Vision Therapy

Strengthen Your Eye-Brain Connection

There’s more to your vision than seeing well. While good eyesight is an essential part of good vision, your vision also depends on a strong connection between your eyes and your brain.

Your vision relies on your visual skills. These skills allow you to organize, understand, and interpret visual information and give it meaning. Well-developed visual skills are essential for learning, writing, reading, and interacting with the world. Lacking visual skills can lead to learning problems or other functional vision problems.

Vision problems can affect both children and adults, and both children and adults can benefit from vision therapy. We offer customized vision therapy plans for patients of all ages at Prairie Vision in Wainwright and Vermilion. Our goal is to help you and your child achieve comfortable, efficient vision. If you’re interested in learning more about vision therapy and how it can help, please call us today to book a consultation.

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What Is Vision Therapy?

Vision therapy is an individualized treatment plan used to correct or improve specific visual system dysfunctions. Vision therapy is designed to enhance and retrain learned aspects of vision using a series of customized activities and exercises.

There’s no age limit for vision therapy. While vision therapy can be more effective at treating vision problems like strabismus and amblyopia during childhood, adults who have been dealing with vision problems their whole lives can also benefit from vision therapy. The ultimate goal of vision therapy is to help our patients see more clearly, efficiently, and comfortably.

Our programs at Prairie Vision include weekly one-on-one sessions with a qualified, trained therapist and prescribed therapy completed at home. Every 8 weeks, you or your child will be given an evaluation with the optometrist to assess your progress.

Signs & Symptoms of a Vision Problem

Learning occurs through several complex, interrelated processes, of which vision plays a key role. Signs and symptoms of some learning disabilities are similar to those caused by vision problems, and occasionally vision problems are misdiagnosed as learning disabilities. A comprehensive eye exam can help prevent this misdiagnosis from happening.

Parents and guardians can also help their children by watching for common signs and symptoms of vision problems:

Complaints of blurred vision
Rubs eyes frequently
Squints
Closes or covers one eye
Occasionally sees double
Reads only for a short time
Poor reading comprehension
Holds things very close
Says eyes are tired
Has headaches when reading
Moves head when reading
Frequently loses place or skips lines when reading
Uses finger to keep place
Short attention span
Mistakes words with similar beginnings
Difficulty recognizing letters, words, or simple shapes and forms
Can’t distinguish the main idea from insignificant details
Trouble learning basic math concepts of size, magnitude, and position
Trouble visualizing what is read
Poor speller
Poor recall of visual material
Sloppy handwriting and drawing
Can’t stay in lines
Poor copying skills
Can respond orally but not in writing
Trouble learning right from left
Reverses letters and words
Trouble writing and remembering letters and numbers

What Can Vision Therapy Treat?

At Prairie Vision, we offer different levels of vision therapy programs to treat several issues. Each type of vision therapy is specially designed to address the unique needs of the individual patient. No 2 programs will look the same.

Some areas where vision therapy can help include:

Reading below grade level
Binocular vision problems like eye teaming, tracking, and depth perception
Learning-related vision problems and ADD and ADHD
Convergence insufficiency (eyes don’t work together)
Sports vision
Vision problems like amblyopia and strabismus
Acquired and traumatic brain injuries (after car accidents, strokes, concussions, etc.)

The Benefits of Vision Therapy

Vision therapy is a non-invasive, non-surgical treatment plan focused on developing visual skills, and improving the comfort and efficiency of communication between the eyes and the brain.

It can help a child gain confidence in their natural abilities and improve their self-esteem. Without their vision holding them back, children can achieve more in school, play, and life.

Adults who have lived their whole lives with vision problems have learned how to compensate and may feel excessively tired after a day of computer or paperwork. Vision therapy can help reduce this strain on their visual system, improving their ability to function at work or when playing sports, making these daily tasks easier and more comfortable.

If you believe either your or your child will benefit from vision therapy, please call us to schedule a consultation. We’re happy to evaluate your needs and work with you to design a customized treatment plan.

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Our Location

We serve clients of all ages from Wainwright, Viking, Vermilion, Provost, Lloydminster (Alberta), Macklin (Saskatchewan), and the surrounding areas.