Vision Therapy Programs

Independent Vision Therapy Appointments

Independent therapy appointments are tailored to address a specific (but limited) area of need, such as poor convergence. Activities are demonstrated in practice to be worked upon daily at home. This can be extremely effective provided you are diligent in carrying out instructions and disciplined to work alone.

From £42 per appointment

In-Practice Vision Therapy

In-Practice Vision Therapy begins in the therapy room with a  one to one session with a Behavioural Optometrist. The purpose is to work through and evaluate activities that will be meaningful in developing your visual skills throughout the next few weeks. Detailed instructions and equipment are loaned out so that these activities can be practiced and refined at home. Every few weeks activities are replaced in a new therapy session and build upon the skills previously developed.

In-practice training works systematically through visual development from the beginning, working through gross and fine body movement, balance and postural feedback to the visual system, integration of vision with the other sensory-motor systems of the body, through more mechanical to perceptual visual skills, visualisation, hierarchy and visual thinking skills.

In Practice Therapy uses mostly real space activities and more sophisticated equipment (such as light boards, rotators, electronic balance boards, projected vectograms, walkrails, etc.) but also incorporates work on computer vision therapy programs and Internet, alongside a concentrated home program with rapid changeover of activities to sustain interest and compliance and speed visual learning.

The number and spacing of appointments can be tailored to suit the individual but are booked in blocks of five. All equipment required is loaned and exchanged each week. A deposit of £50 is required for equipment and will be refunded when the last set of equipment is returned within three weeks of the last Therapy appointment.

From around £300 per block of 5 sessions (includes therapy review)

Home Computer Vision Therapy Program

Home Computer Vision Therapy Programs (there are a few and the most appropriate will be recommended) run on your PC at home or work. These can work on an automatic program that sets daily activities with goals to achieve and adjusts the program according to progress, or a program may be individually tailored by your Optometrist and adjusted over time as your skills improve. This is effective in certain areas of visual need, but is not usually enough alone, particularly if there are body feedback issues to be resolved.  These programs are designed to work with minimal support but can be enhanced with additional real space activities.

One example often used for younger children is the HTS (Home Therapy System) – designed to improve eye muscle co-ordination and eliminate or significantly reduce symptoms associated with near point tasks, such as reading or working on a computer. It is easy to use and can run on any PC at home, at school, or at the office. The system can run on an automatic program, giving a series of activities to perform each day, with specified goals to achieve. The level of difficulty is automatically adjusted according to success. It encourages and motivates by progressing through increasingly difficult tasks in a manner that ensures success. It documents and stores achievements in each session so progress can be monitored. Results can be printed out or stored on the Internet so that your optometrist can monitor progress, online advice may be sent and adjustments to the program made if required.

FEE £125 per program including email support

Please ask for advice on the suitability of each type of therapy, but generally if there are difficulties of a Dyspraxic nature, low muscle tone, loose ligament or delay in motor development, body organisation issues, or difficulties with letter formation (rather than just layout), In-Practice Therapy is recommended.

If difficulties appear to be mostly perceptual (intermittent blur, loss of place, difficulty looking at page, slow speed and inaccuracy in copy work) but writing and maths are good and spelling fair then a computer program may suffice.