Ocular Motor Skills

Most (if not all) TVIs have been presented with the issue that people, in general, just don’t know what we do. “Braille teacher” is the easiest designation, but that does not cover the many, many other things we are supposed to be doing to fulfill our ethical and practice obligations. The matter is not helped by working with other service providers, majority of whom have the word “therapist” in their titles. Team members may have the expectation that we improve someone’s vision, that we can fix them. Whether being fixed or being broken is a reasonable label is a topic for another day.

Another barrier is areas where TVIs overlap with other professionals. While it can be a fantastic opportunity to collaborate and learn from colleagues, it also has the possibility to sour into conflict due to fuzzy boundaries. Ocular motor skills are one of many examples.

The inclusion of the word ocular can create the assumption that this is in the vision domain. Technically it is, but it doesn’t necessarily fit with TVIs. In our CEC standards, motor skills are addressed with words like “promote,” “reinforce,” and “interpret”. Though the review of skills like hand-eye coordination and depth-perception play into a standard FVA, it is unclear (at present) if these skills can be built upon with direct instruction, classroom supports, or services from someone like an occupational therapist.

There are two points in this: first, we need further investigation into the boundaries and responsibilities for each service provider. No one wants to pass the buck or to appear to be shirking their duties, but individuals also deserve therapy and instruction from those with the best, most up to date knowledge in the particular area instead of well intentioned guess work. Second, we need to know when to step back and let go.