What is Vision Therapy?
Vision therapy is a form of Behavioral Optometry and utilizes neurosensory and neuromuscular activities and exercises to develop, rehabilitate, and/or enhance visual skills and visual processing in both eyes. Overall, vision therapy aims to ensure both eyes track objects equally, at all distances. Vision therapy can also help to prevent or delay the need for some types of eye surgery.
Here at North Bay Vision Center, each patient will participate in a program that is specifically designed for them. The design of said program is based on a comprehensive vision exam, additional testing, the patient’s symptoms, and the patient’s overall goals.
NEW: Vision Screenings for Children!
North Bay Vision Center is pleased to offer vision screenings for children. This screening is a form of additional testing that can help aid in the identification and treatment of visual difficulties your child may have. Our vision therapy staff has over 20 years experience combined and is here to answer any questions you may have regarding your child's vision. Please see the above poster for more information. Please call our office or click here to schedule today!
Who Can Benefit from Vision Therapy?
If you or your child experiences/have experienced one or more of the following symptoms, vision therapy may be the right course of action for you or your child:
- Amblyopia: Also known as a lazy eye, is a condition that usually occurs in early childhood where one eye is significantly weaker than the other eye causing the brain to favor the stronger eye and causing poor vision in the weaker eye. Physical symptoms of Amblyopia can include: a wandering eye and/or poor depth perception.
- Strabismus: a neuromuscular condition where the eyes are misaligned. Strabismus is commonly known as "crossed eyes". The main symptom of strabismus is when both eyes do not look at the same object at the same time. Patients who have also had strabismus surgery can also benefit from vision therapy.
- Accommodative/Tracking difficulties: Can occur in children and adults. These difficulties are often characterized by one or more of the following: difficulty copying information down from the classroom white board, skipping lines/words or losing place while reading, poor performance in sports, poor handwriting, and frequent drowsiness when reading and/or doing close work.
- Double vision
- TBI (traumatic brain injury)
- Stroke
Common Misconceptions About Vision Therapy:
1. ADHD: Eye-tracking problems in a child may be misinterpreted as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. If a child’s eyes are not tracking the words on a page, the child cannot participate in many class activities and may become easily bored or distracted. Normal eye vision exams rarely detect eye-tracking problems. An eye doctor with orthoptic training can diagnose and treat childhood eye-tracking problems.
2. "The goal of vision therapy is to strengthen the eyes": When most people think about vision therapy, they think of someone exercising their eyes, much like physical therapy is akin to bodily exercise. That image is partially correct, as sometimes there are specific activities in vision therapy that help exercise the eye muscles. However, the main goal of vision therapy is to enhance the neurological connection between the brain and the eyes so that both eyes can efficiently work together.
3. "Vision therapy can help solve refractive errors": While vision therapy can help the overall function of one's eyes, vision therapy cannot correct refractive errors. Refractive errors can be corrected via glasses, contact lenses, or laser eye surgery.
Types of Vision Therapy
Some types of vision therapy may be done with non-standard prescription glasses or contact lenses. The strength of these may be changed over time, depending upon how your condition improves. Patients may use various types of exercises using expensive, specialized equipment.
Our optometry center uses vision correction devices like:
- Corrective lenses (standard prescriptions)
- Therapeutic lenses, often very different from normal glasses
- Prism lenses
- Optical filters
- An eye patch which forces the neuromuscular system to work with a problem eye
- Brock strings, which can assist in vision tracking
- Vectograms, tranaglyphs, and stereo objects, which cause the eyes to properly sense differences in symmetry
- Electronic targets with mechanical timing mechanisms, which assist the eyes to work together for motion tracking
- Visual-motor-sensory integration devices to help eye, hand, and body coordination
At the North Bay Vision Center in Rohnert Park, we have specialist eye doctor in many areas of optometry. Come see our optometrist for your vision needs. Give us a call at 707-584-7294 ;to set up an appointment.