Why Visual Performance Matters: Foundations for Occupational Therapy Practice — participation guide

3 contact hours · 0.3 AOTA CEUs · Module 6 — follow along, take notes, and complete the reflection prompts.

Module 6

Where This Goes Next

Anchor concept

You now have observation, referral, and modification. What you do not yet have is a repeatable structure for deciding what to look at, in what order, and how to defend the plan.

Follow along

What this module covers

Five blocks in, here is the skill set
Observation alone is unordered
What the VPA™ adds on top of structure

Key ideas

Capture these as you listen

Observation is the entry skill; without structure it is unordered and hard to defend to a team.
A level-based organization of visual performance tells you where to look first, what a finding means, and how to sequence targets in documentation.
Standardized administration and scoring turn a clinical impression into a comparable, re-measurable baseline.
Every participant leaves with one described student, one referral decision, and one modification with an observable check.

Notes

My notes for this module

Reference figures

Keep these for practice

Which level each block of this course was operating on

Module 1 — Vision as a gateway system

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Frames the whole system; every level is introduced.

Module 2 — Visual pathways (ventral / dorsal)

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Magnocellular/dorsal work shows at Level 2 efficiency; parvocellular/ventral identification is Level 3 processing.

Module 3 — Underlying Conditions vs. Functional Limitations

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Ocular and neurological conditions act on the sensory foundation and on binocular efficiency; OT treats the functional limitation, not the diagnosis.

Module 4 — Comorbidity patterns

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Autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia signatures appear as processing and visual-motor integration performance.

Module 5 — Low-vision service model

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Low vision is a Level 1 sensory-foundation problem. Contrast, lighting, and magnification restore access at the floor; the Level 5 change is the downstream result, not the target.

Module 6 — Where this goes next

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Functional integration is where all findings resolve into a plan of care.

L1 · Acuity & sensory foundationL2 · Visual efficiencyL3 · Visual processingL4 · Visual-motor integrationL5 · Functional integration

Which level of the framework each module is actually operating on. Use this to keep the module content, the slide framework references, and your documentation language aligned.

Apply it

Case prompt

Take the student you have had in mind through this course. Write the referral-or-not decision in one sentence, the modification you will make in one sentence, and the observable indicator you will watch in one sentence. Would a colleague reading only those three sentences know what you saw and why you acted?

Practice

Mini exercise

In one sentence, state what a structured, level-based organization of visual performance would give you that your current observation notes do not.

Take it to work

Action step this week

Before your next treatment day, put one modification from Module 5 in place for one student and record the single observation you will use to judge whether it helped.