1. Certified Optometric Vision Therapist
Michelle Beatty, COVT
April 22, 2016

2. What is Vision Therapy?

3. Vision Therapy is…
Optometric Vision Therapy is a program of care devoted to developing, improving and enhancing people’s visual performance.
In some cases all that is needed is a special pair of glasses and other times there may be a problem that requires more than glasses… and this is where my job starts.

4. Who needs Vision Therapy?

5. What kind of problems does Vision Therapy treat?
Strabismus
Strabismus is a problem where the eyes do not always point in the same direction. In some cases they point in the same direction most of the time but once in awhile one or even both eyes can turn in or out or even up and down. I have worked with many people both children and adults and have had great success in not just making the eyes look correct but in helping them to gain full 3D vision!
Amblyopia
In some people ,due to a variety of reasons, one eye may not work as well as the other so the brain decides to stop paying attention to that eye. This is a condition called amblyopia or what you may have possibly heard of as Lazy Eye. It is really not lazy at all just not as strong as the other eye. In the past all that was done in most cases of amblyopia is wearing a patch most if not all of the time on the stronger eye. We do use patches in vision therapy but not for long periods of time. Instead we work on building teamwork that will help turn the weaker eye's signal back on in the brain.

6. What kind of problems does Vision Therapy treat?
Sports Vision Therapy

7. What kind of problems does Vision Therapy treat?
Brain Injury
When the brain is injured, whether due to an accident like a concussion from playing football or a car accident, it can have trouble doing the things it did before. Sometimes this can mean that the injured person can have problems with their vision that can slow down their progress toward healing. A vision therapist can act as a team member along with other doctors and therapists to help that individual get their life back to normal.
Learning Related Vision Problems
Vision and learning are closely related. In fact, experts say that roughly 80 percent of what a child learns in school is information that is presented visually. So good vision is essential for students of all ages to reach their full academic potential.
When children have difficulty in school — from learning to read to understanding fractions to seeing the blackboard — many parents and teachers believe these kids have vision problems.
Less obvious vision problems related to the way the eyes function and how the brain processes visual information also can limit a child's ability to learn.

8. Up-Down Reader Demonstration
To the right is a demonstration we give to many adults to help them understand how difficult it can be to read if you have a vision problem that impacts your ability to keep your place when reading.
Experiment time!
I am going to ask the teacher to read the Up-Down Reader let’s see how they do with it! 8

9. To the left is an example of what printed material might look like for a person with a vision problem that results in double vision. 9

10. What does Vision Therapy look like?

11. Sometimes Vision Therapy looks very simple and we use simple things like lights to help our patients learn how to move their eyes.
...and sometimes Vision Therapy looks very active where learning takes place on a trampoline or a balance beam.
When patients get better at doing the beginning activities they get the chance to put their new skills to use with more challenging activities that use prisms and lenses.

12. To the right is an example of a tool we use in Vision Therapy called Tranaglyphs. When viewed through Red-Green glasses the images appear to pop out or float in space. We can change the separation between the two colors so the patient needs to either turn their eyes in our out to continue seeing the picture.

13. Another example of 3d that works with Red-Green

14. Some of the many tools of Vision Therapy

15. Teaching others about Vision Therapy

16. Any questions?