Ann W. Voss, O.D., FCOVD
 Dr. Ann Voss is the founder and director of Bellaire Family Eye Care and the Vision Learning Center. Her daily commitment to serving her patients with quality eye care, innovative solutions, and a caring attitude distinguishes her in the eye care community. Her passion is helping people of all ages find the best visual solutions possible to address their vision and eye health needs.
As an expert in the area of vision and learning, Dr. Voss provides educational and training programs to educators, parents, and healthcare groups. Her programs help healthcare providers and teachers recognize vision problems that impact successful learning. She also consults with textbook publishers regarding graphics, fonts, and colors that impact ease of reading and learning of text through the visual system. She works closely with other health professionals, including ophthalmologists, pediatricians, speech and language specialists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and psychologists, to provide the best all around care for patients needing diverse services.
VISION LEARNING CENTER
Too frequently, evaluation of vision based solely on clarity of sight at a 20-foot distance is accepted as an adequate index of a person’s vision. This however, ignores the majority of functions in the complex visual system.
Vision allows us to obtain meaning from what we see. Vision is a set of skills and abilities, of which 20/20 eyesight is only one. Other necessary skills include eye teaming, focusing, eye movements, visual perception, visual information processing, and integration of vision with our other senses.
At the Bellaire Family Eye Care’s Vision Learning Center, we are committed to help children and adults obtain and strengthen the combinations of these skills needed for learning, work, and play.
During a comprehensive vision exam, Dr. Voss and her associates will assess the individual’s eye teaming, eye focusing, and eye movement skills. After the exam, a trained vision therapist will administer a series of visual skills exams, including eye movement recordings, visual perceptual assessments, and dyslexia screenings. A consultation with the doctor will be scheduled approximately one week later. During the consultation, she will discuss challenges and strengths of the individual with options for remediation.
COMMON SIGNS OF VISUAL DIFFICULTY
Many children who have problems adjusting to school demands may have underlying, undetected vision problems.
• Loses place and skips lines
• Omits small words when reading
• Exaggerated head movements while reading
• Very close reading distance
• Tilts head or closes one eye when reading
• Confuses letters, numbers or words
• Mis-aligns digits in columns of numbers
• Writing is crooked or poorly spaced
• Difficulty copying form the chalkboard
• Rapidly tires when reading
• Becomes easily distracted
• Avoids near, visually demanding tasks
• Has emotional outbursts
• Shows aggressive behaviors
• Low comprehension of written materials
• Poor concentration
• Fails to complete assignments
• Frustrated with school
• Has no voice inflection when reading
• Ignores punctuation
• Subvocalizes
KEY VISION QUESTIONS
• Does your child seem to always lag behind in school, sports or social activities?|
• Does performance decrease the longer the child works?
• Does the child show a strong preference for one eye over the other if one is covered at a time?
• Do you see an eye “wandering” or being “inconsistent” in its appearance?
HELPFUL DEFINITIONS
Amblyopia is a condition in which the clarity of vision with one eye is significantly poorer than the other with no identifiable eye health problem.
Strabismus is an extreme problem of eye-teaming in which the two eyes do not line up and work together in the normal manner. This condition may be either constant (turned all the time) or intermittent (occurs only at specific distances during certain activities).
Visual perceptual skills involve the ability to organize and interpret the information that is seen and give it meaning. These information processing skills include: form discrimination, spatial relations, figure ground, visual closure, form constancy, and visual memory.
VISION AND LEARNING WEBSITES:
Vision Learning Center
http://www.visionlearningcenter.com
Parents Active for Vision Education (PAVE)
http://www.pave-eye.com/vision/indes.html
College of Optometrist in Vision Development
http://www.covd.org
Vision, Learning and Dyslexia: A Joint Organizational Policy Statement
http://www.aaopt.org/JointStatement.html
Scientific Studies on the Relationship Between Learning, Reading, Vision Therapy and Vision Disorders
http://www.add-adhd.org/visiontherapystudies.html
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