You may have heard of vision therapy in the context of helping adults and children with a lazy eye, eye turn, or learning difficulties.

But did you know that in some cases, vision therapy may also be effective in preventing, reducing, or slowing myopia (nearsightedness)?

While it’s true that scientists haven’t yet found a cure for myopia, vision therapy may help by targeting certain contributing factors of myopia.

To assess whether vision therapy is right for your child, call Family Eye Care in Old Bridge today.

But First, How Does Vision Therapy Work?

To give you a better sense of what vision therapy is, here are some facts. Vision therapy:

• Is a non-invasive set of visual exercises tailored to your specific needs
• May involve the use of specialized prisms or filters, computerized aids, balance beams, and other therapeutic tools
• Trains the brain and eyes to work as a team
• Develops visual skills like eye tracking, teaming, accommodation, convergence, visual processing, visual memory, focusing, and depth perception
• May involve an at-home component, like daily visual exercises
• Is evidence-based. Published data has shown that it can be an effective program to improve reading, learning, overall school and sports performance

How Does Vision Therapy Relate To Myopia?

While vision therapy may not be able to fully reverse or treat myopia, some nearsighted people appear to benefit from it.

Some vision therapists have reported patients’ myopia improvement during or after the vision therapy process. This may be due to a strengthened visual skill called accommodation—the eyes’ ability to maintain clear focus on objects. Poor focusing skills have been linked to myopia. In fact, research shows that having an accommodation lag (when the eyes can’t pull the focus inwards enough to clearly see a very close object) could be a risk factor for myopia development and progression. That said, it’s worth noting that research findings are still mixed on this matter.

Accommodative spasm, also known as “pseudo-myopia,” occurs when the eyes lock their focus on a near object and then have difficulty releasing the focus to view distant objects. The reason this is considered a false myopia is because it has to do with the focusing mechanism of the lens rather than the elongation of the eye, the main characteristic of myopia.

Pseudo-myopia can be treated with vision therapy, assuming the accommodation spasm is the only culprit for blurred distance vision. In this case, the patient may no longer need to wear prescription lenses for vision correction following a successful vision therapy program,

So what’s the bottom line?

In some cases, vision therapy may be able to improve a person’s blurry vision—but research on the subject is ongoing.

If you or your child has myopia and you’re curious as to whether vision therapy can help, schedule a functional visual assessment for your child.

To schedule your appointment with Dr. Moshe Roth and Dr. Steffani Tiomno, call Family Eye Care today.

Q: #1: Who can benefit from vision therapy?

• A: Children and adults with visual dysfunction can benefit from a personalized program of vision therapy. Visual dysfunction can manifest in many ways, including—but not limited to—behavioral and learning problems, coordination difficulties, headaches, dizziness, nausea, anxiety, and attention deficits.

Q: #2: Do all optometrists offer vision therapy?

• A: No. You should only seek vision therapy from a qualified optometrist experienced in offering vision therapy for a variety of visual disorders. Other types of therapists sometimes claim to offer vision therapy, but only an eye doctor can prescribe the necessary visual treatments for optimal results.
• Family Eye Care serves patients from Old Bridge, East Brunswick, Woodbridge, Edison, and throughout New Jersey.

People often believe that if a child has 20/20 vision, they have perfect eyesight. This isn’t always the case. Having 20/20 eyesight refers to the ability to see clearly from 20 feet away. This doesn’t guarantee that a child has the visual skills needed to read properly, pay attention in class, writing, and other tasks required for academic success.

It may surprise you that many students who show signs of a learning difficulty actually have a vision problem. According to the National PTA, approximately 10 million school-age children suffer from vision problems that make it more difficult for them to learn in a classroom setting.

If your child is struggling in school, Dr. Moshe Roth and Dr. Steffani Tiomno can determine whether the problem is related to their vision and provide a vision therapy program to help them succeed.

Vision Screenings vs Comprehensive Eye Exam

While school vision screenings might detect significant lazy eye or myopia, they miss many other vision problems, such as issues with focusing, depth perception, or eye tracking.

