What is Vision Therapy?

Many times people are referred to our office for a vision condition that they have never heard of and for a treatment (Vision Therapy) that they did not know was available. So we decided to spend some time describing the vision therapy process from start to finish.

First, let’s start with talking about what is Vision Therapy? Vision therapy is a doctor directed program (by an optometrist) that is aimed at training the brain and eyes to work together. The vision therapy program consists of techniques that are administered to help develop coordination of the visual system. Vision therapy does not strengthen the eye muscles, rather it improves the control and coordination so the eyes can work together more efficiently and consistently. 

So how does the optometrist determine the necessary treatment program? A comprehensive vision evaluation is recommended to assess visual skills, including eye tracking, eye focusing, eye coordination, depth perception, and visual information processing. The vision evaluation is more than just checking for eye sight (20/20 vision) as visual skills play a crucial role in allowing for comfortable and efficient visual performance when performing academic work, including reading, writing, copying from the board, and computer work.

Many people believe that having 20/20 eyesight means you have perfect vision. In fact, eyesight is just one of many vision skills needed for good visual performance. Frequently we see kids and adults with 20/20 eyesight who struggle with their performance at school, sports, or at work. So what are the vision conditions that cause this?

The most common vision conditions we treat in our office are Ocular Motor Dysfunction (inadequate eye tracking) Accommodative Dysfunction (inadequate eye focusing), and Binocular Vision Dysfunction (inadequate eye teaming). These vision conditions can cause many visual concerns, including intermittent blurry vision, headaches, eye strain/fatigue, loss of place when reading, inaccurate visual judgements, and poor depth perception even with good eyesight. Other vision conditions may also occur due to these vision dysfunctions include Convergence Insufficiency, Amblyopia (lazy eye), and Strabismus (eye turn). 

Once a vision condition has been diagnosed, we create an individualized Vision Therapy program to address the concerns. We perform specific techniques to activate and relax the visual system and train control, flexibility, and endurance. We increase the visual demand to levels beyond typical levels to allow the visual system to perform under stress conditions. We also integrate other sensory processes, including motor, balance, and auditory processing, while performing visual tasks. This ensures that the visual system can perform well under any condition.

By strengthening the connection between the brain and the visual system, Vision Therapy allows patients to gain a greater understanding of their visual abilities and learn how to efficiently apply these learned skills to relevant tasks and activities, including reading, writing, and other academic work. And because these abilities are integrated with other sensory processes.