The Hilliar & Gray Visual Perceptual Training Manual is designed to train and improve Visual perceptual Skills in children from Grade 1 and upwards. This book is planned to provide additional, home-based Visual perceptual therapy that should be used as an adjunct to a therapist-guided program of therapy.
Wendy Gray is a fully qualified optometrist with a special interest in paediatric optometry, having spent most of the last decade furthering her training in this particular branch. She has created this training manual to assist with a therapist-approved schedule, or to assist therapists themselves, in visual perceptive skills.
Visual difficulties impact so many spheres of children’s lives; academically, socially, psychologically and physically. But visual problems can be subtle, and children make adaptations because of them, meaning visual problems may not be obvious to parents at all.
Children need to both see clearly, and have eyes which function properly, in order to complete everyday tasks and develop sufficiently. The eyes have a critical period, where they are re-trainable. This is optimum up to the age of 6 years.
As such, the earlier a problem can be detected, the greater the chance of fixing it will be. Ideally, all children should have an eye examination or screening by the age of 4 so that issues can be treated or rectified before the child enters school and is placed under the demands of early schooling.
Wendy Gray
“I want every one of my paediatric patients to have their eyes working well and be equipped with the strength and ability to function under the high demands that our children’s visual systems are put under these days.
I have witnessed many children flourish and fly after receiving a seemingly small “hand up” through remediation or spectacles. Parents, too, sometimes need empathetic support when their child is prescribed spectacles.
As a mother myself, I hope to sometimes be a little more than just a clinical optometrist; instead I strive to explain, give practical advice and support them through this adjustment. Knowing the impact that a vision problem can have on a child’s life, and how that problem could hinder them in reaching their true potential; that’s what fuels my passion for trying to help children with any visual difficulties”.
Qualifications:
Bachelor of Optometry (Cum Laude)
Post-Graduate Conversion Course
Post-Graduate Certificate of Advanced Study in Ocular Disease and Pharmaceutical Application
South African Paediatric Training:
Binocular and Paediatric Vision Association Congress (2010)
Practical Paediatric Course, Levels 1 & 2 (2012)
Binocular Vision and Vision Therapy (2014)
Advanced Paediatric and Binocular Vision Course (2016)
Paediatric Vision and Technology Use (2018)
Stark Griffin Dyslexia Training Academy:
Dyslexia Diagnosis and Dyslexia Therapy (2017)
Dyslexia and Related Learning Difficulties (2018)