Vision Therapy

• What is Vision Therapy?

Some visual conditions not only cannot be detected by the standard eye chart test in school or the pediatrician's office, they cannot be treated adequately with just glasses, contact lenses and/or patching, and are best resolved through a program of Vision Therapy.

Vision Therapy is a treatment plan used to help both of the eyes work together for gathering and processing information.

Does your child have any of the following?

• Difficulty reading or learning
• Not living up to his/her potential in school
• ADHD/ADD
• Autism
• Asperger's
• Down Syndrome
• Special Needs
• Strabismus (a turned eye)
• Amblyopia ( a lazy eye)
• Tramatic Brain Injury
• Stroke

Is your child not performing up to his/her potential in the classroom?

Does your child experience headaches when reading?

Does your child hate to read?

Have you been told that your child has a processing problem?

Vision therapy eliminates visual problems that interfere with academic achievement. Your child may not be able to articulate that the words seem to move on the page when reading. Many children do not realize that they are seeing differently. Occasional blur or doublevision may contribute to losing one’s place while reading, becoming tired while reading, and getting headaches while reading or doing schoolwork. Often, these symptoms are mistaken for lack of motivation or inability to concentrate.

When the causes of the visual problems are addressed with vision therapy, children make remarkable improvements in their academic work.

By performing a complete binocular vision and visual perceptual evaluation, we will determine if your child’s academic challenges are caused by an undetected visual problem.

Vision Therapy for Patients with ADHD/ADD

• Does your child have difficulty concentrating in school?
• Does your child’s teacher tell you that he has hyperactivity?
• Are you considering medication to help your child stay focused?

Children that have undiagnosed vision problems such as accommodation (focusing the eyes) or poor eye teaming (convergence insufficiency) often seem inattentive in an academic environment. These vision problems are not detected in the pediatrician’s office or by the school nurse. Poor focusing and eye teaming problems are easily solved with vision therapy. Sometimes, reading glasses may help solve the symptoms. Fixing these visual deficits may eliminate the need for medication.Please contact our office for more information.

Who Can Benefit From Vision Therapy?

Patients of all ages can benefit from vision therapy. The nature of the therapy program varies with the condition treated. For example, a three-year-old child with amblyopia, or "lazy eye", may simply have the better eye patched for a short period of time. An eight-year-old child with strabismus, or "crossed eye", may require therapy for a period of a year. A thirty-year-old computer programmer may require three to six months to solve a visual problem that causes significant eye strain.

Children and adults with the following visual challenges, along with those previously mentioned, are often benefitted by vision therapy.

• Learning-related Vision Problems
  Vision Therapy can help those individuals who lack the necessary visual skills for effective reading, writing, and learning (i.e., eye movement and focusing skills, convergence, eye-hand activity, visual memory skills, etc.).
  • To learn more about vision-related learning problems, visit any of these web pages on on reading, ADD/ADHD, tracking or convergence insufficiency .

• Poor Binocular Coordination
  Vision Therapy helps individuals develop normal coordination and teamwork of the two eyes (binocular vision). When the two eyes fail to work together as an effective team, performance in many areas can suffer (reading, sports, depth perception, eye contact, etc.).
  • To learn more about binocular vision, visit these web pages on 3D vision and depth perception, convergence insufficiency or The Framing Game.

• Strabismus and Amblyopia
  Vision Therapy programs offer much higher cure rates for turned eyes and/or lazy eye when compared to eye surgery, glasses, and/or patching, without therapy. The earlier the patient receives Vision Therapy the better, however, our office has successfully treated patients well past 21 years of age.
  • To learn more about crossed eyes or lazy eye, visit the many web pages of strabismus.org, children-special-needs.org or lazyeye.org.
  • Find out about eye muscle surgery as a treatment option for crossed eyes and lazy eye.

• Stress-induced Visual Difficulties
  21st century lifestyles demand more from our vision than ever before. Children and adults in our technological society constantly use their near vision at work and at home. C.V.S. (Computer Vision Syndrome) is one of the fastest growing health concerns in the workplace today. Environmental stresses on the visual system (including excessive computer use or close work) can induce eyestrain, headaches, and/or visual difficulties which can be effectively treated with corrective lenses and/or Vision Therapy.

• Visual Rehabilitation for Special Populations
  Vision can be compromised as a result of neurological disorders or trauma to the nervous system (such as traumatic brain injuries, stroke, whiplash, developmental delays, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, etc.). Vision Therapy can effectively treat the visual consequences of trauma (including double vision).
  • To learn more about brain injuries and vision, visit braininjuries.org.

• Sports Vision Improvement
  Strong visual skills are critical to sports success. Not much happens in sports until your eyes instruct your hands and body what to do! Accurate vision and athletic visual skills can be measured, developed, and enhanced through Vision Therapy. We measure and successfully improve eye-hand coordination, visual reaction time, peripheral awareness, eye teaming, focusing, tracking, and visualization skills (to mention just a few).

Frequently Asked Questions

Vision Therapy can be the answer to many visual problems. Don't hesitate to contact us with your questions. To read definitions for Vision Therapy by outside sources, visit children-special-needs.org.

Vision therapy is administered in our office under the guidance of our doctor. Sometimes a number of office visits are required over a period ranging from several weeks to several months. Usually the patient performs several exercises, then the doctor teaches the patient techniques to be practiced at home to reinforce the developing visual skills.

Vision therapy can effectively treat eye movement disorders, inefficient eye teaming, misaligned eyes, poorly developed vision, focusing problems, and other visual information processing disorders.

The following are some frequently asked questions about vision therapy.

Is Vision Therapy New?

Although it is a dynamic optometric specialty that improves visual function and performance, vision therapy is actually an outgrowth of orthoptics. Orthoptics: which literally means "straightening of the eyes,” was introduced to this country by physicians in the late 1800s. As physicians became more focused on eyeglasses, medication, and surgery, the benefits of orthoptics were taught to fewer and fewer practitioners. However, optometrists in the mid 1900's took the best that orthoptics had to offer, and pioneered the development of vision therapy.

What Is Involved in a Vision Therapy Program?

At Wittmann 20/20 we are not set up at this time to conduct all types of vision therapy.  However, we are trained to detect the visual problems these patients experience and are happy to refer the patient to the appropriate therapist for them.

Can I Just Do the Therapy at Home by Myself?

Vision therapy programs are individualized for the patient, and careful guidance and frequent monitoring are required for success. When attempted by patients without guidance, poor visual habits may actually be reinforced. In addition, specialty computer programs with liquid crystal polarizing goggles and other specialized instrumentation are used which do not lend themselves to unsupervised use at home.

Will My Insurance Cover Vision Therapy?

Some of the better health insurance policies cover the medical aspect of vision therapy. Coverage has no relationship to vision care plans which cover eye examinations, eyeglasses, or contact lenses once every year or two. Do not allow insurance companies to make arbitrary decisions that prevent you or your child from receiving necessary care.

How Long Does Vision Therapy Last?

When the program is complete, the benefits of vision therapy will last for a lifetime. Accurate focusing and the efficient use of both eyes together is a reflex which, when conditioned, should operate effortlessly. Self-monitoring activities are prescribed at the end of each therapy program. Non-medical vision therapy, as related to visual perception, prepares children for lifelong learning, and it fills in gaps for many adults who have lost visual skills and abilities.