Vision Therapy

Vision therapy (VT) is a term to describe specific types and groups of eye exercises which can be done to help patients (young and old) who have problems with eye coordination (the two eyes working together)

At first glance this might seem like something that would benefit everybody, even people without problems with eye coordination. In theory this might be true because when you are moving your eyes around, there are many different systems of control that are being used including extraocular muscle movements and intraocular muscle changes which are all controlled by the nervous system. Working the eye muscles to gain strength and fine control sounds like it would make the whole system work better.

But, most of the studies we have show that there is little to no benefit from these exercises for all conditions except for convergence insufficiency (CI, difficulty turning the eyes in for near vision activities, with normal eye alignment for distance vision activities)

So, patients with a CI diagnosis are usually informed about the option of treating with prism reading glasses, or given the option of signing up for a 5 week session (or two) of VT. The cost of the VT is usually not covered by vision or medical insurance and can be comparable to the cost (and time commitment) of joining a soccer league. 

Just because the studies show that there is no statistically significant benefit for patients without CI to completing a VT session, that does not mean that you (or your child), specifically will not benefit from the sessions, it only means that your referring optometrist does not feel the need to recommend VT as an options, though some still might.

There are office based VT protocols and home based VT protocols, with many studies supporting the office based VT or combination office and home based VT combination.

Here is what the Association of Pediatric Ophthalmology says about VT: https://aapos.org/glossary/vision-therapy