Kathryn Whitfield

Orthoptic Visual Processing Difficulties Clinic

The Orthoptic Visual Processing Difficulties (VPD) Clinic is a clinic run by Orthoptists to help children with eye problems related to or contributing to a reading or learning difficulty.

Visual Processing is the way the brain makes sense of visual information.

An Orthoptist is an eye specialist who is trained to diagnose and to treat eye movement disorders in adults and children and to help children with poor vision. In the Orthoptic Visual Processing Difficulties clinic, we look at problems such as eye movements during reading and other vision related problems such as visual perception difficulties.

All Orthoptists have completed a 3-year BSC Honors degree or equivalent and had extensive experience and extended role/post graduate training in visual processing difficulties.

All staff are DBS police checked in line with hospital policy.

Our service allows a child a better access to the curriculum by correcting visual difficulties and helping to provide an equal footing with other children. An example of a good outcome would be to correct a child’s inaccurate eye movement or binocular vision difficulty. This would allow them to track a line of text correctly and gain greater comprehension of what was read. Another example would be to enable a child to concentrate on text for a longer period without fatigue or eye strain/discomfort thereby allowing them to keep up with their peers and/or contribute to the lesson.

Our typical activities in the clinic are visual tests looking at binocular vision, eye movement control and the way the brain ‘sees’ the written word.

We are based at Warrington Hospital, and we also do clinics at Halton Health Hub located in Runcorn Shopping City. We provide a comprehensive, NHS funded service to any school age child across the Northwest provided the meet the referral criteria (see later).

We specialise in children with specific learning issues rather than general learning issues. For example, we see children with problems such as dyslexia rather than general learning issues such as Down’s syndrome. (These children are cared for by a separate eye care team headed by my Orthoptic colleague who oversees the Warrington and Halton Orthoptic special educational needs team).

In the VPD team we see children aged 8 upwards only. We also occasionally see adults

After the first assessment a detailed report is sent to all the professionals involved in the child’s care. After each subsequent visit a letter will be given to take to school detailing that day’s assessment. The parents will also get a copy, as will the GP.

We regularly audit the outcome of treatment on the child’s learning via questionnaires to the school and hospital audits, for example looking at improvements in the rate or accuracy of reading following exercises.

The buildings at Warrington and Halton are both fully accessible in line with hospital policy.

Referral into the service is through the local authority. This can be via the GP or the school. The parents can take the child to the GP and explain their concerns, or the school must fill in the school screening questionnaire and send in a direct referral. The school screening tool is available on the Warrington and Halton Hospital website https://whh.nhs.uk

The direct link is : https://whh.nhs.uk/services/orthoptics/orthoptic-visual-processing-difficulties-clinic

The service is provided free via the NHS, so no fee is payable.

The waiting times can vary throughout the academic year depending on how many referrals we receive.

Please address all referral using the correct referral tool to:

Kathryn Whitfield

Advanced Orthoptist
Visual Processing Difficulties Clinic
Warrington and Halton Hospital foundation Trust
Warrington Hospital
Orthoptic Department
Daresbury Wing
Lovely Lane
Warrington
WA5 1QG

01925662772

Any questions, please contact us at the number above