A comprehensive eye exam, on the other hand, checks for farsightedness, nearsightedness, astigmatism, eye focusing abilities, eye tracking, eye focusing, visual skills, binocular eye coordination, and visual processing.

What Signs Should Parents and Teachers Look For?

Below is a list of signs and symptoms indicating that a child may be experiencing vision difficulties:

• Difficulty paying attention
• Complains of frequent headaches
• Difficulty with comprehension
• Complains of double or blurry vision
• Makes errors when copying from the board
• Reads below grade level
• Holds reading material close to the face
• Reverses words or letters while reading or writing
• Loses place or skips words when reading
• Confuses or omits small words while reading
• Rubs eyes
• Slow to finish written assignments
• Frequently squints
• Tilts head or covers one eye
• Spelling difficulties
• Uses finger pointing when reading

How Does Vision Therapy Help?

Vision therapy is a personalized treatment program designed to strengthen and improve your child’s visual skills.

Each vision therapy program is customized to your child’s needs and may include specialized lenses, filters, or prisms, alongside personalized eye exercises to help retrain the brain-eye connection and improve your child’s school performance.

If you think a vision problem may be affecting your child’s academic performance, vision therapy may provide them with the necessary visual skills to succeed in school.

Frequently Asked Questions with Our Vision Therapist in Old Bridge, New Jersey

Q: How do vision problems impact learning?

• A: A child’s vision problem can impact all aspects of learning. Often, children with vision problems are told they have a learning difficulty, when in fact, their brain isn’t properly processing what their eyes see. Vision problems can affect a child’s reading skills and comprehension, handwriting, spelling, classroom performance, concentration and attention, and visual skills.

Q: Does my child have a vision problem?

• A: Discovering a vision problem in children can be difficult, as they may lack the verbal skills to describe what they’re experiencing or may not realize that they have a vision problem.Common indicators that your child may have a vision problem include:
  – Covering one eye
  – Behavioral problems
  – Reading avoidance
  – Difficulties with reading comprehension
  – Frequent blinking
  – Excessive fidgeting
  – Limited attention span
  – Reading below school grade level
  – Tilting head to one side

If your child displays any of these signs, make sure you set up a visit to an eye doctor at Family Eye Care to evaluate their visual skills and find out whether your child could benefit from vision therapy.

Family Eye Care serves patients from Old Bridge, East Brunswick, Woodbridge, and Edison, all throughout New Jersey.

When a child struggles in school, parents naturally want to help. At times it is difficult to know what kind of help a child needs and who is best to provide that service.

Occupational Therapists (OT) are employed by schools and that may be a good place to start. School systems, and their OT’s, are often stretched thin and can offer only a limited therapy program. It also draws the child out of the classroom, and may take them away from learning. Many private OT’s offer pediatric care and provide OT care outside the school system.

When a vision problem interferes with learning, the best place to turn is a Developmental or Behavioral Developmental Optometrists. This is a subspecialty within Optometry. Optometrists obviously understand the vision system, provide eye examinations, eye medications, and eye glasses. Developmental Optometry is the subspecialty that understands how vision impacts learning and helps individuals to solve vision problems that affect learning. These doctors provide Vision Therapy (VT).

How are OT and VT similar? How are they different? Perhaps we can offer some guidance for parents and educators.

Most people are aware that there is an overlap between OT and PT, physical therapy. There is also an overlap with SLP; speech and language pathologists. Some OT’s and some PT’s say they provide Vision Therapy. Vision Therapy is an entity onto itself, much as Occupational Therapy is not Physical Therapy. It is specific to visual problems that affect learning and for other visual problems that eyeglasses and contact lenses can’t treat.

Developmental Optometrist offer Vision Therapy. Problems with the visual system are often best treated by someone who understand the visual system. There are parts within a Vision Therapy program that are similar to OT and PT, but in Vision Therapy, as the name implies, the main ‘focus” is vision. Vision is the sense that supplies our brain with the most information.

What is the Difference Between OT and VT?

There is some overlap between OT and VT, but there are considerable differences as well.

