Vision therapy can be life changing. At Aurora Eye Care, we are proud to have witnessed it’s powerful effects time and again. Growing up with difficulties reading and writing can make life extremely challenging. Vision therapy gives us a non-invasive method of helping build up your child’s visual skills and confidence.
Unlike traditional vision treatments, like lenses which compensate for an imbalance, vision therapy attempts to train the visual system to act more efficiently. It’s similar to physical therapy and requires practice and effort from the patient in order to yield results.
While it’s not an exhaustive list, let’s take a look at two ways vision therapy can benefit your child before a problem becomes irreversible.
Improved Learning at School
Studies provide conclusive proof that 65% of people are visual learners, that 90% of the information that comes to the brain is visual and that visual aids can improve learning by up to 400%.
Now, while those numbers may not apply to every group of people, they do give an impression of just how critical visual learning is.
Reading, Handwriting and Copying
Vision therapy has been shown to significantly improve reading and comprehension in children. It can also help combat dyslexia.
Further, children are often embarrassed and ashamed of their struggle with reading, and can become averse to it. This can be taken for laziness and a child’s vision problems may go unnoticed for years. These visual problems may also go unnoticed during a routine eye exam. In depth testing with an optometrist specialized in vision therapy can determine the specific areas that vision therapy can benefit.
Vision therapy teaches the child’s visual system how to work correctly, which in turn motivates them to work and participate more in the classroom.
Bolstered Self-Esteem and Happiness
There is a webpage called “Vision Therapy Stories” where people around the world share their experiences with vision therapy.
Many of these are heartwarming accounts of children whose self-esteem was shot, who lacked the confidence to read aloud or even interact with other kids. Vision therapy has helped all of these children come out of their shells and begin to lead a normal life. What’s more, every one of these children seems to come out with an insatiable thirst for learning!
Some Benefits Can’t Be Quantified
While less tangible than physical improvements to strabismus or a lazy eye, improved self-esteem is an extremely common result of vision therapy. The trial of doing weekly or bi-weekly sessions – alongside nightly ‘homework’ – isn’t easy, but when your child makes noticeable progress, their whole persona can change!
It’s a lifestyle improvement that can change a child’s life permanently for the better, even in cases where the vision isn’t 100% corrected. Take, for example, a moderate improvement to hand-eye coordination or peripheral vision: your child will become substantially more competent at sports, video games, and other activities which benefit from hand/eye coordination, which in turn makes them a happier and more well-rounded person.
Vision therapy can benefit your child both physically and emotionally; our goal at Aurora is to achieve both, and give your child the life they deserve.