What is Vision Performance Training?

Vision Therapy

In Fort Collins

Did you know that half of the nerves that run the body are responsible for the eyes?  That's a lot of neurology! To move our eyes with precision and accuracy requires a lot of concentration and neuro-muscular power. Your brain is amazing, and vision therapy in Fort Collins, CO will help you see and be your best!

Vision Performance Training (vision therapy, vision rehabilitation, sports vision) trains your eyes and brain to work better together for improved tracking, eye teaming, clarity, fusion, depth perception, visual efficiency, eye-hand coordination, visual memory, reading comprehension, and other important processing skills.  

You see with more than just your eyes. Vision is how the brain makes sense of what the eyes see. Vision Performance Training strengthens this process and allows the system to function more efficiently. How much fusion, suppression, or double vision do you experience? How well do your eyes and brain see 3D and manage spatial awareness? Can you visualize and process vision information efficiently? Oftentimes relaxing glasses with prisms and magnifiers give the visual system a boost toward better performance, but nothing beats putting in the hard work to train your eyes and brain to work together.

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Whom is Vision Therapy For?

Athletic Performance
Whether you’re prepping for the court, field, trails, or slopes, vision performance training will help you exceed your goals and see your victory! With increased response and visual processing time and an increased field of vision, vision therapy will help you be the best athlete you can be.
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Academic Performance
When it comes to academics, your brain and your eyes have to be working together at optimal levels to get the most out of your education. Vision therapy may be beneficial if you and/or your child are struggling with:
  • Reading

  • Processing

  • Near work

  • Visual tracking

  • Binocular vision disorders

Don’t wait to enhance your academic performance. We know how stressful and disheartening it can be to struggle in school without answers or progress. Vision performance training can help empower your student to become the confident, successful student you know they can be!

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Injury Recovery

A HIGH PERCENTAGE OF CONCUSSION PATIENTS DEVELOP VISION PROBLEMS
In a 2016 study of adolescent concussion patients, 69% were diagnosed with one or more vision problems. Research suggests that over 50% of adults with a concussion or post-concussion syndrome have visual problems that can cause headaches, eye strain, and double or blurred vision. A 2017 study of concussion patients who were referred for a vision exam found that 82% received a diagnosis of an oculomotor problem.

It makes sense that concussions would cause vision problems; there is a widespread distribution of visual pathways through the brain, and more areas of the brain are used to process vision than for any other system.

The vision problems that develop after a concussion are not visual acuity (20/20) problems, but rather eye teaming, focusing, and tracking, which create difficulties with reading and sports. Don’t let your visual system keep you down after a head injury!
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SOME OF THE VISION PROBLEMS MOST COMMON TO CONCUSSION PATIENTS ARE ALSO THE KIND THAT MOST PEOPLE NEVER KNOW THEY HAVE
Convergence insufficiency (the eye's ability to converge together on a near object, such as a book or screen) is the most prevalent concussion-related visual problem and accommodative insufficiency is second. Most people with convergence insufficiency never know they have it because rather than seeing double, the brain may suppress information from one eye.
SYMPTOMS OF VISION PROBLEMS FOLLOWING INJURY:
  • headaches in forehead or temple

  • being overwhelmed in visually stimulating environments

  • school work or computer work takes hours longer than it should

  • problems with coordination (tripping/stumbling and poor eye-hand coordination)

  • becoming fatigued with reading

This website has behavioral signs and symptoms of vision problems.

VISION PROBLEMS IN CONCUSSION PATIENTS ARE ROUTINELY MISSED; YOUR OPTOMETRIST, SPORTS MEDICINE DOCTOR, NEUROLOGIST, GENERAL PRACTITIONER MAY MISS CONCUSSION-RELATED VISION PROBLEMS
When your optometrist checks your eyes and decides on a prescription for glasses, she is measuring for visual acuity. Visual acuity describes the sharpness of sight, such as seeing the small letters in an eye chart from across the room. Typical eye exams do not measure the vision problems seen with concussions. In one study in which vision dysfunction was found in a high percentage of concussion and TBI patients, the researchers commented that "visual acuity remained normal in most of these patients and was not a reliable predictor of visual outcome after brain injury."

