Vision Therapy

HISTORY

The concept of vision therapy was introduced in the late Nineteenth Century for the non-surgical treatment of misaligned eyes in what is now known as ''orthoptics.'' Collaboration of eye care professionals with educators and neuroscientists produced an expansion of vision therapy into the treatment of other eye teaming (binocular) deficits (the use of the flow through the right and left eyes simultaneously to the brain) as well as dysfunctions in visual Focusing , Perception , Tracking and Motor Skills . As a result, there is some controversy as to the use of vision therapy for individuals with Learning Disorders . Vision therapy is not a direct treatment for learning disorders. Rather, vision therapy treats visual problems which can affect learning and reading.

While many forms of vision therapy require office-based treatment, recent computer-based programs have successfully allowed sophisticated eye exercises to be performed at home. This approach increases the convenience of therapy while reducing the expense.

SCIENTIFIC SUPPORT FOR VISION THERAPY

In 1988, a review of 238 scientific articles was published in the ''Journal of the American Optometric Association'' defining vision therapy as "a clinical approach for correcting and ameliorating the effects of eye movement disorders, non-strabismic binocular dysfunctions, focusing disorders, strabismus, amblyopia, nystagmus, and certain visual perceptual (information processing) disorders." The paper contains the concluding statement, "It is evident from the research that there is scientific support for the efficacy of vision therapy in modifying and improving ocumolotor, accommodative, and binocular system disorders, as measured by standardized clinical and laboratory testing methods for patients of all ages for whom it is properly undertaken and employed."

Very recently, the Convergence Insufficency Treatment Trial (CITT) published two large, randomized clincal studies. The first demonstrated that in-office based vision therapy was more effective that "pencil pushups", a common home based treatment for Convergence Insufficiency in 9 to 18 year old children. The second, found similar results for adults 19 to 30 years of age .

SKEPTICISM

Most critics of vision therapy distinguish between eye exercises appropriately performed for conditions and symptoms directly attributable to the oculomotor system (convergence insufficiency, intermittent exotropia), and those performed for less clearly related problems, such as dyslexia and other learning disorders. The use of eye exercises to affect refractive error (myopia) has also been largely repudiated.

In 1998, the has also asserted that "there is no scientific evidence that vision therapy can improve academic performance" while lumping supervised optometric programs together with self-help programs such as the Bates Method and a current commercial product, The See Clearly Method .

REFERENCES

Information About

Vision Therapy