What Does Vision Therapy Fix? 5 Eye Conditions That It Can Help

If you’ve been diagnosed with a refractive error, such as hyperopia, myopia, or astigmatism, it’s more than likely that you’ve also been prescribed corrective lenses. And, sometimes, corrective lenses have their place and make sense. However, our longtime readers know that our first move at Rebuild Your Vision is always going to be to suggest adding eye-healthy nutrients to your diet, and perhaps even some eye exercises, to improve your vision naturally. But beyond these two tactics lies another, more specific one: vision therapy. So, what does vision therapy fix?

If you’re looking for natural ways to avoid invasive surgeries or expensive prescription lenses, vision therapy may be the solution for you. In today’s post, we’ll explore just what vision therapy is and the ways it can improve visual abilities – in you, your child, or your loved one.

What Is Vision Therapy and How to Get Started?

If you’ve ever tried one of our many free eye exercises that we offer, we salute you! However, these are not what we mean when we say “vision therapy.” While our eye exercises are great for preventative care and strengthening your vision overall, they are not tailor-made for your specific eye condition. Vision therapy, on the other hand, is. This is why there aren’t many online vision therapy exercises out there (and, if you find some, be wary – it’s always best to work with a licensed professional).

When done properly, vision therapy is a great, non-invasive treatment option that is safe for both children and adults. Vision therapy comes highly recommended for young children who have vision developmental issues.

If you have an eye condition that can be treated with vision therapy, you should start by researching where to find a vision therapist. Once you do that, you’ll likely set up appointments either once or twice a week. Most of your therapy work will be done in office. These appointments usually last 30 minutes to an hour. Your therapist may also assign “homework” for you to complete between sessions. For the most part, an in-office vision therapy session can last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

Eye Conditions That Can Be Improved with Vision Therapy

So, back to our original question: what does vision therapy fix? While glasses and contacts have their place, some eye conditions are actually better treated with vision therapy. This is because certain exercises can physically strengthen your eye muscles, thereby reducing the impact of whatever issue you’re facing.

It is important to note that there is some controversy surrounding the concept of vision therapy. This is because, historically, some practitioners have claimed that they can treat issues like reading difficulties and ADHD with vision therapy. Researchers have since discredited this. However, the College of Optometrists in Vision Development offers vision therapy treatments for conditions such as 3D vision problems, convergence insufficiency or excess, crossed eyes, dyslexia, double vision, and amblyopia. To make a long story short, there are different types of vision therapy, and some are less reliable than others. It’s important to do your research and make sure your practitioner is accredited. Here is more information on some of those issues and how vision therapy can help.

Focusing Problems

If you’ve ever stopped to notice the structure of the human eye, you’ve probably ascertained that it functions similarly to a telescope or camera. The human eye is normally equipped with automatic focusing, just like both of those pieces of equipment. This is what allows us to transition between seeing things up close or at a distance so quickly. However, this ability is sometimes underdeveloped, especially in children’s eyes.

Focusing problems are responsible for a variety of side effects, such as reading difficulties, blurred vision, double vision, headaches, and eye fatigue. All these issues can also limit productivity, both at school and in the workplace. After all, almost any task requires sharp focusing skills.

Often, this condition is treated with corrective eyewear, but it isn’t always effective or convenient. Vision therapy techniques can help with focusing problems. The right practitioner can help develop a regimen for you that will strengthen your eye muscles so that they can switch between close-up and distant focus more easily.

Depth Perception Problems

Our depth perception is what allows us to gauge the distance between us and surrounding objects. It allows us to do everything from turning off the lamp on our nightstands to parking the car correctly. Humans have always relied on depth perception for safety.

Our depth perception is courtesy of our ability to see in three dimensions. More scientifically, this is called stereoscopic vision. When someone is lacking or missing stereoscopic vision, this can make perceiving depth very difficult. They may rely on other visual cues to see depth, but their perception of it is much less accurate.

If you or your child lacks stereoscopic vision, unfortunately, not much can be done to restore it. However, vision therapy can help you develop certain cues to make up for what your eyes lack.

Hand-Eye Coordination Problems

We all know that one person with absolutely zero hand-eye coordination who always literally drops the ball during the tag football game. Though it’s fun to laugh at how terrible they are at football, it is actually a hard thing to live with.

Hand-eye coordination is the ability of your brain to effectively and quickly communicate visual information with your hands, arms, legs, feet, etc. Without it, things like playing sports, drawing, and riding a bike are all very difficult to execute. This is because the brain and the eyes are out of sync.

Luckily, vision therapy can help train those underdeveloped hand-eye coordination skills. This will help you or your child’s brain and body become more in tune with each other for better communication and, eventually, better task execution.

Hand-eye coordination is an especially valuable skill for children. A childhood without sports and play is a sad one. Luckily, the right vision therapist can help your child build the skills necessary to be a successful athlete.

Strabismus and Amblyopia

Strabismus, or crossed eyes, is a condition that affects a lot of children and adults. This condition refers to the crossing of the eyes and the drifting of the eyes outwards. If not treated early in children, strabismus can cause a lifetime of poor vision and vision problems. Some of these include convergence insufficiency and blurry vision.

Amblyopia, or lazy eye, is another common issue in children. This occurs when one eye does not track normally with the other. Luckily, vision therapy can often take care of visual tracking errors like this, too, if implemented in time.

Even though vision therapy for children with strabismus is available, it is more of a bonus. There are more effective ways to treat infant strabismus. For ambylopia, many practitioners will prescribe occlusion (patching) lenses and prisms. These train the “lazy” eye to track properly, as they prevent the brain from overrelying on the normal eye. On the other hand, vision therapy for strabismus mainly helps adults whose condition has become almost permanent.

For adults, surgery is the only other option to treat strabismus. However, vision therapy success stories claim that their vision has significantly improved without the use of dangerous and invasive surgery.

So, while vision therapy isn’t a cure-all, it can certainly help a lot of vision issues without expensive lenses or risky surgeries. To learn more about what vision therapy fixes and if it is right for you, talk to your eye doctor at your next exam.