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Vision Enhancement and Visual Therapy Overview

April 3, 2008 on 9:00 pm | In Uncategorized |

Though my years of practicing visual therapy and vision enhancement, I’ve found that many people are not familiar with the practice, so I thought a quick overview would be a good starting point…  

Vision is a learned process and therefore trainable.  Vision enhancement is a means of improving conditions, which cannot be adequately treated with glasses or contact lenses alone.   Through the use of therapy to reinforce or re-teach visual skills, conditions such as poor eye coordination and movement, convergence insufficiency, low focus endurance, crossed eyes and lazy eye may be improved. 

Poor vision skills may result in underachievement in reading, academics, athletics, and vocations.  Vision problems may be simple and therefore require only a few sessions.  They may be more complex, involving the need to improve organization and integration of all the information systems and to train vision to be the dominant sensory mode.  Strabismus (crossed eyes) and amblyopia (lazy eye) are among the most complex problems and take the longest to resolve. 

Treatment consists of an individually prescribed therapy program in a controlled setting that includes the use of prism lenses, filters, and special instruments.  The program may include procedures to improve balance, coordination, rhythm, and timing as well as judgments of space, size, and shape.  Reinforcement of these skills is accomplished by the use of such things as a walking rail, balance board, trampoline, balls, bean bags, etc. 

Vision therapy reduces or removes barriers to learning and achievement that in turn reduce stress and frustration.  The end result is the ability to perform with increased efficiency and reduced effort, and to achieve greater use of one’s potential.   Stay tuned for more.  

 Edvin Manniko, O.D.