Vision Therapy / Training

20/20 does not mean normal vision!

The term “20/20” is a measurement of your visual acuity, or how well you can see fine detail. Reduced visual acuity (i.e., blurry vision) can generally be corrected by spectacle lenses, contact lenses, AOK lenses, or laser vision correction in healthy eyes.

However, 20/20 vision is only one aspect of normal vision. Visual acuity fails to measure other important visual skills essential for normal visual function:

• Accommodation (eye focusing ability)
• Binocularity (eye coordination)
• Ocular motility (eye movement).

These aspects of vision are often overlooked. If undiagnosed, eye focusing and coordination abnormalities can contribute to increased stress on the entire visual system, leading to chronic eye fatigue, lack of concentration, decreased visual efficiency, or even double vision.

Weak visual skills will not go away with time and without treatment; it may even worsen over time as the visual system strains to deal with the constant stress. A program of Vision Therapy can be used to prevent or reduce these factors.

What is Vision Therapy?

Vision Therapy is a progressive program of vision training exercises that are individualized and prescribed by an eye care professional to improve weak or nonexistent visual skills or processing skills.

Vision Therapy is prescribed to:

• Help patients develop or improve fundamental visual skills and abilities
• Improve visual comfort, ease, and efficiency
• Change how a patient processes or interprets visual information.

Generally, Vision Therapy treatments are conducted in-office, and supplemented with procedures done at home to reinforce the developing skills between office visits.

Many types of specialized equipment can be utilized in Vision Therapy programs, such as:

• Prescription/therapeutic lenses
• Prisms
• Occluders/patches
• Color filters
• Electronic targets with timing mechanisms
• Specialized computer programs.

The length of Vision Therapy programs typically range from several weeks to several months. The nature and severity of the disorder being treated, the specific needs of the patient, patient compliance, and the patient’s medical history can affect the duration of treatment. Visual skills can be retrained at any age.

What are the benefits of Vision Therapy?

The goals of Vision Therapy are to improve visual function, relieve associated signs and symptoms, meet visual needs, and improve quality of life. Vision Therapy has been clinically shown to be an effective treatment for accommodative disorders (eye focusing problems), binocular dysfunction (inefficient eye coordination), ocular motility dysfunctions (eye movement disorders), strabismus (turned eye), amblyopia (lazy eye), and perceptual-motor dysfunction.

When weak visual and processing skills are present, an individual's ability to quickly and accurately comprehend reading material may be reduced. Once these skills have been improved through Vision Therapy, reading and learning may become easier.

In addition, many visual skills are required in sport activities. These skills can be trained through Vision Therapy to reach their maximum potential.

Vision Therapy is a treatment to improve a specific vision disorder; it is not a treatment for dyslexia, learning disabilities, or attention deficit disorder.

The prognosis for visual skills improvement can vary from very poor to excellent depending on the type of deviation/misalignment, type and number of visual adaptations, duration of condition, prior interventions, and patient compliance with the treatment regimen.

How do I begin?

The first step in any Vision Therapy program is to obtain a comprehensive eye exam by a qualified eye care professional to assess overall visual function and ocular health. To determine if an individual is a candidate for Vision Therapy, a comprehensive Binocular Vision Assessment should be performed to assess the exact nature of the visual skill deficit.

Unlike a routine eye exam, a Binocular Vision Assessment will evaluate in detail all of the patient's visual abilities, not just visual acuity. Standardized tests evaluate the patient's focusing skills, eye coordination skills, eye tracking skills, visual-motor skills, and visual perceptual skills. Based on the results from the Binocular Vision Assessment, the eye care professional can determine if Vision Therapy will be an appropriate treatment to improve any deficient visual skills.

Please feel free to contact our office if you have any questions regarding this type of treatment, or if you would like to schedule an appointment for an assessment to determine if Vision Therapy will benefit you.