What is Vision Therapy?

Optometric Vision Therapy is a safe, non-surgical, and drug-free treatment plan prescribed by an optometrist, that consists of a series of therapeutic exercises and activities designed to develop, rehabilitate and/or enhance a person’s visual system.

Optometric Vision Therapy is not merely 'eye therapy' to strengthen eye muscles, but it is therapy for the brain. Optometric Vision Therapy procedures use the concept of neuroplasticity to help develop or re-develop the neuro pathways between the eyes and brain. With vision therapy, each patient learns to use their visual abilities in both new and more efficient ways through the use of lenses, prisms, filters and other technological instruments improving eye teaming, eye focusing, tracking, reading eye movements, depth perception, visual information processing and visual-motor integration, to name a few.

An individualized treatment plan is created to address any problem area for the patient. These exercises are often fun and age-appropriate, yet challenging and build off each other from week to week. Treatment plans typically range between 4 and 12 months in duration to retrain the brain on how to accurately and efficiently use vision to function better in school, sports and life. Dr. Roark will usually prescribe one in-office session per week lasting 45-60 minutes, plus 20-30 minutes of daily home activities to reinforce the skills that were trained that week in office. Dr. Roark performs progress checks to ensure that each patient is progressing and moving towards graduation!