To see objects and our world around us is what most people think of vision. Vision as you have begun to learn is much more complex than just the recognition of what is see, but requires interpretation.

When a person focus they are looking at an "object" which is true. But for our purpose now, we are going for change the definition a bit here, by talking about a change in the distance you are looking at the object.

When you want to "focus" a camera, you change the lens setting so that the object becomes clear. The same process occurs with the eye, when you change the working distance of where you are looking.

In order to focus, multiple aspects of processing occurs. If you are looking at an object such as a book, the head will have tilted down and effected the neck position.

The object will have appeared as blurred on the retina of the eye, causing a response of the brain to change the shape of the lens by way of the ciliary muscle of the eye that controls the lens inside the eye. At the same time a nerve will send an impulse to the muscle that contracts the pupil to make it smaller for more critical viewing.

This is a very difficult set of events that is occurring and requires a lot of effort and energy. Once all this is done, then a person is able to derive meaning from what is seen.

Just think if I were to say, "Can you run", you would probably say "Why Yes." If I then said for 5 miles your answer could be very different. In most eye exams they are only testing a few moments how "clear" you can see with reading. In a learning situation such as school, it many times is for 5, 10, 15 minutes. or more with a concentrated demand is placed on the visual system. Because you can do the initial task, does not mean you can sustain focusing or have the flexibility for quick and accuracy change in various conditions, such as looking at the blackboard and immediatly look down and clear the words, such as required in reading for extended periods of time.

Another very important focusing skill would be not only static positions of accurate focusing changes such as in looking at the black board and then down for reading, but dynamic focusing such as needed with sports, such as tracking a baseball coming to a batter at 90 miles an hour or driving a sports car looking at track conditions and looking down at the dashboard.

There is a normal condition that as we grow older, we naturally loose some of the flexibility of our focusing ability. This is referred to as "Presbyopia", often called old sight. Often reading glasses become helpful or bifocals/trifocals are recommended. This provides a lenses to see more sharply at distance, while another lens prescription is used when looking down to read that increases the efficiency of eyes ability to see clearly with near point tasks.

Very often children also will benefit with the use of glasses that help balance the efficiency of sustaining close work activities. These are often referred to as performance, learning, or stress reducing lenses. These can be in the form of just reading glasses but often it is more desirable to prescribe lenses that are bifocal. These then are basically plano for the distance, and the appropriate lense while a student is using vision for the learning demands of studying or reading in the bifocal. These are often very low power prescription and will only been worn for a few months to perhaps a few years with school related learning tasks.

One of the immediate benefits of seeing how these learning lenses may help a child; is to have them look at a word in the middle of a printed page. Then add the learning glasses and ask the child if they see more or less words. Typically they will say, oh "I can see much more." The result is being able to gain more information with a single glance when concentrating, and know where they have been and where they are going and where they have to move their eyes next to take in additional information quicker. It will not make the letters necessarily sharper, but opens how much quicker the brain is taking in the amount of information being seen.

A common goal among Behavioral Optometrists is to maximize an individuals performance. Performance and efficiency with reading lenses, is a wonderful tool that many can gain immediate benefit, even without the eliminating the real cause with the intervention with of an appropriate therapy program. We must remember focusing to see clearly and sustaining that efficiently is just one aspect of what will involve all the "5's of Vision." It is rare that one part is deficient and not be effecting all the other aspects of mental abilities.

Often when we see a person begin to squirm in their seat, tilt their head, cover an eye, or become more hyperactive and distracted visual symptoms are involved. It is not necessarily the "ability" but the "sustain-ability" which is not integrated with the proper skills which can be enhanced with appropriate therapy.