What is Vision Therapy? - Part 1
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.
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.
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.
In Part 2 we will discuss more about the vision conditions and how Vision Therapy can help.
