Children's Vision Specialist in Lexington, KY
If your child struggles with reading or focus, an undiagnosed vision problem may be the cause. NVPI offers specialist functional vision evaluations in Versailles, just minutes from Lexington.
Does This Sound Like Your Child?
Many children who struggle in school are not dealing with a eyesight problem alone — they may have an undiagnosed functional vision issue affecting reading, focus, tracking, or visual processing. These symptoms are often misunderstood, which is why a specialist evaluation can help uncover what routine screenings may miss.
If your child loses their place, skips lines, rereads the same sentence, or avoids reading altogether, the issue may involve eye tracking or convergence insufficiency rather than motivation alone. These challenges often become more noticeable around 3rd or 4th grade, when children transition from learning to read to reading to learn.
Some children diagnosed with ADHD, dyslexia, auditory processing issues, sensory processing disorder, or other learning challenges also have underlying visual problems that affect performance. Since 1 in 4 children has a vision problem significant enough to impact learning, it is important to evaluate whether visual skills are contributing to the symptoms your child is experiencing.
Amblyopia is more than an eye that sees poorly — it reflects how the brain is using visual input from one eye. While patching may still play a role in treatment, newer approaches also focus on binocular function, visual integration, and the brain’s neuroplastic ability to build stronger, more lasting visual outcomes.
When a child’s eyes cross or turn, the problem is not only cosmetic — eye alignment is also a brain-based visual skill. Treatment may include lenses, exercises, or other therapies designed to help the eyes work together more effectively and improve overall visual function.
Frequent headaches, tired eyes, blurred vision, double vision, rubbing the eyes, or discomfort during reading can all point to focusing or binocular vision problems such as convergence insufficiency. These symptoms often appear during sustained near work and may be easy to miss during a basic screening.
A child can pass a 20/20 eye chart and still struggle with the functional visual skills needed for classroom success. Visual processing speed, tracking, focusing, eye teaming, and other foundational skills all affect attention, stamina, and learning performance throughout the school day.
What Is Functional Vision? (And Why 20/20 Isn’t Enough)
Most eye exams only measure how clearly your child sees a letter chart across the room. But real-life vision also depends on how the eyes work together, track across a page, shift focus, and help the brain make sense of what is seen in the moment.
At NVPI, we explain it simply: the eyes are like cameras, and the brain is like the computer. The eyes send signals, but the brain has to process them, combine both images, and build the visual world your child uses to read, play, and learn every day.
Schedule Your Child’s Functional Vision Evaluation
If school feels harder than it should, a functional vision evaluation may reveal answers a basic eye exam missed.
In one visit, we assess how your child’s eyes track, focus, and work together, and how visual processing affects reading, writing, and attention.
You’ll leave with a clear explanation of our findings and a step-by-step plan for what comes next.
Our Versailles office serves families from Lexington, Nicholasville, Georgetown, Frankfort, and across the Bluegrass region.
Appointments are limited so Dr. Graebe and his team can give each child the time they need. Call or request a visit today.
How We Help
Once we understand how your child's brain and eyes are working together, we build a plan that targets the exact visual skills that need support. Our integrated Neuro-Visual Performance Training program combines several proven approaches into one coordinated plan, so your child is not just “getting better” — they are becoming better, for life.
A comprehensive functional vision evaluation goes far beyond reading letters on a chart. We assess how your child's eyes move when they read, how well they can keep both eyes aimed at the same place, and how easily they can shift focus from the board to their desk and back again. We also look at how quickly and accurately their brain can process, remember, and use visual information.
During this visit, we test the 17 functional visual skills that support reading, learning, coordination, and daily comfort. These include eye tracking, focusing, eye teaming, depth perception, peripheral awareness, visual-motor integration, and visual processing speed. By the end of the evaluation, you will understand which skills are strong, which are struggling, and how those patterns connect to the challenges you see at home and school.
Neuro-Visual Performance Training is the name of our full, integrated treatment program. It brings together vision therapy, multisensory training, perceptual training, and other supportive tools into one coordinated plan tailored to your child. Instead of treating one piece at a time, we work with the entire visual system — eyes, brain, body, and senses — so changes can take root across real-life activities.
Each session uses targeted activities to help the brain build new, more efficient neural pathways for seeing and processing the world. Over time, these pathways become like well-worn trails that are easier and easier to use, similar to learning to ride a bike. The goal is for your child's visual skills to become more automatic and dependable, so they can read, learn, and play with less effort and more confidence.
