Vision Therapy Overview:

When sometimes glasses aren’t enough—VISION THERAPY may be considered

Did you know that glasses (or contacts) simply compensate for vision problems but often do not fix many of the vision problems?  Sometimes glasses just are not enough to help your child.  Hinsdale Advanced Eye Care offers the latest in visual corrective therapy to help your child overcome their visual problems.  

Please learn more about Vision Therapy and our menu of information below

• What Is Vision Therapy?
• Who benefits from Vision Therapy?
• Can Vision Therapy help you or your child?  
• BENEFITS of Vision Therapy
• GOALS of Vision Therapy
• How is Vision Therapy Implemented?
• How to get started?

What Is Vision Therapy?

Vision therapy is a doctor-supervised, non-surgical and customized program of visual activities designed to correct certain vision problems and/or improve visual skills.

Vision therapy is like physical therapy for the visual system, including the eyes and the parts of the brain that control vision.

Unlike eyeglasses and contact lenses, which simply compensate for vision problems, or eye surgery that alters the anatomy of the eye or surrounding muscles, vision therapy aims to "teach" the visual system to correct itself.

Who benefits from Vision Therapy?

Children and adults of all ages can benefit from Vision Therapy.  If you or your child has difficulty reading, writing, and learning effectively you may be suffering from the needed visual skills such as: focusing ability, eye movement/tracking, visual memory skills, convergence, and eye-hand coordination. 

Suffering concussion and brain injury can cause visual problems.  The brain contains more neurons which support the visual system than the rest of the senses combined.  That is why brain trauma can cause visual problems.  Vision therapy can be very effective in decreasing or eliminating visual problems caused by concussions/brain trauma.  Hinsdale Advanced Eye Care provides Post-Concussion Testing and Vision Therapy to manage concussions.  

Can Vision Therapy help you or your child?  

Vision problems may be affecting your child’s performance in school and sports.

Does your child have, or do you suspect your child suffers from any of the following:

• Difficulty in school (effective reading, reversing letters, losing place while reading, following words with fingers, writing, learning) caused by vision problems
• Concentration and Attention Difficulties
• Problems with hand-eye coordination
• Have headaches after reading
• Has an eye turn and/or lazy eye
• Suffered some type of neurological trauma
• Having trouble in sports

Look for Signs and Symptoms

If you observe several items from the below list consider bringing your child into Hinsdale Advanced Eye Care for a thorough comprehensive eye exam and evaluation. 

You observe the following behavior in your child:

• One eye drifts or aims in a different direction than the other (look carefully -- this can be subtle). This is significant even if it only occurs when the child is tired or stressed
• Turns or tilts head while reading or during other visual activities
• Head is frequently tilted to one side or one shoulder is noticeably higher
• Squinting or closing of one eye
• Excessive blinking or squinting
• Poor visual/motor coordination skills (often called, "hand-eye coordination")
• Problems judging distances while moving in space, frequently bumps into things or drops things
• Becomes easily confused when in motion
• Frequently loses things
• Poor physical coordination

While reading or doing close work your child:

• Holds the reading material or object too close
• Closes one eye or covers eye with hand
• Twists or tilts head toward book or object so as to favor one eye
• Uses finger or ruler to read
• Frequently loses place and/or skips or repeats lines
• Fatigues easily and/or becomes drowsy
• Rubs eyes during or after periods of the reading or close work
• Reports that words move on page or run together
• Has a tendency to knock things over on a desk or table
• Exhibits avoidance behaviors or difficulty with attention
• Reverses letters

Child demonstrates or reports:

• Headaches or eyestrain
• Nausea or dizziness
• Motion sickness or car sickness
• DOUBLE VISION!

BENEFITS of Vision Therapy

Vision Therapy focuses on improving five key areas in vision function including:

• Visual Motor Guidance (gross and fine motor)
• Eye Tracking (ocular motility)
• Eye Focusing (near and far accommodation)
• Eye Alignment (binocular convergence and divergence)
• Visual Information Processing (includes visual memory and visualization)

Depending on each individual’s case, vision therapy provides the following BENEFITS:

• Help patients develop or improve fundamental visual skills and abilities
• Improve visual comfort, ease, and efficiency
• Change how a patient processes or interprets visual information

GOALS of Vision Therapy

The overall goal of vision therapy is to help treat vision problems that cannot be effectively treated with eyeglasses, contact lenses, and/or surgery alone.  The goal is to help people achieve clear and comfortable vision.

Vision therapy can:

• Correct vision problems that interfere with efficient reading in children
• Help reduce eye strain and other symptoms of computer vision syndrome experienced by many children and adults

How is Vision Therapy Implemented?

Vision therapy can include the use of lenses, prisms, filters, computerized visual activities and non-computerized viewing instruments. Non-medical "tools," such as balance boards, metronomes and other devices can also play an important role in a customized vision therapy program.

It is important to note that vision therapy is not defined by a simple list of tools and techniques. Successful vision therapy outcomes are achieved through a therapeutic process that depends on the active engagement of Dr. Adamo, the vision therapist, the patient and, in the case of children, their parents.

How to get started:

Vision Therapy is a customized program that is built and managed based on the individual’s own visual needs.  In general, Vision Therapy is a customized progressive program of vision procedures.  Once you or your child is identified as being a candidate for vision therapy, your program will consist of doctor supervised in-house sessions that occur once or twice a week for 30-60 minutes for a prescribed duration.

If you suspect that you or your child is suffering from a vision problem and negatively effecting school, sports, or work, please schedule an appointment with Hinsdale Advanced Eye Care for a comprehensive examination.  Dr. Treacy Adamo will be able to evaluate you or your children to see if vision therapy is right for you. 

CLICK HERE TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT WITH DR. TREACY ADAMO