Vision Therapy & Binocular Vision Evaluations

(available in Longwood Location only)

​​​​​​​Vision therapy is a treatment plan that is intended to develop and improve a patient’s visual skills and abilities, with the goal of making their day-to-day life easier. You may also hear Vision Therapy referred to as VT. Although most commonly associated with children, whose visual skills are still naturally developing, adults can also benefit from vision therapy.

Any patient who does not have the necessary visual skills could find themselves suffering from a range of unpleasant symptoms, including headaches, eye fatigue, stiff neck, and double vision. Fortunately, vision therapy is a simple, painless technique to help patients to enhance their visual skills and overcome any issues that they may have been experiencing.

Skills that can be developed and improved through vision therapy

Vision therapy has been shown to be an effective way of developing and improving the following visual skills, all of which are important for day-to-day life.

• Tracking: this refers to the ability to follow a moving object smoothly and accurately with both eyes – such as moving traffic or a ball coming towards you.
• Depth perception: this is the ability to judge relative distances of objects and move accurately in a 3D space – for example, being able to walk down a flight of stairs.
• Peripheral vision: this refers to the edges of your vision and your ability to assess what’s happening in your peripheral vision while paying attention to something directly in front of you.
• Acuity at different distances: this is the ability to see clearly enough to identify and understand objects at both near and far distances.
• Fixation: enabling patients to quickly and accurately look at, identify and understand stationery objects one after the other, for example, reading word to word.
• Binocular vision: the ability for both eyes to work together in perfect synchronization.
• Shifting focus: patients with this skill can look quickly at different distances without momentary blur.
• Visualization: a valuable visual skill that enables patients to form and retain images in their head. ​​​​​​​

What to expect from a vision therapy appointment?

Vision therapy is generally conducted as an in-office treatment, under the close supervision of your eye doctor. Each vision therapy treatment plan is personalized; tailored to the specific individual needs of each patient. Most patients can expect to schedule hour appointments once or twice a week. You may also be given specific exercises to complete at home, which will support the progress that you are making during your in-office appointments. The components of Vision Therapy Treatment are non-invasive and drug-free, making VT suitable for the vast majority of patients, regardless of their age, health and history. For many people, vision therapy is a safe alternative to conventional eye surgeries.

There are various techniques that can be involved in vision therapy. These include, but aren’t limited to:

• Prisms
• Patches
• Occluders
• Therapeutic lenses
• Exercises
• The use of tools designed specifically for use in vision therapy exercises

By attending regular vision therapy appointments, patients can see an improvement in their vision, visual comfort and experience an overall improvement with the ease in which they use their eyes for daily activites.

Binocular Vision Dysfunction (BVD) is a serious eye condition where the eyes are misaligned, sending two different images to the brain. The brain struggles to merge these two different images into one clear image, causing symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, anxiety, motion sickness, and chronic neck pain.

Symptoms of BVD

BVD can severely impact people of all ages. Children with BVD often struggle with reading in school, hand-eye coordination, playing sports, and car sickness. This condition often leads to misdiagnoses of ADHD, dyslexia, and migraines in children. Adults with BVD regularly experience headaches, daily anxiety and dizziness, and can be severely limited from doing normal tasks or succeeding in the workplace.

The symptoms of BVD are wide-ranging and not often recognized by traditional eye doctors. Those who specialize in treating BVD often organize the symptoms into groups based on how they impact patients

Physical Findings

• Neck pain and/or shoulder and back pain
• Struggles to walk in a straight line
• Head tilt
• Clumsy, bumping into doorways and people they are walking next to
• Prone to falling or tripping

Anxiety Symptoms

• Panic attacks in crowded areas or on highways
• Anxiety in large department stores or shopping malls
• Agoraphobia (extreme fear of open or crowded places, or of leaving one's own home)

Driving Symptoms

• Anxiety on the highway
• Car sickness or nausea
• Experience glare at night
• Trouble driving at night

Neurological Symptoms

• Migraines; daily headaches
• Migraine associated vertigo (MAV) or vestibular migraine (VM)
• Seizures

Reading Challenges

• Rereading for comprehension
• Skipping lines when reading
• Letters running together
• Uses finger-pointing when reading Fatigue with reading
• Difficulty focusing or paying attention
• Struggling to pay attention in school

Binocular Vision Symptoms

• Diplopia or double vision
• Poor depth perception or judging distances
• Trouble catching balls
• Difficulties with hand-eye coordination
• Poor handwriting & drawing skills
• Poor eye contact
• ​​​​​​​Covering one eye to clear the image

The condition can be caused by facial asymmetry similar to adults, or it can be caused by a concussion or head injury, such as from a soccer game or falling while riding a bike. Some research suggests that at least 20% of adults experience some symptoms of BVD that may be interfering with their everyday lives. Someone you know may be suffering from binocular vision dysfunction and not even realize it. Exactly why some people develop BVD and others don’t often isn’t clear.

​​​​​​​Early research has found that BVD can be genetically inherited and run in families, most often from mother to daughter. In other clinical research, there is a direct correlation between head injury or concussion and the onset of BVD symptoms. There is also a connection between BVD and acquired brain injuries caused by a stroke, Lyme disease, COVID-19, and Mono (Mononucleosis).

Yes, BVD symptoms are often mistaken for a number of other conditions since many medical and eye doctors don’t know how to screen for and diagnose BVD. Patients are regularly but mistakenly told they have one of the following conditions, while in reality BVD is the main cause of their symptoms:

• Agoraphobia
• Anxiety / Panic
• Disorders
• ADD / ADHD
• Cervical
• Misalignment
• Meniere’s Disease
• MS (Multiple Sclerosis)
• Reading Comprehension Issues
• Sinus Problems
• Psychogenic Dizziness / Chronic Subjective Dizziness
• BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo)
• PPPD (Persistent Postural-Perceptual Dizziness)
• Vestibular Migraine / Migraine Associated Vertigo (MAV)
• TMJ (Temporomandibular ​​​​​​​Joint) Disorders