Eye Vision Therapy Exercises
- Vision therapy can be used to treat lazy eye, crossed eyes and eye muscle coordination problems.human eye. macro shooting... image by T.Tulic from Fotolia.com
Vision therapy, which is designed to improve or correct numerous vision problems, is a practice of optometry and is done under the care and supervision of a trained optometrist. Some doctors may give patients exercises to do at home, but a vision therapy program should begin with a visit to an optometrist. Vision therapy is often used to treat lazy eye, eye muscle coordination problems and crossed eyes. - Optometrists sometimes use corrective, therapeutic and prism lenses in exercises to aid in vision therapy. These special lenses aid in eye endurance. Prism lenses are used to change the direction of light and are used to enhance your ability to coordinate your eyes in relation to your body. Corrective lenses are often used to expand or condense light. These lenses often are worn as specialized glasses.
- Specialized equipment is also used for vision therapy exercises. Optometrists use specialized computer software, electronic targets with timing mechanisms and vestibular (or balancing) equipment to strengthen eye muscles and treat the visual-motor system as a whole.
- It is common for optometrists to give their clients homework: eye exercises that are to be done outside of the clinic or office. The eye exercises to be performed are decided upon in the clinical visits and are different for each individual. Mayo Clinic researchers found that 75 percent of the children in their study who had weekly clinical visits and performed 15 minutes of corresponding exercises at home experienced full correction of their vision in 12 weeks. One exercise that can be done at home is to cover one eye for 10 to 20 minutes and focus on a task (such as sewing, reading or coloring) with the other eye (often the "lazy" eye.) Make sure to take frequent breaks and look at far away things and use caution as this may cause headaches. Another exercise is to put a sticker on your bathroom mirror and look at yourself in the mirror and then focus on the sticker, repeating this back-and-forth several times. Continue to do this throughout the day. However, remember to consult an optometrist before trying any vision therapy exercises at home.
