licensed clinical psychologist for over 20 years.  She is a co-founder, and the Director of Testing Services for FamilyFirst Psychological Services, a mental health practice serving the Vienna, VA area. She has extensive training working with children and adolescents presenting with emotional, developmental, social and educational challenges. She helps children cope with stress, anxiety, depressed mood, learning differences and managing negative emotions. She provides psychotherapy services to children and adolescents incorporating cognitive behavioral and mindfulness techniques along with a family focused approach. Her expertise includes anxiety disorders, depression, ADHD, sensory processing disorders and high functioning autism. She conducts comprehensive psychological and psychoeducational assessments to develop personalized treatment goals and IEP school interventions.