Vision therapy, also known as visual therapy or visual training, is a broadly-defined set of treatment programs related to the improvement of visual health and comfort. Probably, the best known form of vision therapy is orthoptics which treats binocular vision disorders such as amblyopia, strabismus, and double vision or diplopia. Other problems treated with vision therapy include difficulties of visual attention and concentration, which are said to manifest as an inability to sustain focus or to shift focus from one area of space to another. The ability to shift the focus of visual attention from one place in space to another is also a critical developed visual ability that affects many aspects of life including reading, most vocations and most avocations. Eye doctors may also prescribe vision therapy to victims of strokes, concussions, and head injuries, as well as sufferers from eye strain and visually-induced headaches. However, not all such therapy is limited to disorders of the visual system. Professional athletes, for example, may use vision therapy to enhance peripheral vision on the playing field or increase responsiveness to fast moving objects.

History

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The concept of vision therapy was introduced in the late nineteenth century for the non-surgical treatment of misaligned eyes. This early form of vision therapy is what is now known as orthoptics. Collaboration of eye care professionals with educators and neuroscientists produced an expansion of vision therapy into the treatment of other eye teaming (binocular) deficits (the use of the flow through the right and left eyes simultaneously to the brain) as well as dysfunctions in visual focusing, perception, tracking and motor skills.

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