Great Lakes Vision Rehabilitation at Excel Neuro-Optometric Clinic
Traumatic and Acquired Brain Injury ∙ Learning Disabilities ∙ Autism ∙ Infant and Visual Development ∙ Neuro-Degenerative Diseases ∙ Visually Evoked Potential ∙ Visual Information Processing Testing ∙ Kinetic Color Visual Field ∙ Optometric Phototherapy
48189 Van Dyke Ave, Shelby Township, MI 48317
Phone: (586) 731-9725
Fax: (586) 488-0006
Binocular Dysfunction
Common Symptoms: Double vision, blurry vision, frequent headaches or migraines, attention difficulties, reduced comprehension or reading fluency, squints / tilts head or closes one eye, skip over words or misses lines, motion sickness, and reduced eye-hand coordination.
Click: Association between ADHD and Vision Problems
Hot off the press: Reading and Vision therapy research (click to read more)
Binocular vision consists of a motor (eyes moving together on a target) and sensory component (the brain putting the images together). As the eyes are pointed to a similar target, and then the eyes process the information, then the brain puts the images together. This is called the sensorimotor status.
When the brain does not use the two eyes together as a team, it is termed binocular dysfunction. Binocular dysfunction can be associated with an eye drift (i.e., strabismus) or non-strabismus disorder (e.g., convergence insufficiency). Both types of binocular dysfunction can cause issues associated with academics (i.e., reading, reading comprehension, and writing), sports, balance, and tracking.
Symptoms associated with binocular dysfunction may include double vision, words moving on the page, skipping lines, tired while performing near tasks, headaches, aversion to reading, poor sports performance, squinting (closing one eye), and more!
The most common form of binocular dysfunction is called Convergence Insufficiency. Convergence Insufficiency has been highly studied and has been shown to be treatable by vision therapy. The landmark study called the Convergence Insufficiency Treatment Trial (C.I.T.T.) was published in the mid-2000’s and showed the efficacy of in-office vision therapy.
In addition to convergence insufficiency, strabismus can be treated with vision therapy. The American Optometric Association (AOA) lists vision therapy as an option for strabismus. This is a non-surgical approach to improving the symptoms associated with strabismus. Vision therapy can treat and manage strabismus in place of strabismus surgery, or be used a combination approach to surgery. Strabismus surgery works by moving the muscles of the eyes (motor alignment) and hopes for the brain to sensory fuse the two options. Unfortunately, many patients require multiple surgeries and may still present with eye drift or decreased fusion (flat fusion or third-degree fusion know as stereopsis (3-D vision)). If you have had surgery or are considering surgery, also consider a therapy option to help with potentially increasing the success of muscle alignment surgery for improved sensory fusion!
PLEASE CALL TODAY IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING ANY OF THE ABOVE SYMPTOMS AND SEE HOW EXCEL NEURO-OPTOMETRIC CLINIC MAY BE ABLE TO HELP YOU!