Vision therapy
You can read the bottom line of the chart and still not last half an hour with a book. Visual acuity measures sharpness. It does not measure whether your two eyes work together, or how long they take to change focus.
Seeing well far away and tiring up close is not a contradiction
The acuity test looks at one eye at a time, still, straight ahead, six metres away. Reading is the opposite: two eyes aimed at the same point thirty centimetres off, focusing and refocusing every time you glance up at the board or the screen, for a long stretch.
When that system is working at its limit, the result is not blurred vision. It is discomfort: skipping lines, losing your place, holding the page too close, covering one eye, and a headache or a walk-away after twenty minutes.
In a child it looks like reluctance. In an adult working across two monitors it looks like mid-afternoon exhaustion. In neither case does it show up on an acuity chart.
Measure first. Then decide whether there is anything to do
The assessment looks at specific things: whether the eyes converge as an object comes closer and how far, how easily focus shifts from distance to near and back, and how they track along a line of text or jump from one word to the next.
Either that produces a finding or it does not. If the measurements sit within the normal range we tell you so, there is no therapy, and you know to look elsewhere. Therapy that starts without an assessment to justify it is not therapy, it is a monthly payment.
What the work looks like
It combines sessions here, with the equipment in the consulting room, and a few minutes of work at home on most days. The home part is not optional: it is where what you practise in the session settles, and anyone who skips it does not progress.
Every so often the original tests are repeated. If the numbers move and the symptoms move with them, we carry on. If they do not move, the plan changes or we stop and look elsewhere. That conversation happens with you, with the figures on the table.
What vision therapy is not
It is not a treatment for dyslexia or for attention deficit disorder, and it does not replace educational support or a medical assessment. If your child struggles to read there may be a visual cause behind it, and there may not. We measure before claiming anything.
Nor do we sell guaranteed results, because they cannot be guaranteed. What we do is put in writing where we are starting from, what we intend to change, and which test will show whether it changed.
Common questions
Is this only for children?
No. A good share of the enquiries come from adults who spend the day across two screens and reach mid-afternoon with tired eyes and a stiff neck. The focusing and convergence system is still working at fifty, and it can still be measured at fifty.
My child is falling behind at school. Will this fix it?
Here is the honest answer: we do not know, and anybody who promises otherwise before measuring is selling you something. What we can do is confirm or rule out a near-vision difficulty. If there is one, we work on it. If there is not, we say so and you look elsewhere without having lost a school year.
How long does it take?
That depends on the finding and on how consistently the home work gets done, which is why you will not get a number on this page. The assessment sets a specific goal and a date to measure again, and the decision to continue is made from there.
Do I need a referral from an ophthalmologist?
No referral is needed for the assessment. If something turns up during it that warrants medical assessment, we explain it and refer you with a written report before any therapy begins.
The information on this site is for general guidance and does not replace a professional consultation. If you have symptoms, please see your optometrist, hearing aid audiologist or doctor.
