Fitzroy North Eye Centre > Our Services > Vision Therapy

What is Vision Therapy

Vision Therapy is a program of activities designed to improve vision and make a person. When people think of ophthalmologists (eye doctors) they may think of treatments like drops or eye operations. When people think of optometrists they may think of glasses or contact lenses. Whereas some visual problems are best corrected with operations or glasses, other visual functions and skills require a different approach. Vision Therapy is a sequence of activities designed to re-train how the brain, eyes and body work together. It can be used to improve eye tracking and teamwork, improve eye teaming and binocularity, improve focussing (changing focus from near to far) and change how a patient processes or interprets visual information.

Vision therapy programmes are customised to the individual and work well with children and adults. Our vision therapists work closely with you to guide you through the program.

See Jillian's story www.jilliansstory.com for information a young girl who improved significantly with vision therapy. A copy of this book is available for loan form Fitzroy North Eye Centre.

Vision therapy is done in-office in blocks of 10 weeks. The visits are weekly and of 30 minutes duration. 1-3 blocks are generally required. Research shows that Office Based Vision Therapy Programs provide much better results than computer cased programs alone.

5 sessions of 20 minutes homework need to be completed per week. This is the key to success. Vision therapy will not improve symptoms unless the homework is completed. Don't expect instant results. It usually takes several weeks of disciplined work to see the fruits of improvement. Working through a vision therapy program you will notice that it makes so much sense, ie it really assists in improving how the eyes are utilised making the process comfortable and automatic.

Vision therapy should is not to be confused with any self-directed self-help program of eye exercises which is marketed to the public. In-office Vision Therapy is supervised by optometric vision care professionals and various types of treatment devices are used (and some are regulated medical devices), such as:

• corrective lenses (regulated medical devices)
• therapeutic lenses (regulated medical devices)
• prism lenses (regulated medical devices)
• optical filters
• eye patches or occluders
• electronic targets with timing mechanisms
• computer software
• vestibular (balance) equipment
• visual-motor-sensory integration training devices

Please contact us for further information about vision therapy and how it can assist you or your child.