Will Vision Therapy Benefit My Child?

Posted on: 3 December 2014

Occasionally optometrists will prescribe vision therapy for children.  This is so that they will experience supervised therapy sessions in the office and at home that will help to improve their vision skills.  It helps children to be able to obtain visual processing and help their brains to interpret information through sight.  You may be wondering why your child has been prescribed vision therapy.  Here are some reasons why vision therapy through a company like http://www.absolutevisioncare.com can benefit your child.    

What is Vision Therapy?

Vision therapy is a treatment for children that will help to correct their perception/cognitive problems and their visual/motor deficiencies.  It can be done in the office setting or in the home by a certified vision therapist.  Some children gain the skills needed within several weeks of therapy, while others may need it for several months or longer.  Therapists may use several different tools to help the children being treated.  Some of these include special lenses or training glasses, filters, targets, balance boards, patches and prisms.   

Which Children Can Benefit From Vision Therapy?

Children who are diagnosed with several different problems may benefit from visual therapy.  Some of these problems include crossed or wandering eyes, brain or closed head trauma from a birth injury, insufficient sensory-motor development and stress.  The purpose of vision therapy for children is to help train the brain to use the vision correctly.  The brain has to learn how to use the information gained through the eyes in order to understand it and react accordingly.     

What Types of Procedures Are Used in Visual Therapy?     

Vision therapists will use games and tools to help to train the brain to use the eyes correctly.  Some of these games improve skills that include controlling the alignment of the eyes, their ability to focus, the movement of the eyes and getting the eyes to work together, or eye teamwork.  Other games and procedures help to develop the endurance and motor skills. 

There are games that are played on the computer and other games where tools are used instead.  When the therapy sessions are coming to an end, therapists will reinforce skills acquired through integration with other skills, such as cognitive skills and motor skills, and through repetition.  The newly reinforced skills are made automatic at this point of vision therapy.   

Can Vision Therapy Benefit My Child's Ability to Learn?

Children with problems that can inhibit their ability to learn in a school setting can benefit from vision therapy as well.  Children with vision problems such as blurry vision, eyestrain, headaches, losing their place while reading, double vision and problems maintaining attention to detail should take advantage of vision therapy to help them correct these vision difficulties and result in doing better academically.

Vision therapy can aid in the academics and overall well being of some children suffering from vision problems.  If the optometrist is recommending your child get vision therapy, then your child can benefit from it and can obtain better vision, motor and cognitive skills.       

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