Vision therapy? Light therapy? people who have been through it.?!

Vision therapy? Light therapy? people who have been through it.?

my daughter is 4 she has Strabismus and Amblyopia. however she uses both eyes but not at the same time. sugery was talked about 10 mos ago. on both of her eyes. (one turns in REALLY BAD). sooo she most likely would need more then one surgery however the more research i did the more therapy sounds the way to go. less invasive, and fixes the whole problem just not the alignment. however its not covered and i will have to pay for it...and its not cheap. but i want what is best for my kid.

they questions are what does the kind therapy do they use...could i make it up at home?
and light therapy i can't find it online anywhere. he wants to use colored glasses and...i don't get it. some info on that? and its almost as much as the reg. therapy.

so i'm at my wits end!

3 weeks ago
her eyes never started turning untill she was about 14 months old. when we saw the first dr he was very rude, to my husband. but he said to patch only one eye and in doing this i belive it caused the other to turn. she has not surpressed either eye she will switch which one she uses. how ever it is her right that turns the most. the new dr we are seeing has said he beleives she does see double but if u ask if she ever sees 2 dads at the same time she answers no. my husband has a 'lazy eye' he never surpressed it. he had ciropratic work as a young child, and was to wear glasses(that kept getting flushed). so he still does not have the normal vision but (he can see well and does not require glasses) but its like explaining color to a blind man!

Ok. This may take some time. I am an optometric physician and I work predominately in primary care. That means in addition to eyeglasses and contacts I regularly treat eye diseases and perform certain types of eye surgeries including yag laser for secondary cataracts. At one time, about 15 years ago, I worked alot with children in vision therapy so I understand completely what you are talking about. In fact I was once an Associate to the College of Optometrists in Vision Development. I chose to focus more on primary care for several reasons but not because vision therapy doesn't work.

As I said, vision therapy works. But there are some things vision therapy does well and some things that are extremely difficult if not impossible to treat succesfully with vision therapy. Vision therapy has an excellent track record working with kids who are having problems with focusing, convergence, eye hand coordination, visual perception, reading problems, etc.

What you are describing with your daughter will be very difficult to succesfully treat with vision therapy. I have had success with these cases but there is a relatively good chance your daughters problems will not be cured with vision therapy.

Why? Because it sounds like her brain has never developed the ability to integrate both eyes binocularly and team them together. By the time she is 4 her brain has already made several adaptations to her lack of binocularity. Amblyopia, in fact, is an adaptation the brain makes to a lack of binocularity. Because the eyes are pointing in different directions the brain purposefully suppressed the input of the eye that deviates most so as to prevent double vision. It doesn't take very long for this suppression to result in amblyopia.

Because the brain has never probably experienced binocular vision it will be EXTREMELY difficult to teach it to work binocularly now. Not saying it can't be done but the chances aren't real good. Not trying to be negative. Just realistic. (Oh, and the colored lens thing is based upon a concept called Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome that is proposed by a group called the Irlen Institute. They base their claims on anecdotal results but there really isn't any truly scientific research out there that supports their claims. Unfortunately, in my opinion, some eye doctors have incorporated the Irlen concepts into their practice without this scientific backing. Not saying the syndrome doesn't exist. Just saying there is no scientific proof it exists.)

Now back to your daughter. It is my belief that because of the adaptations she has made at this point the chances of gaining TRUE BINOCULARITY (where the brain accepts and integrates both eyes simultatiously so as to create a three dimensional binocular image) is pretty low whether you choose vision therapy or surgery. Surgery holds the promise of cosmetically straightening the eyes but it will do nothing to cause the brain to suddenly begin using both eyes. Even though the eyes will LOOK straight to the observer the brain will really only be using one eye. And the amblyopic eye will most likely remain amblyopic.

Having said all this I really can't give you a for sure answer to which would be the best way to go. BUT, based upon my experience and your limited description of your daughter's problem, my gut tells me that you will probably be dissappointed by the results of vision therapy. My recommendation would be to lean more toward surgery. Hope this helps.


This is in response to your updated info. If indeed she experienced binocular vision for 14 months she may have a slightly better chance of success with vision therapy. Many times, though, even though there is a history of binocularity the brains suppression and adaptation becomes so deeply ingrained that it is difficult to overcome.