Occupational Therapists help people gain or regain the ability to perform various daily tasks through the use of sensory-motor exercises and interventions. OT aims to improve gross and fine motor coordination, balance, tactile awareness, bilateral awareness, and hand-eye coordination.

Eye Doctors that provide Vision Therapy, and the Vision Therapists in those practices help children and adults who have not yet developed the visual skills needed to succeed in school. Behavioral and Developmental Optometrists help patients improve how the vision system works and strengthens the eye-brain connection. This then helps solve vision problems that affect learning and schoolwork. It is often these vision problems that causes a child to struggle with poor reading and then produces anxiety. Children then procrastinate completing assignments and become frustrated. The reasons for these problems are not always apparent to a parent. A child assumes that the way they see is normal, and is the same as how their classmates see. They may not realize that they see blurry or double. They may not realize that they have eye strain or headaches that are due to a vision problem.

Some of the important visual skills for reading and school success are eye teaming, tracking, focusing, depth perception, visual processing, and visual-motor skills. These are eye movement and higher visual function skills.

How does a visual deficit look in a real world situation?

A child may have 20/20 eyesight, but that only means how someone can see at a distance of 20 feet. Yes, that’s where the “20” of 20/20 comes from. It does not tell us how someone functions at near, for example reading or computer use, that is so critical now, when so much of learning is computer-based. It doesn’t tell us how the two eyes work together, as a team. A child may need to read a sentence several times in order to understand its meaning, or tilt their head to read the whiteboard. They may ultimately avoid doing activities that are visually demanding. Poor performance in school and on the playing field can often be attributed to visual skill deficits.

Which Therapy Is Right For Your Child?

If the child’s visual system is the underlying cause of behavioral or learning problems, then a personalized Vision Therapy program is usually the best answer to help the child gain the visual skills needed to succeed.

So, when is best to consider Vision Therapy for your child? The answer is simple and straightforward. If your child is struggling in school it is important to first be evaluated by a doctor who specializes in vision problems that affect learning. If a child has trouble with visually demanding tasks, like homework, reading, spelling, or complain of headaches, then a doctor skilled in this area is able to evaluate and determine if Vision Therapy is indicated. This also applies to children who avoid sports. There may be an issue in judging space and how fast a ball is coming toward them. Developmental optometrists also work on sports vision.

The point is that a Doctor of Optometry, and specifically a Developmental Optometrist, is the doctor that provides the expertise needed to address the visual system, and how someone is able to read and learn.

This is not to lessen the benefits that Occupational Therapists provide. OT’s and PT’s often refer patients to our office. OT’s sometimes perform visual exercises with children, but only an eye doctor experienced in Vision Therapy can prescribe therapeutic lenses, prisms, and filters that enable the child to develop visual skills needed for school success.

Not all optometrist are trained in Vision Therapy. Dr. Roth is a Fellow of the College of Optometrist in Vision Development. This means taht he is certified in this subspecialty. Dr. Tiomno, Dr. Roth’s associate, completed her residency with Dr. Roth. Our doctors are experienced in diagnosing and treating people of all ages with all types of visual dysfunction.

Often children who have passed a school’s vision screening, or “passed the eye test” at the pediatrician’s office, may still have a significant problem with visual processing and other skills. A screening “test” usually measures how each eye sees individually and does not test how the two eyes work together as a team. A school vision-screening tests only for visual acuity (eyesight) and do not test for the other visual skills that are so important for a child to be able to succeed.

The visual system is highly integrated with other systems, and therefore, an interdisciplinary approach is often the most effective approach. OT and VT overlap, but don’t always have to be undertaken simultaneously. Some children may benefit from both of these therapies

If your child is struggling with learning or behavioral problems, their vision could be an underlying cause or contributing factor. To schedule your child’s functional visual evaluation, contact Family Eye Care in Old Bridge today.

References:

• https://blog.summit-education.com/instructor-blog/kim-wiggins/can-ot-substitute-for-vision-therapy/
• https://www.bouldervt.com/vision-library/vision-therapy-vt/the-difference-between-vt-and-ot/
• https://visualscreening.com/