What is vision therapy good for

Amblyopia, colloquially called lazy eye, is a condition in which the eye cannot perform its intended function due to neurological neglect. An eye affected by amblyopia does not receive the stimulation it needs from the brain to behave normally, which causes the brain to favor the healthy eye.

It develops from strabismus (eye-turn) or untreated refractive errors. Over time, the brain overcomes the disability of the untreated eye by developing optic nerves for only one eye and neglecting the other. The result is an inability to perceive depth.

Treating lazy eye with vision therapy helps slowly introduce the brain to new strategies for receiving feedback from both eyes equally. Exercises encourage the use of an eye affected by amblyopia in new ways that gradually improve regular brain and eye response. In advanced stages of therapy, affected eyes learn to see again through increased acuity and binocular function.

Concussions and other head injuries are not uncommon in the Canada, just think about one of our favorite sports - Hockey! Dangerous occupations and the freedom to explore extreme sports leave us vulnerable to different kinds of head injury. If you experience a brain or head injury, our team is here to help.

Vision therapy (called neuro-optometric rehabilitation in case of brain injury) helps treat the effects of brain injury and teaches the injured brain new ways to compensate for vision problems. The result is a natural and sustainable treatment that may allow those affected by brain injury to reclaim some or most of their visual function. The goal of your neuro-optometric rehabilitation treatment program is to eliminate visual-related signs and symptoms, advance the outcome of other rehabilitative services, and improve quality of life.

Convergence is the ability to accurately coordinate the eyes to focus on an object in space. It is part of the process involved in seeing a single, three-dimensional image. Equally as important is the ability of both eyes to team together and give simultaneous feedback to the brain. Convergence and eye teaming are closely related, and problems with each often occur simultaneously.

More than 1 million Canadians suffer from convergence insufficiency, noticeable by the inability to coordinate the eyes when performing work close to the face. Difficulty arises from a failure to provide relevant or correct information to the brain which can manifest as inefficiency and inaccuracies in reading and computer work.

Vision therapy exercises for convergence insufficiency and eye teaming emphasize reteaching the eyes to coordinate with one another to realign feedback sent to the brain. As teamwork improves from eye to eye, therapists can also work on convergence insufficient treatment methods that help improve three-dimensional vision and recover depth perception and clear vision.

 Vision is a critical part of how the human body perceives and calculates balance. Many of the nerve fibers in the eye connect with the vestibular system, your body’s balance center. There are several common visual and balance issues connected to stroke, brain injury, and vestibular dysfunction. At our clinic we offer vision therapy for vestibular balance disorders to help our patients with their dizziness and balance problems.  If you experience these symptoms, a visual efficiency evaluation may provide answers to the cause of your symptoms, and an individualized program of vision therapy could help remediate the concerns. 

Eye tracking is a term for the coordinated and precise eye movements crucial for reading efficiency and sports performance. It involves three important skills:

• Fixation – tracking skills of sustained and steady gaze required for visual attention and recall.
• Pursuit – coordinated eye movements essential for following moving targets and accurate eye-hand coordination.
• Saccade – precise eye movements from one target to another that are important for reading efficiency.

Eye tracking problems can result in loss of place or skipping lines while reading, re-reading lines, confusing or omitting small words, or poor eye-hand coordination. Without a sufficient ability to track movement, learning ability and sports performance both suffer.

Vision therapy can help eye tracking patients re-train the eyes to improve those skills needed to track words and objects accurately. Exercises slowly (delete) reintroduce movement and strategically train the eyes to respond quickly to movement in a way that provides relevant information to the brain.

 Performing to the standard in sports calls for the use of visual systems to coordinate body movement and response. Sports vision training is possible because many of the systems our clinic treats for vision problems also play a role in completing tasks in sports with or without a ball.

Patients who are having trouble succeeding at sports such as baseball but are unable to identify the problems they are having may be suffering from problems with visual systems such as:

• Eye focusing
• Eye tracking
• Convergence
• Ocular motility & posture
• Visual acuity
• Eye teaming

Other problems may also limit an athlete’s performance and a proper assessment at our clinic may help bring these  issues to light.