Vision therapy is one of the core treatments within our Neuro-Visual Performance Training program. It works like “physical therapy for the eyes,” using carefully designed activities to improve eye teaming, focusing, tracking, and depth perception. For many children, these skills did not fully develop or were disrupted by stress, illness, or other challenges.
In our office, vision therapy sessions are active and engaging. Children may track targets, focus between near and far objects, or perform tasks that require both eyes to work together under different conditions. As part of the larger program, vision therapy helps correct the root causes of visual discomfort, rather than just masking symptoms, so your child can rely on their visual system throughout the school day.
Seeing well is not only about the eyes. The brain must coordinate information from vision with balance, body awareness, and hearing to create a stable picture of the world. Our multisensory training helps integrate vision with the vestibular (balance) and proprioceptive (body position) systems, and it addresses retained primitive reflexes that can act like “cracks in the foundation” of development.
Perceptual training focuses on how the brain interprets and uses visual information. We work on skills like visual memory, visualization, spatial awareness, contrast sensitivity, and speed of recognition. These abilities support tasks such as remembering what was read, copying from the board, understanding charts and diagrams, and moving safely and confidently through busy environments. Together, multisensory and perceptual training help your child's brain handle visual information more comfortably and efficiently.
For children with amblyopia, we look beyond simple patching to address how the brain uses both eyes together. Our approach treats lazy eye as a problem of visual development and neural preference, not just a weak eye. We aim to help the brain recognize and use input from the amblyopic eye while restoring balanced binocular vision.
Through Neuro-Visual Performance Training, we use activities that gently challenge both eyes in a controlled way. The goal is to strengthen the weaker eye, improve eye teaming, and rebuild depth perception and 3D vision. Because we are working with neuroplasticity — the brain's ability to change — we focus on building pathways that are designed to be durable and useful in real-world situations, not just on a test.
When a child has strabismus, surgery is not the only option to consider. In many cases, the brain can learn to control eye alignment more effectively through targeted, step-by-step training. We view alignment as a skill that can be developed, much like balance or coordination, using the right sequence of challenges and support.
Our Neuro-Visual Performance Training program works to improve how both eyes aim, focus, and work together at different distances and in different positions of gaze. We often use tools like carefully prescribed lenses or prisms as “training wheels” to support the visual system while the brain learns new patterns. The goal is to help your child gain more comfortable, stable binocular vision that supports reading, sports, and daily activities.
Children’s Vision Conditions
Some families arrive with a specific diagnosis in hand, while others simply know that their child’s vision is not working the way it should. These are some of the most common children’s vision conditions we evaluate and treat through our Neuro-Visual Performance Training program.
Amblyopia occurs when one eye does not develop clear, equal vision, even with the right glasses prescription. Over time, the brain learns to rely on the stronger eye and pays less attention to the weaker eye. This can affect depth perception, hand-eye coordination, and confidence in activities that require precise vision.
In our clinic, we evaluate how each eye sees on its own, how both eyes work together, and how well the brain is combining the two images into a single 3D picture. We then design a treatment plan that may include lenses and Neuro-Visual Performance Training activities to encourage the brain to use the amblyopic eye more effectively while improving binocular vision. Our focus is on helping children gain more stable, comfortable vision they can trust in everyday life.
Strabismus refers to eyes that do not line up correctly. One eye may turn inward, outward, upward, or downward relative to the other. Besides affecting appearance, strabismus can lead the brain to suppress input from the turned eye, which can impact depth perception and coordination.
We perform a detailed assessment of when and how the eye turn appears, how flexible alignment is at different distances, and how the brain is responding to the misalignment. Treatment plans may use lenses, prisms, and Neuro-Visual Performance Training to help the brain and eyes learn more accurate alignment and cooperation. Our goal is to support better binocular function and comfort, whether or not surgery is part of the overall care plan.
Convergence insufficiency is a difficulty turning both eyes inward to look at near objects like books, worksheets, and screens. Children with this condition may see double at near, experience eye strain or headaches, or find it very hard to stay on the same line while reading. These symptoms can make homework a daily battle.
During the evaluation, we measure how well your child can converge their eyes, how quickly they tire, and how stable their alignment is over time. Research supports the use of office-based therapy for convergence problems, and our Neuro-Visual Performance Training program incorporates proven methods to strengthen convergence responses. As the brain builds more reliable convergence pathways, near work usually becomes more comfortable and sustainable.
