Visual Processing Difficulties

Fascinating fact: When you hear a sound your eye start to move in the direction of the sound milliseconds before your eardrum vibrates. Enjoy the video which shares the link between vision and hearing.

When What You See Fails to Synch-Up With What You Hear

My experiences as a certified teacher homeschooling a struggling reader caused me to question my knowledge and abilities as a teacher.  Modifying curriculum and teaching through hands-on activities was not working. I taught orally and then retaught visually and then taught some more.  By the end of my daughter’s year of second grade, my heart started to break. My child saw friends and peers reading and writing with ease.  She cried on the outside while I cried on the inside. Why was I unable to teach my own child?  What did I not know?    

I found answers and started asking the right questions. Imagine my disbelief when I learned my daughter saw letters turning upside down and moving, preventing her from reading with ease.  Wow, I had a little genius!

After one year of vision therapy, my daughter became more confident, almost reading on grade level.  Two years later, she enjoyed learning and reading became fun.

Speech Development

Have you ever noticed that a baby stares at your mouth and wondered, “Why?”  Speech is learned by watching mouth, cheek, and tongue movement while also hearing sounds.

A toddler picks up and drops an object over and over.  Why?  The toddler is developing visual processing skills like:

Eye-Hand Cordination occurs when the baby reaches and grasp object.

Depth perception occurs when the baby is unable to reach the object.

Sound perception occurs when the object hits the floor.

Visual Processing Skills Affect Development of:

• Convergence skills: single, clear vision
• Divergence skills: clear, single vision looking near to far and far to near
• Eye Tracking skills: watch others move, read, catch a ball
• Depth perception: walking up and down stairs
• 3-D Spatial lets you: walk without bumping into doorframe
• Speech fluency: ability to retrieve words, speech with ease
• Fine motor skills: writing, buttoning, picking up
• Large motor skills: hopping, jumping
• Proprioception (how much pressure to apply):
  • Writing without breaking pencil tip, tearing paper
  • Writing dark enough to see print, but not too dark

Poor Ear Heath, Chronic Congestion Disrupts Development of Visual and Auditory Processing Skills

What happens when preschoolers and children suffer chronic congestion inflaming their eustachian tube with or without an ear infection?

Inflamed eustachian tubes cause mild hearing loss, which distorts sounds making it more difficult to listen with comprehension.  Inflammation of eustachian tubes can last up to three or more weeks. Chronic congestion is a significant concern, because it negatively affects your hearing for prolong periods of time.  How do you feel when your ears are plugged up? How do you behave?  

Regardless of your age, mild hearing loss greatly impacts more than just your hearing:  

A study completed by Frank Lin at John Hopkins’ Univ. School of Medicine in 2012, found that participants with a very mild hearing loss at 25 decibels were three times more likely to have fallen in the past.  The risk of falling increased almost one and a half times for every ten decibel increase in hearing loss.  “Why?”

Decreased hearing under-stimulates your inner ear’s vestibular system.  The inner ear’s vestibular system coordinates head, neck, and eye movements needed for keeping your balance while walking on uneven surfaces or up and down hills.  Chronic congestion disrupts the stimulation of the vestibular stimulation increasing risk of the development of visual processing difficulties.

“Amazingly, I found in all my clients, regardless of age, that poor middle ear health, like chronic congestion or untreated hearing loss, resulted in sound intolerance and double vision during close-up visual work.”  Cheri Moore

When there are visual processing difficulties, behaviors help you cope, feel safe, and avoid physical discomfort.

Confounding Behaviors are Clues:

• Dislikes noise, but speaks loudly
• Avoids moving, reads despite headaches
• Irritable, anxious without apparent cause
• Fearful in safe environments
• Avoids riding a bike
• Dislikes swings or slides
• Child says, “I can’t!” or “I can’t see!”
• Falls walking up the stairs for no reason
• Unable to alternate feet walking up stairs
• Intelligent, but struggles academically
• Walks on toes walking down a hill
• Walks holding tightly to someone’s hand
• Reads while looking at paper sideways
• Writes with head tilted, wrist curved in

There are Solutions Towards Improvement

Use the Moore Auditory-Visual Observation Activity Booklet to learn about your loved one’s visual and auditory processing skills.

Complete a Moore Auditory-Visual Questionnaire to receive your Moore Auditory-Visual Questionnaire Report.

Schedule a free phone conference with Cheri.  Depending on findings, receive:

• A letter asking for hearing tests not normally completed during a routine hearing exam.
• Schedule a home visit when there are central auditory processing concerns or help is needed completing visual observation activities.
  • Receive a report summarizing findings which are shared with an audiologist specializing in your concerns
  • Receive additional support for school or work
  • Receive educational information
• Hearing evaluation results show if you are a good candidate for auditory integration training
• When there are visual concerns, receive support and ideas to improve learning experiences
  • Receive resources, help understanding visual evaluation findings, and more…

Cheri Moore's Findings Resulted in Improved Responses to Auditory Integration Training and Vision Therapy

Cheri Moore's desire to improve clients' emotional response during auditory integration training resulted in the discovery of a high rate of co-existing visual processing difficulties with sound intolerance, with or without a hearing loss.  After some clients experienced increased visual processing difficulties during AIT, like chronic double vision, Cheri Moore collaborated with optometrists specializing in vision therapy to track client's progress.  Auditory-visual protocols have resulted in improved responses to auditory integration training and vision therapy.