Is vision therapy woo?

[cave canem]

I am just starting to look into this.  It isn't clear that the methods are evidence based.  Does anyone have quality info to point me to?

[PeterPan]

There's plenty of evidence for VT for convergence insufficiency. Beyond that, questionable or even spurious claims. Like if the doc says they'll cure dyslexia, reverse ADHD, whatever, obviously that's woo. But if you have convergence insufficiency AND GET RETAINED REFLEXES INTEGRATED, then yes it will be fine.

[Lady Florida.]

If you mean is it woo when used as a cure or treatment for ailments not related to the eyes? Yes.

If you mean is it woo when treating some vision problems, especially convergence insufficiency, as Peter Pan said, there is plausible evidence. There is also some (little) plausible evidence it can help *some* stroke victims with recovery.

Behavioral optometry is quackery.

Edited April 4, 2019 by Lady Florida.

[gardenmom5]

if there is a vision tracking problem - which will affect reading, it will help.

[Tanaqui]

Depends on what you're looking at it *for*, but it's definitely woo when it comes to reversing myopia. That's a function of the shape of the eyeball - exercises can't make you less nearsighted.

[Katy]

I've had a couple different foster kids who needed it when recovering from brain injuries, and it made a huge difference for them. It also helped my parenting them because I knew what to focus on next - like navigating back to their room, or teaching them to see the differences between different sorts of animals - things that would be obvious to most people were not to them.

[musicianmom]

We found it helpful.

Edited May 21, 2022 by musicianmom

[Arcadia]

18 minutes ago, Patty Joanna said:

 Eye doctor told me that it was too late for it to work for me...but that it was good to get it fixed with my son.  It did help.

 

I had vision therapy for accommodation squint when I was around 25 years old while in college. It costs $70 per session way back in the 90s for seeing the eye doctor followed by the vision therapy in the same session at an eye specialist clinic in a teaching hospital. I did get significant improvements even at that age. 

My husband’s twin nieces have lazy eye and vision therapy with patching during elementary school age worked. 

[prairiewindmomma]

There are a number of studies at the ncbi.nlm.nih.gov website. Read the more recent stuff. While it was very controversial when we put our son through it in 2012, there’s been a swing of opinion in the last few years as more solid studies have come out.

For things like convergence insufficiency, it’s clearly beneficial. For other conditions, there may not be a clear benefit. 

For my kid, we had to do two rounds...one in 2012 (which got him to monocular vision from full diplopia and allowed him to avoid surgery) and a second round at puberty. The second round focused a lot on motor work and VMI. My kid now has excellent visual skills (but is still dyspraxic).

[Farrar]

It's woo for some of the medical things mentioned above. And anyone selling it as a cure all is definitely woo woo.

As for reading issues, which is what I see it most recommended for around these parts... it's not woo, but it also may not work. And it's hard to know until you sink the money into the eval if tracking is actually at the root of a kid's reading issues (as opposed to dyslexia or other things). And then you have to trust the doctor doing it and... honestly, some of them are definitely trying to sell you. The whole eye industry is filled with shady characters. A lot of the basic eye exam docs are trying to upsell you a new prescription as well. So, yeah.

[cave canem]

This teen reads fluently but does not enjoy it, has some learning difficulties, complains of eye pain when reading, and after two years of glasses--most recently trifocals--cannot find a prescription that allows her to read comfortably.  I am looking at VT as part of a leave-no-stone-unturned approach to helping, but I am put off by the woo I read about.

The practitioners I have found locally refer to themselves as behavioral optometrists. 

ETA:  she's good with racquet sports.

Edited April 4, 2019 by cave canem

[Guest]

I think, as others have said, there is a nugget of truth for certain true eye disorders. But I did take my older son, who has some reading-related struggles, to the big vision therapy guru in my area and, IMO, it was nonsense from start to finish. I am very sensitive to marketing ploys and everything about how this worked was stuffed with them. The doctor himself kept ascribing problems to my son that he did not have. So, for example, he would say, “...and that’s why he gets headaches when he reads.” Well, ds does not get headaches when he reads. It was not a complaint that brought us there, nor was it ever mentioned as a problem. He also linked my son’s reading troubles to Lyme Disease when, moments before, I had told him my son struggled with fluency from the very beginning, years before Lyme came into the picture. 

I very much got a “Buy Into Our Fabulous Timeshare Today!” vibe from the whole ordeal. When it came around to planning his proposed sessions, I could not even see how this would fit into his life logistically. And they wanted me to come back for another parent’s seminar. So I did not pursue it. 

With that said, I have a few homeschooling friends who swear by the guy and said it transformed their kids into reading fiends. So *shrug* there’s that. But I thought it was utter crap. 

