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Do you get headaches when you read or use the computer? Does your child cover or close an eye while they read? Do your eyes hurt at the end of the work day? Is homework time with your child a constant battle against avoidance behaviors? Do words move on the page when you are trying to read? These are all symptoms of convergence insufficiency – a very common, and very treatable, vision condition that affects people of all ages.

Convergence insufficiency is an eye teaming deficit that affects approximately 8% of people (that is 4 times more prevalent than glaucoma or an eye turn). You do not outgrow convergence insufficiency, which is why it can have lifelong impacts on your vision. Convergence insufficiency can also be caused by a traumatic brain injury (even a concussion). Here is what you need to know about this vision condition that causes headaches, double vision and reading difficulties.

Is your child inattentive? Impulsive? Hyperactive? If you answered 'yes' to any of those, we have established that you have a child. Every kid will be a kid, and every kid has their moments (whether sugar-induced or otherwise). Well when these behaviors are present at clinically-significant levels, it may lead to the diagnosis of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) – sometimes called ADD or ADHD. Unfortunately, diagnosis of AD/HD often relies heavily on subjective surveys rather than objective measures. Fortunately, researchers are using eye movements to help objectively identify AD/HD.

According to the Prevent Blindness America organization, vision problems affect 25% of school-aged children. And these vision problems can prevent a child from achieving their academic potential. Many teachers may find it hard to believe that 25% of their students have a visual barrier to success because they don't see a quarter of their students wearing glasses. The reason for this difference is that many of the vision conditions affecting students are not treated with glasses.  

The eyes are a complex organ that can take an impulse of light and turn it into vision; a truly remarkable feat. Even more remarkable and complex is vision itself. 66% of the connections within the brain are involved in the process of vision; sight, binocular vision (eye teaming), visual perception (making sense of visual information), and visual integration. As you can imagine, when an aspect of the visual system is not working properly it takes specialized care to correct the visual deficit. In the area of binocular vision and visual perception there are several terms, which are misleading and confusing for patients when used interchangeably. In this four part blog we will discuss each of these terms; vision therapy, vision rehabilitation, eye exercises and brain training as they relate to the visual system. In today's blog we will discuss vision therapy.

A parent called into our office with this question last week, and she is not the first to do so.  Vision therapy takes many forms. Some optometrists offer in-office vision therapy with a trained therapist, others put patients on the computer or in group sessions, and others prescribe a home-based program. At Advanced Vision Therapy Center we provide all vision therapy sessions in a one-on-one environment; relying on our therapists, rather than a computer, to train visual skills. Abundant research has been performed in the area of vision therapy and the effectiveness of these various modalities. The research continues to show that in-office vision therapy with trained professionals is the most effective treatment for convergence insufficiency (a binocular vision condition). So it should not come as a surprise that when you sit a kid in front of a computer for months, the question often arises