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Vision therapy, is an attempt to build or enhance visual skills to increase visual comfort, ease, and how well the eyes perform, and to modify visual processing or interpretation of visual information.
Typically, a vision treatment programme consists of weeks or months of closely supervised in-office and at-home eye exercises.
The scientific theory of neuroplasticity serves as the foundation for how vision therapy (VT) operates.
The brain’s neurons have the capacity to adapt their connections and behaviours to suit novel surroundings, a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity.
Amblyopia, sometimes known as “lazy eyes,” is a neuro-developmental visual disorder in which one eye has decreased vision even with contacts or glasses on. If left untreated, amblyopia can have a detrimental influence on a child’s success at job, school, sports, and friendships.
Amblyopia occurs when vision in one or both eyes fails to develop normally throughout childhood. It’s also referred to as a lazy eye. Amblyopia is a prevalent condition in infants and early childhood.
The eyesight of a kid develops over the first few years of life. Amblyopia should be diagnosed and treated as soon as possible. A youngster with amblyopia cannot acquire normal, healthy eyesight in any other way.
One of your child’s eyes may be better than another, but they may not know of it. You can also be unaware of it unless your child has an obvious eye condition like strabismus.
Amblyopia can occur as a result of various eye and vision disorders. The following list of ailments can result in amblyopia in children:
A) Refractive errors:
A refractive error can cause distortion or blurred vision in those who are myopic, hypermetropic, or astigmatism. A child’s refractive error might be more severe in one eye. It is possible for that eye to “turn off,” which would prevent normal visual development. This can be difficult to determine because the child’s eyesight seems to be normal while using both eyes.
B) Squint
When the eyes point in two distinct directions, it’s called strabismus. One eye may turn in, out, up, or down, while the other remains fixed in front. The child’s brain may choose to disregard the picture from the eye that is not focused directly ahead in order to prevent seeing double. However, this could prevent that eye from growing normally.
C) Cloudiness in the eye’s typically clear regions
Certain infants are born with a cataract, which is a clouding of the ordinarily clear lens of the eye. This may prevent that eye’s eyesight from growing normally.
D) droopy eyelid
A child’s growing eye can become amblyopic due to ptosis, or drooping of the eyelid.
Amblyopia was traditionally treated only by patching the better-seeing eye. But at a certain age, it becomes quite unpleasant and fails to serve you well.
Eye specialists compare the visual acuities of the two eyes to diagnose amblyopia. To evaluate a child’s vision, an eye doctor may cover one of the child’s eyes and assess how well they can see an object.
A doctor may also watch how the youngster responds with one eye covered.
When a youngster has amblyopia in one eye and covers the other, they may attempt to peer through the patch, tug it off, or cry.
In order to detect any further eye conditions that could be impairing vision, the ophthalmologist will do a thorough medical eye exam.
A trained optometrist, family doctor, paediatrician, or eye specialist should examine each child’s eyes before they start preschool or kindergarten.
vision therapy can help amblyopia see better by providing them with a range of customized exercises that enhance eye coordination, and depth perception, and decrease suppression, which is the process by which the brain blocks out the image of one of the eyes, resulting in blurry or double vision.
The method for treating amblyopia in children is to force them to use their weaker eyes.
By using
1. Eye patch
2. Eye drops
3. Software
4. virtual reality
The child’s stronger eye is routinely patched over to achieve this. Eye drops may be used in some situations to obscure vision in the stronger eye. Alternatively, the youngster could use glasses with a lens that causes blurriness in one eye.
The youngster may need to wear an eye patch part-time for a few years after they have improved vision in that eye. This preserves the strength of their vision. The child’s ophthalmologist will closely check your child’s eyesight, so don’t forget to keep all of your scheduled visits.
How to Select and Apply Eye Patches:
An eye patch needs to be properly fitted without compromising comfort. Additionally, it must prevent the infant from looking around its edges.
Eye patches come in a range of sizes and varieties. The use of black eye patches (like pirate-style patches) with elastic bands or ties is not advised. It would be too simple for a toddler to take them off or look inside. Just sew the patch on the skin surrounding your child’s eye to wear it.
There are patches made to adhere to the lens of your child’s spectacles.
Keep your child from removing the eye patch.
Children dislike having patches on or blurring around their stronger eyes. However, you should encourage your children to do what is best for them. The therapy won’t be effective otherwise.
To hold the child’s attention, try diverting them or assigning them a task. Or give the kid a goodie as a thank-you for wearing the patch.
Your youngster may need some time to adjust to wearing a patch. Both of you and them should find this simpler with time. Recall that the only path to normal, healthy vision development is to strengthen the weaker eye.
Using atropine drops to the stronger eye once a day might “penalize” it as an alternative to patching it. These drops cause the eye’s focusing mechanism to weaken, which reduces close-up vision to the point that the child’s brain “chooses” the amblyopic eye’s picture over the stronger eye’s blurry image.
Its effects are less manageable than those of patches since they can last up to two weeks and, in rare cases, result in a decrease in vision in the good eye.
Reversal amblyopia is the cause of this, which is why a kid receiving atropine penalization needs to be examined every two to three weeks so that the health of both eyes may be properly observed.
Most ophthalmologists do not commonly use atropine penalization as the first therapy for amblyopia due to the danger of reversing amblyopia and the increased frequency of clinic visits.
Enhance the amblyopic eye’s visual acuity with films or video games. A few of them use polarized glasses, shutter glasses, red-green anaglyphic glasses, low-pass filters that reduce light in the opposite eye, and others.
Virtual reality therapy solves a lot of the issues. Because VR-based therapy is engaging and age-appropriate, patients find it fun, and patient compliance is great.
Since the healthy eye is not blocked or forced to be inactive and is not deprived of stimuli, it does not include the stigmatization of patching or the negative consequences of atropine.
Moreover, there is no possibility of reverse amblyopia. Furthermore, whereas punishment and occlusion may interfere with fusion, virtual reality treatment promotes fusion and is anticipated to improve binocular vision.
Enhanced Visual Acuity
A personalised, non-surgical programme of exercises called vision therapy aims to enhance visual abilities including depth perception, eye tracking, and attention. Children may understand and absorb visual information more effectively by honing these abilities, which will enhance their general performance in the classroom and other activities.
Improve Academics Results
Achievement in school is significantly influenced by visual abilities. Children who have trouble processing visual information may find it difficult to write, read, and solve math issues.
Improved Sports Performance
Sports performance also depends on visual abilities. In order to evaluate distance, follow moving objects, and respond fast, athletes depend on their eyesight. Children who get vision treatment might enhance their performance in sports and other physical activities by learning these abilities.
Improves self-confidence
Children who struggle with visual processing may become less confident. It’s possible that their poor self-esteem stems from frustration and defeat. Children who get vision therapy might be able to get beyond these challenges and grow more confident.
Long-Term Outcomes
Vision therapy is a long-term approach to enhancing visual abilities rather than a band-aid remedy. Children can develop the ability to succeed in school academics, sports, and other activities by working with a vision. These abilities are enduring and will provide them with a strong basis for success in the future.
Make an appointment with the Amblyopia Visual Symptoms Treatment Center to discuss your concerns regarding your child’s visual processing (lazy eye) and to find out more about the advantages of vision therapy.
No age restriction exists. The brain is neuroplastic, meaning that it changes and adapts during the span of a person’s life. We get more skilled and improve our visual function the more we practise, much like when we exercise a muscle or play an instrument.
• To develop or improve fundamental visual skills and abilities
• To improve visual comfort, ease, and efficiency
• To improve how a patient processes or interprets visual information
