Vision therapy is based on the fact that vision is learned. The ability to see and correctly interpret what is seen does not appear automatically at birth. It develops over a lifetime and is shaped by the experiences a person has.

Some people may skip steps in their vision development. Others may not receive the necessary visual experiences or learning opportunities to develop their vision skills adequately.

Some may have experiences that put stress on their vision system and cause parts of it to break down. The school-age child, for example, spending long periods of time reading or doing desk work may begin to have trouble seeing clearly at a distance. The adult spending most of the day starring at a video display terminal may start to have difficulty focusing back and forth between text and screen. With a vision therapy programme, the optometrist, in effect, breaks the process of vision down into various components. He or she then treats the problem areas by re-educating, reinforcing or developing specific vision skills involved in the total process of vision perception. They include:

• Clearness of vision (visual acuity)-This is the ability to see clearly a near distances for such tasks as reading, and at far distances for such tasks as driving.
• Eye movement skills (fixation ability)-The ability to point the eyes accurately at the object to be viewed and to keep the eyes on target regardless of whether the object is moving or not; includes the ability to shift the eyes rapidly from one object to another when reading across a page; and the ability to shift the eyes from a close object to a far one.
• Eye focusing skills (accommodation)-The ability to adjust the focus of the eyes as the distance from the object viewed varies. Many jobs and schoolwork require constant shifting and focus from near to far and back again.
• Eye aiming skills (convergence)-The ability to turn the eyes inward or outward in looking from objects close up to those far away and back again. These skills are necessary maintain the eyes' focus and must be closely coordinated with eye focusing skills (accommodation).
• Eye teaming skills (binocular fusion)-The ability to coordinate and align the eyes precisely that the brain can fuse the pictures it receives from each eye into a single image. Even a slight misalignment may cause double vision, which a person may try to eliminate by suppressing the use of one eye. A person must also be able to use the two eyes together to achieve good depth perception, which relates to the ability to see in 3-D.
• Eye-hand coordination- The ability to coordinate the information received through the eyes in order to monitor and direct the hands. This skill is important in all types of activities such as writing, sports, many jobs, school work, and even most daily functions such as eating.
• Visual imagery, visualisation, visual memory, visual discrimination, visual integration and visual form perception- The ability to relate experiences to letters or words on the page and to understand what is seen. For example, a person sees the word 'cow' on the page. If he sees it clearly and properly, the information is sent to the brain and matched with previous information. The person then matches the animal with a verbal concept that he has and says the word 'cow'. Not only does he say the word but he understands what a cow is and even pictures it in his mind.

A vision therapy programme consists of prescribed visual tasks practiced under controlled conditions in the office and reinforced at home.

There are many different training procedures used in vision therapy. The length of time required for completion of vision therapy programmes varies, depending upon the type of vision problem present, how long the condition has existed, the motivation of the patient and the level of improvement desired.

Many controlled studies have been done over the years documenting the effectiveness of vision therapy in treating certain vision problems. The majority have involved the use of vision therapy in treating specific vision conditions.
A two-year study begun in 1976 with 36 learning-disabled children who also had visual and/ or perceptual difficulties found that the children who were given vision therapy in addition to specialized reading instruction made almost twice the gains in reading development as did those who were given only specialized reading instruction.

The effectiveness of vision therapy was dramatically demonstrated in a 1978 study of 100 patients. Although 99 percent had passed a routine vision screening for eyesight, all had difficulties in one or more areas of vision. It was found that 39 percent lacked good eye focusing skills; 96 percent could not change their eye focus easily near to far and back; 75 percent had difficulty using their eyes together as a team; 94 percent had problems with eye movement skills; and 91 percent lacked eye aiming skills.

After vision therapy, 80 percent had good eye focusing skills; 76 percent could change their eye focus easily from near to far and back; 86 percent could use their eyes together as a team 96 percent improved their eye movement skills; and 75 percent sharpened their eye aiming skills.

As you can see, vision is more than good eyesight!