At Vision Performance Center, our diagnostic exams see beyond visual acuity to get you the vision performance help you need to take back control of your vision.
ALL CONCUSSION PATIENTS SHOULD BE GIVEN A COMPREHENSIVE VISION EXAM

Multiple research papers strongly recommend that patients with concussions, post-concussion syndrome, or any type of brain injury should be given a comprehensive vision examination, specifically testing for convergence, eye movement, and accommodative function. These types of tests are not done by your family optometrist or a neurologist but by an optometrist specializing in vision development or an optometrist trained in neuro-optometric rehabilitation. Some neuro-ophthalmologists and developmental ophthalmologists also do this type of diagnosis.

Your comprehensive vision exam will include:

  • Visual acuity at near

  • Eye teaming skills

  • Eye focusing skills

  • Eye movement skills

Who Can Diagnose Vision Dysfunction?

Several types of specialists can diagnose ocular-motor (vision) dysfunction:

  • Vision Development optometrists

  • Neuro-optometric rehabilitation optometrists

  • Behavioral optometrists

  • Neuro-ophthalmologists

  • Developmental ophthalmologists

  • Specialists in Opthalmological TBI diagnosis, for example, Steve Rauchman, M.D. in Los Angeles

  • CANADA

Online Resources

PODCASTS ABOUT VISION DIAGNOSIS AND VISION THERAPY

Dr. Jessica Schwartz, the host of Concussion Corner podcast, interviews Dr. Neera Kapoor on the role of neuro-optometry in concussion management. Midway into the interview, Dr. Kapoor gives the best description we've heard of the kinds of vision problems people with concussions experience.

Amy Zellmer, the host of Faces of TBI podcast, interviews Kara Christy, occupational therapist, and certified brain injury specialist, about cognitive-perceptual motor retraining and vision therapy.

The Concussion Project has extensive information about concussion vision issues and treatment. Also recommended is the specific page for individuals

Visionhelp.com has links to helpful articles about this topic as well as a doctor search tool.

COVD.org is the College of Optometrists in Vision Development, which has explanations about vision diagnosis and therapy and a doctor search tool.

Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association has some helpful articles, plus a doctor search tool.  

MinnesotaVisionTherapy has a good page explaining the vision therapy process. Their program makes use of Light Therapy (Syntonics), which utilizes colored light frequencies to enhance visual processes.

The following Lifemark article, Vision issues following a concussion - there is hope and help, does a good job of describing the different kinds of vision issues and symptoms typical after a concussion. 

Steve Rauchman, M.D., Specialist in Opthalmological TBI diagnosis, has a useful blog about traumatic brain injury, concussions, and vision issues

Related Research
  • Military Medicine has published a study by Anthony P Kontos PhD et al., finding that 51 military and civilian patients who had chronic concussion symptoms (1-3 years) showed "significant improvement in symptoms [including] cognitive, vestibular, oculomotor, and balance function, following targeted intervention interventions.” These interventions involved behavioral, vestibular, vision, and exertional therapy.

  • Optometry and Vision Science published a study concerning four prevalent vision dysfunctions resulting from a TBI. Natalya Merezhinskaya, PhD et al. did a systematic review and analysis of 22 research studies, and found that of patients who had suffered a TBI, 42.8% had accommodative dysfunction (eyes have trouble focusing), 36.3% had convergence insufficiency (eyes unable to work together to view near objects), 18.2% had visual field loss, 0% had visual acuity loss (this is the clarity or sharpness of vision, typically what the family optometrist measures for, which can lead to a lack of diagnosis for vision dysfunction after a concussion).

  • Researchers at UC San Francisco have done an extensive review of cases involving children and adolescents with post-concussion syndrome (PCS). They have established what treatments are most applicable for different symptoms. They found that the best way to organize treatment was a breakdown of therapies by four symptom groups: vestibular-ocular, autonomic (or physical), emotional, and cognitive. The study, by Mitul Kapadia et al.,was published in Current Reviews of Musculoskeletal Medicine.

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