| Optometric vision therapy is used to help children and adults to develop normal visual abilities. As a child grows, visual abilities normally develop from play and experience, so poor visual skills can be improved with appropriate training. This helps a child to learn better visual skills, which when practised through enjoyable activities, become learned and maintained. The development of visual skills involves a child learning to use and move both eyes as a team, to focus them accurately, to guide their hands with their eyes for writing and catching, and to understand and remember what their eyes see.
The most common reasons for vision therapy are:
1. Problems of focusing (accommodation) and convergence, affecting the ability to read and write comfortably and clearly, with good concentration and comprehension.
2. Delays in development of visual information processing skills (vision perception), affecting the ability to learn to read and write. These skills include visual discrimination, visual memory, visual laterality and directionality, and visual auditory integration.
3. Poor eye movement skills (tracking and saccades), affecting reading fluency and accuracy.
4. Poor eye-hand skills affecting writing, drawing and craftwork, as well as timing and judgement in sporting activities.
5. Turned eye (squint, strabismus)
6. Lazy eye (amblyopia).
7. Visual effects of acquired brain injuries .
Vision therapy is prescribed following a comprehensive assessment of visual abilities. This may include determination of the type and degree of focus and eye coordination problems, measurement of a turned or lazy eye, and following a visual information processing assessment which reveals significant weaknesses in development of a child’s understanding of what they see. Vision therapy is a process of guided development of new visual skills and abilities. The optometrist and therapist plan a sequence of visual activities, which the therapist then supervises in our office to help the child or adult to learn new and better visual skills. Home therapy activities are given each week to help the person to practise these new skills, so they become automatic and are retained, providing the potential for development of increasingly higher levels of visual abilities. The skills and experience of the vision therapist are used to find the most effective methods for a person to improve as quickly and easily as possible.
Vision therapy activities are selected to provide a slightly higher level of visual ability than the client can currently achieve. This will develop a positive learning experience for children, in contrast to the frustration and reduced confidence possibly experienced with learning difficulties. Adults frequently experience significant improvements in the quality of performance in study, computer work, sport and daily visual activities. The therapist helps the patient to relate vision therapy activities to work, school or sporting visual demands, providing awareness of positive benefits for the client.
Vision therapy is usually programmed over eight weekly in-office visits of approximately 45 minutes. The therapist will review previous progress with home activities, help the client to learn new visual abilities, and then instruct both the client (and parent where necessary) on next week’s home therapy activities. At the end of eight weeks of visits an optometric review is normally performed to assess progress.
Learning occurs at different and individual rates. Improvement and changes in the above areas of performance result from individual learning. Successful learning is highly dependent on the patient’s (and sometimes the parent’s) motivation. It is assumed the person in vision therapy will complete all the home vision therapy activities assigned
Vision therapy is not done “to” anyone, it is a scientific system of helping a person to learn to use and understand their own vision more accurately and effectively. Vision therapy has been proven to be successful by numerous research reports, as well as by the many patients who have achieved improved visual abilities and better school or work performance.
The vision therapy program fee is payable at the first visit and is not covered by private health insurance. This fee includes use of office equipment and consumables, loan of many different types of equipment for home activity practice, programming of activities, and reports as required during the therapy program. Vision therapy equipment is loaned for homework and should be returned during, or at the end of, the therapy program, otherwise a charge will be levied to cover costs. If this fee is difficult due to your economic circumstances, please discuss the situation with your optometrist.
Vision therapy is most effective when a child is healthy. If your child is ill it is better to advise our office, and another therapy session can be scheduled into the sequence, as sick children cannot learn effectively from therapy, or complete the home therapy necessary to develop skills.
 Eyes on Oxford is fortunate to have a very experienced, Association-certified vision therapist in Annmarie Bishop to provide vision therapy, and experienced behavioural optometrists in Stephen Leslie and Liz Wason.
Our office is leading the way in Australia in providing comprehensive vision therapy for children and adults, as well as in the development of formal education processes for vision therapists. |
