What is Vision Therapy?

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Vision and the motor visual system are our primary source for gathering information with 80% of learning occurring through the visual system. Even subtle issues with the visual system can have a major impact on our efficiency and performance, even more so for children where these systems are still developing.

Children are usually born with the necessary hardware to allow for the development of normal sensory skills, but it takes an active childhood of play, exploration and experience to develop and train the software that controls what we take in from the world. If this software is not established properly, it can result in problems with the visual system and therefore learning. If undetected these problems can continue into adulthood.

Behavioural (or Developmental) Optometrists, like Dr. Robinson and Dr. MacKenzie, will explore these processes and use a range of treatments to help their patients learn and function more efficiently. This therapy can be applicable to any age group‚ not just to children, including those following accidents and with traumatic brain injuries.

Optometric vision therapy is a rehabilitative program that is prescribed to treat developmental and/or neurologically induced dysfunctions of the visual system. Vision therapy involves a sequence of neurosensory and neuromuscular activities individually prescribed and monitored by a doctor to develop, rehabilitate, and enhance visual skills and visual processing, associated with:

• Eye coordination problems
• Binocular vision dysfunctions
• Accommodative (focusing) disorders
• Visual perceptual/processing disorders
• Strabismus (crossed or turned eyes)
• Amblyopia (lazy eye)
• Post-concussion vision syndrome
• Acquired brain injury (i.e. stroke) related vision problems
• Learning-related vision problems
• Vision problems associated with developmental delays and special populations (autism, cerebral palsy)

A person may require: active vision therapy combined with home therapy, glasses for distance and reading, prism, tints, light therapy, or partial field occlusion.

Vision therapy has been proven to be an effective treatment for many vision problems that cannot be treated with eyeglasses or contact lenses alone. Unlike glasses or contact lenses, which simply compensate for some vision problems, or eye surgery that alters the anatomy of the eye, vision therapy "teaches" the visual system how to correct itself. It can help people see more clearly, efficiently, and comfortably. Success, however, is not guaranteed and much of the improvement is dependent on a person's engagement in their program, as well as the nature of their condition.

Vision therapy can have a profound effect on your lifestyle and can help you see life in a whole new way! It has been proven through neuroplasticity research that you are never too old to re-train your brain! Contact us to set up an assessment to see if vision therapy can help you change your life!