What is Vision Therapy?
Typically when people think of vision they think of visual acuity or being able to see “20/20.” However, there are other areas of visual function that are necessary for clear and comfortable vision. These areas include binocularity (eye teaming), accommodation (eye focusing), and visual perception (eye tracking, visual memory, speed, processing, etc). These visual skills are critical for everyone, but especially for children in school because 80% of the learning that takes place in the classroom is visual. Unfortunately, a comprehensive eye exam does not always include binocular vision or visual perception testing, leaving individuals undiagnosed and facing difficulties in academics, sports, or socially. There are a variety of conditions that can be treated with vision therapy such as convergence insufficiency, amblyopia (lazy eye), strabismus (crossed-eyes or eye turns), eye tracking problems, and visual perception/processing issues.
Vision therapy is a fully personalized treatment program that is tailored to fit the specific visual needs of each patient. The therapy consists of weekly 40-minute in-office sessions that are one-on-one with Dr. Hirasa, in addition to prescribed home-activities to reinforce and build upon the skills that are learned during the in-office sessions. Each patient is unique and the therapy period can range from 3 months to a year depending on the condition, with periodic re-evaluations to monitor progress along the way. Vision therapy involves exercises that utilize lenses, prisms, filters, occluders, and much more. These exercises aim to teach the eyes and brain how to work better together in order to gather, process, and integrate their vision. With improved control of their eyes and brain-eye communication this will allow the patient to have better visual comfort, ease, and efficiency.
Most important to the success of vision therapy is the commitment between the doctor, patient, and family/support system. It is important to have goals that the patient is working towards whether that’s better eye alignment (making by the eyes point straight ahead by reducing an eye turn), improved depth perception (3-D vision), less eye strain or headaches at the end of the day, or even something personal such as getting better at catching a ball. Vision therapy is a well-researched and clinically proven treatment option that has been improving peoples’ lives, both children and adults, for generations.
Common symptoms of visual problems that can benefit from vision therapy:
- Blurred vision
- Double vision
- Squinting/rubbing eyes
- Dizziness/nausea after reading
- Avoidance of near work (books, schoolwork)
- Frequent loss of place
- Omits, inserts or re-reads words
- Poor hand-eye coordination
Common visual problems that can benefit from vision therapy:
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Strabismus (eye turn)
Strabismus occurs when the two eyes are unable to maintain proper alignment and focus together on an object which results in one eye looking directly at the object, while the other eye points in a different direction. Strabismus is commonly known as “crossed eyes” or “eye turns.” Initially, strabismus may cause double vision that can be confusing and uncomfortable for the patient. The most common treatment methods include glasses, eye muscle surgery, or vision therapy. Vision therapy is an effective treatment of strabismus and involves training of the eye muscles and development of the eye-brain connections required for clear and single vision. Sometimes, a program of vision therapy may be recommended pre and post-strabismus surgery to improve surgical outcomes and promote better binocularity (eye-teaming).
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Amblyopia (lazy eye)
Amblyopia, commonly known as a “lazy eye”, is a neuro-developmental vision condition that begins in early childhood. Amblyopia develops when an eye is unable to achieve normal visual acuity, causing long-lasting blurry vision in the affected eye, even with corrective glasses. There are various causes of amblyopia, but ultimately what happens is that the brain actively ignores the visual information coming from that eye in order to avoid blurry or double vision. Vision therapy is an effective treatment method for amblyopia and has been shown to improve the visual skills of the lazy eye by re-training the visual system and strengthening those eye-brain connections.
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Convergence insufficiency
Convergence insufficiency (CI) is a highly treatable binocular vision condition that affects near vision and eye muscle coordination. Convergence is the skill needed when our two eyes need to focus on a close object such as a book, computer, or phone. CI means that the eyes struggle to focus for near tasks and there are many different symptoms that can develop as a result. The most common symptoms include eyestrain, headaches, blurred or double vision, difficulty reading and concentrating, and avoidance of near work. Convergence insufficiency frequently goes undetected in school age children because standard eye exams don’t always include binocular vision testing. The good news is that CI responds very well to vision therapy and can teach the patient needed skills in order to achieve clear and comfortable vision.
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Eye tracking problems
Eye tracking, also called visual tracking, is the eyes’ ability to track from left to right efficiently and to follow moving objects. Eye tracking is critical to success in sports and school because when a person has poor eye tracking skills the ability to track a ball or words on a page while reading are affected. Poor eye tracking results in eye movements that aren’t smooth and can cause vision to be jumpy resulting in frequent loss of place while reading. Vision therapy is an effective treatment option for eye tracking disorders and involves exercises designed to teach the eyes to move smoothly from one place to another.
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Visual perception and processing issues
Visual perception refers to the way in which the brain interprets and processes visual information. Visual perceptual skills involve the ability to organize and interpret the information that a person sees and give it context and meaning. These skills include form discrimination, spatial relations, figure ground, visual closure, form constancy, visual memory, etc. Unfortunately, many individuals are misidentified or unidentified because most eye doctors do not test visual perceptual skills. Vision therapy is an effective treatment option for visual perception and processing issues and involves various activities and utilization of equipment to address the specific areas that the child needs improvement.