Vision therapy, or otherwise known as eye therapy, is about developing visual skills. The most important task in therapy is to master visual skills and to use this effectively in everyday situations. The aim of the therapy is also to develop basic visual skills connected with controlling eye movements (fixation, stimulus localisation, convergence, tracking, gaze transfer, searching, convergence, accommodation)
Visual impairment is very often a direct result of a stroke / brain injury (e.g. in a traffic accident) or occurs in a disease entity (cerebral palsy, genetic diseases). The therapy is aimed at people of all ages with visual impairments due to various causes. Classes take place in a darkened room, where there is a better perceptual response. Depending on the patient’s problem, the therapy is aimed at stimulating vision, stimulating looking or improving visual functions – control of eye movements.
The most common visual impairments are:
- nystagmus
- reduced visual acuity
- restricted field of vision
- double vision
When should we start therapy?
- visual impairment
- accommodative disorders
- visual perception disorders
- eye movement disorders
- eye-hand coordination disorder
- deterioration of visual acuity
- reading and writing difficulties
- headaches
- difficulty in maintaining concentration
- imbalances
Objectives of vision therapy:
- improve eye movements, tracking and fixation
- improving accommodation
- reduction of imbalances
- improving visual perception
- increase field of vision
- improvement of spatial vision which facilitates assessment of distances between objects
- developing eye-hand coordination skills
- reduction of eye pain and headaches
