SMART VISION · BONDI BEACH & MOSMAN
Smart Vision Skills Assessment
At a Glance
A Vision Skills Assessment investigates visual concerns during activities such as reading and close work. Smart Vision Optometry in Bondi and Mosman considers the findings alongside your symptoms and goals. This page explains the assessment, useful observations to share and questions about next steps.
Smart Vision Comprehensive Skills Assessment: Understanding Your Visual Function
The Smart Vision Skills Assessment is a detailed functional vision assessment designed to investigate how efficiently the visual system is working, not just whether sight is clear.
At Smart Vision Optometry, this assessment may be recommended for children, teenagers or adults experiencing reading difficulty, focusing problems, eye strain, headaches, visual fatigue, tracking issues or other functional visual complaints. SVO uses the findings to understand how the patient’s eyes, brain and visual system are working together, then guides recommendations based on clinical results and individual goals.
The assessment brings together examination findings and the visual demands of your daily activities. It can help identify specific visual concerns and guide the discussion about management or referral; an assessment does not itself guarantee a treatment outcome.
What is the Smart Vision Comprehensive Skills Assessment?
Reading an eye chart measures visual clarity, but it is not a complete assessment of eye health or every aspect of visual function. Depending on your concerns, additional tests may examine focusing, eye coordination and eye movements. The National Eye Institute describes how convergence insufficiency can occur despite clear distance vision.
Functional and Perceptual Vision Skills
The Smart Vision Comprehensive Vision Skills Assessment examines both functional and perceptual vision skills:
- Functional Vision Skills: These include eye movement control, focusing and how the two eyes work together. The assessment is selected to investigate your reported visual concerns.
- Perceptual Vision Skills: These concern how visual information is interpreted. Ask what any proposed test measures and what its results can and cannot establish.
The findings provide information about the visual functions tested. They do not measure a person’s intelligence, personality or overall potential. Difficulties with reading or learning may need educational or other professional assessment alongside eye care.
Our Assessment Approach
Our team page introduces Founder and Principal Optometrist Gary Rodney and the people providing care. Ask which tests are proposed, what they measure and how the results will inform your options. Our research and evidence resources provide further background.
Describing Difficulties With Close Work
People describe difficulties with close work in different ways. The following examples can help you explain your concerns; they are not personality types or diagnoses:
- Avoiding close tasks: Note which activities are avoided, how long they last and whether there is blur, double vision or discomfort. Avoidance alone does not identify the cause.
- Continuing despite discomfort: Tell the optometrist when symptoms such as tired eyes or headaches occur and whether they change during different activities.
- Few reported symptoms: A person may describe little difficulty. Neither this nor a personality label establishes their visual function or learning potential.
- Long periods of reading or screen use: Explain the task, viewing distance and symptoms. Myopia needs its own assessment and should not be inferred from personality. Read our dedicated guide to myopia progression.
What You Can Discuss After the Assessment
- Identify visual concerns: Investigate the eye-health and visual-function questions raised by your history and symptoms.
- Understand the findings: Learn which functions were tested and how the results relate to the activities you find difficult.
- Discuss suitable options: Ask about the purpose, expected benefits, limitations and alternatives for any proposed management.
- Plan appropriate follow-up: Agree on monitoring or referral where needed, while maintaining educational support for reading or learning difficulties.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Smart Vision Skills Assessment?
It is a detailed assessment that investigates how efficiently the visual system works during real-life tasks such as reading, learning, screen use and concentration.
Who might need a Smart Vision Skills Assessment?
Children or adults with symptoms such as reading difficulty, focusing problems, eye strain, headaches, visual fatigue or functional visual complaints may benefit from assessment.
How is it different from a routine eye test?
A routine eye test usually checks sight clarity and eye health. A Smart Vision Skills Assessment explores a wider range of functional visual skills.
Our Services
Our Bondi and Mosman optometrists assess eye health and visual function in children and adults. An eye-care plan addresses the findings of that assessment. Dyslexia and other learning difficulties require appropriate educational assessment and support; vision therapy is not an established treatment for dyslexia. See RANZCO’s position statement on learning difficulties in children.
Book Your Smart Vision Comprehensive Skills Assessment Today
To discuss an assessment, contact our Bondi or Mosman practice. Explain the activities that are difficult and any relevant previous assessments. Ask about the proposed tests, appointment length and fees.
For related reading, explore our SVO article on vision skills and learning and our eye test overview. These resources can help you prepare questions for your appointment.
Contact Us
For more information or assistance with booking, please contact our Bondi (02) 9365 5047 or Mosman (02) 9969 1600 practice directly. You can also send an appointment enquiry with your questions.
Care built around your individual needs
Discuss your needs with our Smart Vision behavioural optometrists. Your detailed assessment guides a personalised wellness treatment programme where appropriate.
Bondi Beach · Mosman