Kids’ eye care can be a complicated topic, especially if the standard cure of glasses doesn’t work. The concept behind vision therapy is that the brain can be taught how to overcome many vision problems. Vision therapy can be a very useful tool if your child has certain eye conditions, and understanding how to help them can make a world of difference for their self esteem and development.
Lazy Eye or Strabismus
Lazy eye, or Amblyopia, occurs when one eye has a lesser ability to focus than the other. As a result, the brain eventually disregards the image delivered from the weak eye. The weak eye becomes even weaker, and vision can appear blurry. Strabismus is another form of Amblyopia, which is more physically noticeable. One of the eyes may face an odd direction or the eyes are misaligned, so they do not track in the same direction or look at the same point of reference. Rather than a surgical fix, vision therapy techniques strengthen the muscles of the weak eye and help it realign, and can teach the brain how to use both sets of images proportionately.
Eye Teaming
Eye teaming is the term that refers to the way eyes work together to look at a focal point. Children with eye teaming problems often have difficulty concentrating on tasks, complain about headaches, or may read with one eye closed. Vision therapy is a necessary part of kids’ eye care techniques that can help retrain how a child uses his or her eyes. The methods used to correct eye teaming problems may include the use of prisms, special eye exercises, or colorful diagrams that help the eyes coordinate their efforts.
Focusing Problems
Some kids’ eye care professionals use vision therapy on children who have trouble switching their focus. Making the transition from a near object to one that is far away does not happen correctly, and the child has difficulty seeing the image clearly at the new focal point. Vision therapy can help the child develop the muscles responsible for focusing and improve the quality of sight through that simple retraining process.
Vision therapy is a powerful tool in the arsenal of the kids’ eye care professional. If your child has a vision problem, talk to yourPhoenix eye doctor about using this painless and noninvasive technique to improve the issue and remove these roadblocks from your child’s learning path.