Accurate eye movements and flexible focusing are essential for smooth reading and learning. If your child struggles to move their eyes from word to word without overshooting, or has trouble shifting focus from far to near and back again, they may show signs like skipping words, losing their place, or needing to re-read the same line.
We assess both saccades (quick jumps between points) and pursuits (smooth following motions), as well as focusing speed and stamina at different distances. Treatment then uses targeted activities to improve the precision and timing of these movements, while training the brain to maintain clear focus under real-world demands. As tracking and focusing improve, many children find that reading takes less effort and feels more natural.
Visual processing is how the brain makes sense of what the eyes see. Children with visual processing or perceptual delays may have trouble remembering what they read, recognizing patterns, understanding spatial relationships, or quickly picking out important details from a busy page. These challenges can look like “careless mistakes” or poor memory when, in fact, the brain is simply overtaxed.
Our testing looks at visual memory, visualization, spatial awareness, visual discrimination, and processing speed. We then use perceptual training activities to help the brain become more efficient at handling complex visual information. As processing improves, children often find it easier to follow directions, understand diagrams, and stay organized on the page and in their environment.
Children with ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, sensory processing differences, and related conditions often experience visual system overload. They may be highly sensitive to light, motion, or cluttered environments, or they may struggle to coordinate what they see with what their body is doing. In many cases, their visual system is working hard without getting the results they need.
At NVPI, we consider vision as part of a larger neurodevelopmental picture. We evaluate how vision interacts with other senses and how visual inefficiencies may be amplifying stress or limiting participation in therapy and daily activities. When visual problems are present, Neuro-Visual Performance Training can help calm and organize the visual system, reducing “visual noise” so that other supports and strengths can shine through.
Real Results for Kids, Adults, and the Experts Who Refer Them
PATIENT STORIES • PROFESSIONAL REFERRALS
Meet a student who jumped two full reading grade levels, an adult who finally overcame a lifetime of anxiety, and the neuroscientist who trusts Dr. Graebe with her own clients.
"My son jumped two full reading grade levels — and finally believes he can do the work."
Miles' Story — A 3rd Grader's Breakthrough in Reading & Confidence
"What I thought was social anxiety was actually a vision problem. Now new places and new people don't faze me."
Jo's Story — Overcoming Motion Sickness, Anxiety & Depth Perception Issues
"As a neuroscientist, I'm 100% confident referring my clients to Dr. Graebe — I watch their vision and confidence transform."
Dr. Brynn Dombroski, Ph.D., M.Ed., BCBA, LBA
Neuroscientist & Referring Clinician
"My son jumped two full reading grade levels — and finally believes he can do the work."
Miles' Story
A 3rd Grader's Breakthrough in Reading & Confidence
"What I thought was social anxiety was actually a vision problem. Now new places and new people don't faze me."
Jo's Story
Overcoming Motion Sickness, Anxiety & Depth Perception Issues
"As a neuroscientist, I'm 100% confident referring my clients to Dr. Graebe — I watch their vision and confidence transform."
Dr. Brynn Dombroski, Ph.D., M.Ed., BCBA, LBA
Neuroscientist & Referring Clinician
Explore More Children's
Vision Services
For a deeper look at how we support specific concerns, you can explore these related topics. Each page expands on one part of our children's vision care, all within the same integrated Neuro-Visual Performance Training approach.
Functional Vision Evaluation for Kids
Myopia Control and Management
Vision Therapy for Children
Eye Alignment and Focusing Issues
Lazy Eye (Amblyopia) Treatment
Crossed Eyes (Strabismus) Evaluation
Screen-Time Related Eye Strain
Learning-Related Vision Testing
Meet Dr. Rick Graebe
Specialist in Children’s Functional Vision
When your child is struggling, you want more than a quick exam and a prescription. You want a doctor who understands how vision, brain function, and development fit together. Dr. Rick Graebe has devoted his career to helping children and adults build the visual skills they need to read, learn, move, and perform at their best.
Dr. Graebe is an optometrist with more than 40 years of private practice experience and over 9,000 patients served. He holds an elite international designation as an OVDR Fellow and is one of the only eye doctors in Kentucky with this level of training in vision therapy and neuro-visual performance care. His certifications include board certification in Vision Therapy, Pediatric Developmental Vision Care, and Vision Rehabilitation.
In addition to his clinical work with children, Dr. Graebe is concussion certified and recognized by the College of Optometrists in Vision Development. Families travel from across Kentucky, from other states, and even internationally to seek his expertise in complex functional vision problems. His focus is always on connecting advanced science with practical, real-world results for each patient.
