Eyes and Ears – Like an Orchestra in Sync

Just as with eye-hand coordination, integration of vision and sound – eye-ear connection – must be developed. If the two senses are out of sync, a person can experience difficulties in academics, social situations and activities such as sports.

Balance between vision and hearing is necessary for a person to learn letter sounds, for example, while applying those sounds to the words they see on a page. In social situations, a person can better understand what another is saying – and meaning — by watching body language and facial expression. Autistic patients cannot discern the nuances of a joke because they simply listen. They do not connect sound and vision, because the environment around them is too confusing.

A student whose eyesight is more sensitive than his or her hearing may be easily distracted by activities and moving objects in the environment and unable to concentrate on what the teacher is saying. People whose peripheral vision is not sufficiently “tuned in” may have to turn their head before finding what is causing a certain sound.

A person can have sharp hearing and 20/20 central eyesight, but if the senses are not integrated and the brain is impaired, then the entire neurological system becomes like an orchestra without a conductor. Each musician may be quite talented with his/her learned instrument, but they must play in sync. If they are moving through the composition at different speeds, the result is noise – not music.

Standardized eye and ear tests check eyesight and hearing separately but fail to determine whether they are properly integrated.

Read the latest research: Using the Z-Bell Test to Remediate Spatial Deficiencies in Non-Image-Forming Retinal Processing

It’s a ‘New Age’ in Vision Testing

It’s a “new age” in eye testing. The eyeglass prescriptions developed through the Z-Bell Test have been called nothing short of “amazing,” even “miraculous” by patients, because they have brought relief for a range of symptoms, including headaches, dizziness, difficulty reading, learning and behavioral problems, attention deficit disorders, and anxiety. Many patients now being treated successfully suffered for years with the effects of eye-ear imbalances, brain injuries and other neurological issues, because they were told by different health professionals that their eyesight and hearing tested as normal. Unlike 20th century eyeglasses that merely correct central eyesight, Z-Bell-prescribed glasses are therapeutic, intended to bring a person’s inside and outside environments back into synchronization.

The common refrain of patients wearing the Z-Bell-prescribed glasses is: “I feel like myself again. I feel normal.”

Meet Meg Scrivner

Meg Scrivner, a native of Kansas and mother of four, sustained a serious head injury when the vehicle that she is driving — with two daughters, ages 11 and 15, riding with her — was broadsided.

“I could neither hear correctly nor tolerate light following my injury. I had to wear a hat outdoors, and, indoors, my husband and I put up curtains to go over blinds and used low-wattage lighting,” Meg relates. “My speech deteriorated. I had only a first- or second-grade vocabulary. I just couldn’t think straight. I stumbled; bumped into things. I could not even read signs while driving. And, I experienced horrible headaches.”

Healthcare practitioners told her to go home and rest; the symptoms would likely subside in four weeks to six weeks. But, they did not subside. Dissatisfied with the response of the medical community and neurology specialists, she contacted the Mind-Eye Institute where optometrist, Deborah Zelinsky O.D., conducted a battery of vision and visual processing tests, including her patented Z-Bell Test℠ to evaluate the patient’s ability to synchronize auditory and visual localization ability.

Dr. Zelinsky determined that, as a result of brain trauma, the patient judged size and depth of a target differently with each eye; was unable to have her peripheral vision be functioning on autopilot, losing a target while trying to concentrate on other mental tasks; and experienced difficulties synchronizing perception of space by the eyes and ears.

Working with different types of optometric glasses Dr. Zelinsky over time, was able to mitigate the patient’s symptoms by improving her visual processing capabilities, enhancing peripheral vision and re-integrating visual and auditory processing of surrounding space.