Pediatric Occupational & Physical Therapy Solutions For Neuro Motor Delays
.jpg/:/rs=h:207,cg:true,m/qt=q:95)
Infant and Pre-school Vision Therapy
WHAT ARE THE TWO ESSENTIAL VISION ELEMENTS?
- VISUAL ACUITY: What do we see? Visual acuity determines how clearly we are able to see - and whether glasses are needed to correct for more accurate visual clarity.
- VISUAL PROCESSING SKILLS: Seeing clearly is not enough. Our brain needs to efficiently follow a complex sequence to process the information that we see in order to understand the images and react accordingly. This visual processing component involves the visual nerves transporting information from the retina in our eyes back and forth to our brain's occipital lobe .
HOW DOES VISION THERAPY WORK?
WE CREATE A PLAN USING A VARIETY OF THERAPIES TO FOCUS ON BOTH COMPONENTS TO IMPROVE YOUR CHILD'S VISION:
1. Strengthening the eye muscles for better visual focusing of objects, visual tracking of moving objects and visual processing of objects while we are in motion.
2. Increasing eye-teaming so that our eyes work better together to look at and process the images that we are seeing.
3. Strengthening the visual nerve conduction to and from the brain so that processing time is improved (optic nerve, oculomotor nerve, abducens nerve and trochlea nerve)
4. Integrating eye reflexes to enable the brain to process all types of incoming visual information as efficiently as possible: Optokinetic reflex- being able to watch a moving visual image or target
Accommodation reflex-adjusting our pupil size and eye lens to different light intensities; Vertical and horizontal vestibulo-ocular reflex- our ability to stabilize visual images when our heads or bodies move vertically and/or horizontally.
5. Strengthening our vestibular systems (movement, equilibrium and balance) to allow the eye to process movement experiences and move visual information more efficiently.
6. Strengthening our proprioceptive system (body awareness) to allow a child to know where he or she is in space in relation to the visual information that he or she is processing.
EYE CONDITIONS THAT WE TREAT
- Amblyopia (lazy eye)
- Esoptropia and Exotropia (crossed eyes inward or outward)
- Nystagmus (shaking of the eyes)
- Convergence Insufficiency- when the eyes are not able to turn inward and down to focus on a near object (needed for reading or doing table top tasks)
- Strabismus (when the eyes don’t look at the same direction at the same time)
- Decreased visual attention and visual processing skills including:
- Figure ground skills (inability to find an object within a busy background)
- Visual memory skills- remembering visual information
- Visual closure skills- knowing what an object is when only seeing a part
- Visual discrimination skills-knowing the difference between 2 similar objects
- Visual motor skills- being able to see information, process it and produce a motor response (e.g. copying what a teacher wrote on the board in a child’s notebook).
CASE STUDY: A TODDLER WHO CANNOT MAKE EYE CONTACT
Premature birth at 23 weeks: Now 22 months, struggling with poor attention to task and eye contact.
THE THERAPY: To help him, we began the rigorous work needed - focusing on improving his ability for his muscles to ground better and be able to sit still.
This involves conversion of white muscle spindle fibers which cause us to move and go into red muscle spindle fibers which enable us to sit still be grounded to one place.
One way to target this is with a strengthening program of isometric (muscle “hold” against a resistance), and isotonic (muscle movement against a resistance) exercises.
THE OUTCOME: With therapy and tremendous parent follow through, after 6 sessions coupled with continuing the work at home, our 22 month old toddler began to focus on simple goal directed tasks.
