Vision Therapy FAQs

with Dr Erik

1. What is Vision Therapy?

Vision therapy is like physical therapy or occupational therapy, but geared for the eyes and the brain.

This involves various exercises and activities to help retrain how the brain controls and communicates with the eyes, and how the brain makes sense of the information it receives from the eyes.

2. What are the signs my child can benefit from VT?

There are various signs and symptoms that may signal a potential vision issue. Headaches, complaints of variable blurry and/or double vision, and even reports of various spots/colors in their vision can be common complaints.

Other signs may include skipping or re-reading small words or even whole lines of text, reversing letters or whole words (was/saw) putting in words that are similar to the word they are trying to read but aren’t the exact word, needing to use a finger or paper/ruler to keep their place, fatigue with reading, hard time remembering what they read, or even avoidance of reading in general.

3. Is VT done at home and at the office?

Vision therapy is done both at home and here in the office. There are tools and activities that can only be used/performed in the office. Similar to learning to play an instrument, there is weekly instructional session, and then daily practice and repetition further improves the ability to play at a more skillful level.

Home therapy helps to reinforce what is done in the therapy room, and the more consistently we are activating the brain to learn, the better the outcome tends to be.

4. When will I see results?

While everyone responds differently to treatment, signs of change may begin to appear after a few sessions, but it often takes more time for more significant changes to be noted.

Early signs of progress tend to include reduced headaches and less fatigue with reading or school work.