What is Vision Therapy?
Vision therapy is experience-based learning for building and strengthening visual function and processing skills.
These skills include:
Voluntary eye movement for reading and sport
Focusing – flexibility and stamina
Eye teaming – muscle control of the eyes as a team
Visual perceptual skills – visual discrimination, visual memory, visual sequencing
Visual-motor integration
Tachistoscopic or sight-grabbing skills
Improved acuity in cases of amblyopia
Spatial awareness
Left and Right awareness
WHAT DOES VISION THERAPY INVOLVE?
You will need the following
A Binovi Vision Therapy Kit ($220)
EYES2LEARN HOME ACTIVITIES ($110)
fortnightly in-office vision therapy sessions ($180 per 40 min session)
We do not prescribe a set number of sessions for in-office vision therapy, as everyone learns differently and at their rate. Instead, we have a set of learning objectives for patients to achieve and apply to daily life. This usually takes between 8 to 30 sessions.
We use a combination of lenses, prisms, equipment, and digital instruments to provide a learning situation that improves visual function and information processing. Every program is unique, depending on the individual’s goals.
Daily home practice is essential to reinforcing skills so they become automatic and can be transferred to general life. The patient and/or their caregivers are responsible for doing VT.
We teach Self-Learning Skills
In-office VT is a one-on-one session with a Behavioural Optometrist or therapist. A variety of visual tasks is prepared depending on the patient's goals. The aim is not only to improve eye movement, focusing and eye teaming but attributes that contribute to good visual abilities such as:
Effective and controlled movement
Discrimination
Analysis
Central-Peripheral Integration
Integration of vision with all senses
Sustained attention, especially visual attention
Self Awareness/Consciousness
Self Control & Correction
Visual Thinking & Self Planning
VT helps patients discover a new way of using their vision to make everyday tasks easier.
What do we use?
Optics Trainer - Eye Tracker
Optics Trainer utilises infrared optical sensors to track the user’s eye(s) position. This advanced technology can train accurate eye movement and visual attention using fun activities. Other visual processing activities can be targeted with the Optics Trainer such as visual discrimination, figure-ground and visual-spatial manipulation. Sometimes, we set the right eye to see 50% of the targets on the screen and 50% for the left eye. To complete the activities, all the targets need to be seen, thus forcing both eyes to be engaged (instead of working separately). The optometry term for this is monocular fixation in a binocular field (MFBF).
VT has traditionally been done in 2D ‘flat’ space even though the real world we see is 3D. That is not to say, we don’t get the results, but it may take longer to achieve results. VR creates an MFBF environment, but the sensory stimulation for each eye can be adjusted so that the brain gets equal input. Thus, creating an environment that allows neural connections for normal binocular vision to develop.
Binovi ACTIVITIES
Binovi is a library of VT procedures that includes high-definition videos and step-by-step instructions. It is a home VT program that can supplement in-office VT.
Vision Therapy Kit
Binovi offers the opportunity for ongoing communication between the clinic and home. The parent routinely reports on the patient's attitude and monitors performance each time the patient performs a procedure. In addition, the parent can write notes or ask the prescribing Behavioural Optometrist questions.
Currently, there are 117 VT procedures divided into seven different categories:
Ocular motility / Reading eye movement
Accommodation / Focusing
Binocularity / Eye Teaming
Bilateral integration
Balance/visual-vestibular
Fine-motor control
Visual memory/visualization
Additional procedures can be added at no extra cost to you.
A stereoscope trains convergence, divergence skills, visuomotor and visual-spatial organisation. An MFBF environment is created by wearing red-cyan glasses or looking through the stereoscope. Gerull Labs has integrated an iPad into this instrument, which allows the patient to access more interesting and challenging activities than traditionally available.