Most eye care visits are designed to check eyesight and eye health, then provide glasses or contacts if needed. NVPI was built to answer a different question: how well is the visual system doing the work your life demands? Our practice focuses on functional vision, neuroplasticity, and integrated treatment, not on routine exams.
As one of a small number of practices worldwide using advanced training technologies such as OMST and other cutting-edge tools, NVPI offers a level of depth that goes beyond standard vision therapy. We combine multisensory training, perceptual training, vision therapy, and carefully chosen supportive tools into one comprehensive Neuro-Visual Performance Training program. Every element is selected and sequenced to support long-term, structural changes in how the brain uses vision.
Many families come to NVPI after trying other approaches that did not fully address their child’s challenges. They may have seen multiple specialists or been told that “nothing more can be done,” yet they can still see that their child is working harder than peers just to get through the day. NVPI offers a fresh perspective by looking at the entire visual system as a trainable, adaptable part of the brain.
Because our approach is highly specialized, families travel from Lexington, the wider Bluegrass region, and beyond Kentucky to work with Dr. Graebe and his team. They value the detailed evaluations, the clear explanations, and the way treatment plans are tailored to real-life goals — reading with less effort, handling busy environments more calmly, and regaining confidence in school and daily activities. For many, the trip is worth it because the changes they see touch every part of their child’s life.
Parents’ Most Common Questions
Choosing a specialist for your child is a big decision. Here are clear answers to the questions we hear most often from families in and around Lexington who are considering a functional vision evaluation.
A regular eye exam checks how clearly your child can see at certain distances and looks for eye health problems. It is an important part of care, but it does not tell you how well their eyes and brain are working together for reading, learning, and daily activities. Many children with functional vision problems pass routine exams because they can still see the letters on the chart.
A functional vision evaluation goes much deeper. We test eye tracking, focusing, eye teaming, depth perception, visual processing, and how vision works with balance and body awareness. The goal is to understand how your child’s visual system performs under real-life demands, and whether visual inefficiencies are contributing to the struggles you see at home and school.
Yes. When a child’s visual system is working overtime just to keep words clear and in place, they often look restless, distracted, or avoidant. They may lose their place, skip lines, or complain of headaches and eye strain. From the outside, this can appear like attention problems or lack of motivation.
Vision problems do not replace ADHD or dyslexia, but they can mimic or worsen the symptoms. By testing functional vision directly, we can determine whether visual issues are part of your child’s picture. When we address those issues through Neuro-Visual Performance Training, many children find that schoolwork feels less draining, which can make it easier to benefit from other therapies and supports they already have in place.
Our office in Versailles is a short drive from most parts of Lexington and the surrounding Bluegrass region. Many families travel from Lexington, Nicholasville, Georgetown, and Frankfort for evaluations and ongoing Neuro-Visual Performance Training.
Because appointments are scheduled with ample time for each patient, most families find it manageable to build visits into their weekly or biweekly routine. We can discuss your specific drive time and scheduling needs when you call to book your child’s evaluation.
The length of treatment depends on your child’s starting point, the complexity of their visual challenges, and their individual goals. Some children complete a focused block of Neuro-Visual Performance Training over a few months, while others benefit from a longer program with several phases.
At your child’s initial evaluation, we will outline a recommended treatment plan, including an estimated length of care and how often we suggest visits. Along the way, we regularly measure progress in the 17 functional visual skills so you can see how your child is changing and understand when they are ready to transition or graduate.
We work with children, teens, and adults, but this page focuses on care for school-aged children and adolescents. Many of our pediatric patients are in the years when reading demands and school workloads are increasing, and their coping strategies are starting to break down.
Because neuroplasticity — the brain’s ability to change — is present throughout life, it is never “too late” to evaluate functional vision. We tailor testing methods and treatment activities to be age-appropriate so that younger children, older students, and adults can all benefit from an approach that fits where they are.
NVPI is a specialist practice, and our Neuro-Visual Performance Training program is structured differently than a standard eye exam. Some parts of the evaluation and treatment process may be eligible for out-of-network reimbursement, while others may not be covered by traditional insurance plans.
When you contact our office, we will explain how our fees are structured and what documentation we can provide if you choose to seek reimbursement from your insurance. Many families use a combination of health savings accounts, flexible spending accounts, and personal payment plans to make care possible. Our team will walk you through your options so you can make informed decisions.
Our Valued Patients
Learn how our personalized vision care has made a lasting difference in the lives of those we’ve helped.
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