[Guest]

There is a free site you can go to that has some basic eye tracking exercises. It is called eye can learn, without the spaces. It might be .org. 

ETA: shortly after having met with the VT, I was watching my son play an extremely fast-paced video game where he had to follow patterns with his mouse and then click it at the first moment to earn a star. That game sealed in my mind that there was no tracking reason for his reading problems. He was also good at baseball, soccer and lacrosse, where you have to track a ball moving quickly and make decisions about where to move your body. I don’t think he could do those things so well if he really had the problems that dr. was trying to say he had. 

Edited April 4, 2019 by Quill

[PeterPan]

2 hours ago, cave canem said:

reads fluently but does not enjoy it, has some learning difficulties, complains of eye pain when reading, and after two years of glasses--most recently trifocals--cannot find a prescription that allows her to read comfortably. 

I don't know anything about behavioral optometrists, but we used doctors in a large practice who are all with COVD. So you could see if any COVD docs are near you. There are some fine docs doing VT who aren't with VT, sure. The main things are

1-they should demonstrate the problem so you can actually see it and understand it. Convergence issues can be see and they have these funky tools that will elicit the problems and quantify it. They should have something like a visagraph, which uses infrared goggles to track eye movements and show you how the eyes are moving. If she's having trouble with convergence, sometimes the eyes will skip or shut off one and then the other to resolve the images. You can see this happening with the visagraph.

2-NEVER EVER EVER pay a ton of money upfront. Don't pay for more than one month at a time. Just saying. That's the single biggest red flag that burns people on LC. Don't do it. 

3-get a 2nd or 3rd opinion.

4-expect to see results

So yes, I would say eye pain with reading is a pretty solid reason to want to know what is going on. I know nothing about behavioral optometrists, but I'm guessing they vary as much as any practice. Nothing should be vague or woo. Convergence can be over-convergence as well. I would start by getting the eval and finding out what is going on. Then you can research it and decide what you want to do about it. Not like you have to decide that day, but right now you don't even have the right words/explanation to google and find out your options.

[PeterPan]

2 hours ago, Quill said:

But I thought it was utter crap. 

At least the doc you saw was full of it, totally agree! I remember taking my ds to the eye doc my dd had used for her VT, and the doc was like oh he has dyslexia, well we would call that vision problems and do VT! What idiocy. And this was a doc who had been GREAT with my dd who had convergency insufficiency, no true depth perception, headaches with reading. It was LIFE-ALTERING for her, and for my ds the same doc was spouting stupidity.

I did take my ds back a month ago and get him fully test (the visagraph infrared google thing, VMI testing, the whole enchilada) because I wanted to be ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE there was no vision or visual processing explanation for my ds' complete lack of interest in reading books. We used a different doc in the practice, one who specializes in SLDs, and she was flabbergasted how good his scores were, said there was nothing they could do for him.

So yeah, if they're making vague claims, it's in the woo category. And here's the thing. VT has a strong executive function and working memory component. So kids go in not functioning on a lot of levels, and they're doing so much involving working memory, keeping time, learning new learning strategies like visualization, etc. that by the time they're done the kids are cleaning their rooms, doing better in school work, on and on, and the parents are like this is awesome! It happened with my very ADHD dd and it was pretty astonishing and a really nice side effect!!

So I don't doubt people get help, but it might not have been the VISION that was improving, lol. Like I said, the doc should be able to demonstrate the problem, not just make vague promises.

[cave canem]

This has given me a lot to work with.  Thanks, everyone.

[Jaz]

My ds had difficulty reading. Vision therapy was expensive so we started with the exercises in this book: http://stores.diannecraft.org/1-brain-integration-therapy-manual/ It worked! 

[SKL]

It worked for my kid.

[TravelingChris]

I was desperate to find someone who would help my daughter.  she kept getting great ophthalogical results but was definitely having vision issues- able to read hard bools with wide spacing but not easier books with smaller print, etc.  I found an opthalmologist in town who specialized in eye muscle disorders.   he diagnosed her correctly with convergence issues which was why she could read some books and not others, and kept having certain other vision issues.  He prescribed exercises, a special prism prescription and saw us a few times.  It was not labeled as developmental vt, which would not have been covered under out insurance, but rather as a convergence issue (diplopia) and he was an opthalmologist, not an opthometrist.  Anyway, it totally did help my daughter.  She has no issues reading small print anymore and doesn't have a convergence issue anymore.

I did not try vt with my third kid, who was dyslexic, but did make sure that she was tested for convergnce issues too- she did not have any.  

[EKS]

It will help with certain eye problems, particularly those where the eyes are not working together well.  It will not cure dyslexia or ADHD.  

I have personally seen good results with VT.