The efficacy of vision therapy has been clearly shown by numerous research studies funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI).
Vision therapy is a personalized treatment program designed to strengthen and improve visual skills such as focusing, visual processing speed, convergence, eye-tracking, hand-eye coordination, and more!
This program teaches the patient how to apply these new skills to improve their learning, reading, attention, and concentration.
If you feel vision therapy could benefit you or your child the Find an Eye Doctor directory lists eye doctors near you that have helped thousands of patients have years of experience in helping patients with vision therapy.
SEE RELATED: How Can a Developmental Optometrist Help?
Who can benefit from vision therapy?
Vision therapy can be effective for people of all ages.
The success of a vision therapy program is dependent on the type of visual condition a person has, and not their age.
Unfortunately, many patients mistakenly believe they are too old to correct their vision – and feel they have missed an opportunity. They don’t realize that the brain remains dynamic and flexible throughout life. Vision therapy can be just as effective for adults as it is for children.
Moreover, as a result of motivation to succeed, many adults have shown faster improvements when compared to children.
Children also respond well to vision therapy, which improves their performance in school and while playing sports. The following behaviors may be a sign of a vision problem:
- Avoids or dislikes doing homework
- Confuses similar words, such as ‘was’ and ‘saw’ or ‘pot’ and ‘top’
- Has difficulty changing focus from near to far and back again
- Has difficulty maintaining attention
- Loses their place, repeats and/or leaves out words while reading
- Has messy handwriting
- Exhibits poor depth perception
- Reads below grade level
- Displays reduced reading comprehension
- Reverses letters such as b, d, p and q
- Has difficulty spelling
- Writes numbers backwards, such as 2 & 5 or 6 & 9
Which conditions can benefit from a vision therapy program?
There are thousands of vision therapy success stories. Vision therapy typically includes specific programs to treat:
- Amblyopia (lazy eye)
- Convergence Insufficiency
- Depth perception and 3D vision difficulties
- Double vision
- Eye fatigue
- Eye teaming and tracking problems
- Focusing difficulties
- Hand-eye coordination difficulties
- Strabismus (crossed-eyes)
- Visual perception and processing problems
How quickly will results be seen?
Each patient is different, and depending on their specific therapy regimen, it can take as little as a few weeks to up to six months to see the optimum results.
However, improved visual skills are often noticed after a few weeks.
Over the course of the program your doctor will continue to assess your improvements in order to determine how many visits are needed to achieve the best results.
LEARN MORE: Vision Therapy for Lazy Eye
If you think you can benefit from vision therapy, schedule a comprehensive vision evaluation with a developmental optometrist near you.
