Having seen yet another patient who had received only prism glasses for his severe convergence insufficiency, and has spent months waiting to experience an improvement in his reading, I feel that I have to write a Newsletter on this topic.
Patients frequently ask about the role of glasses and vision therapy in helping struggling readers, so I want to clarify with the help of an analogy. Just as the right piano stool is very significant but not sufficient for learning to play the piano, the perfectly prescribed glasses alone, including specially prescribed prism and focus glasses, can be very significant but mostly not sufficient alone to enable a person to maximize their visual performance. Learning to play the piano and reading both require optimal physical conditions and specifically developed motor skills.
Of course, the height of the stool matters. The piano student’s progress is influenced by the height and position of their stool. If the stool is too high or too low, it affects their posture and reach, impacting their ability to play comfortably and accurately.
When the stool’s just right, it can make a huge difference, but it still doesn’t develop the skills to get your right hand to work with your left. That needs exercising your fingers; right hand, then left hand, then both together. Certainly no one says you can either “just get the piano stool” or “practice moving the fingers”.
The right corrective glasses provide the foundation for visual clarity. Sometimes a child can’t focus well on the page. Sometimes their eyes meet in front of the page and sometimes behind the page. So, if a child suddenly gets the perfect special “focus” or prism glasses from me, and there aren’t significant language-based learning difficulties, you’re going to hear a real difference in the reading. That’s like getting the ideal piano stool when you’ve been using the wrong one for so long. The glasses posture the eyes correctly. However, special “focus/prism glasses” alone will not develop essential visual skills in someone who is lacking them and will not allow the person to be the best version of themselves, even if they do make an improvement. It would be unfair if I was to pretend that “glasses do all the work” when research shows that that is not the case. While it would certainly be a lot less work for me and my team, it would not be better for my patient.
At LedermanVision, we prescribe the perfect “focus glasses” using prisms, bifocals, and performance-enhancing tints when necessary, and sometimes that’s all that is required. We’ve been doing that for over 35 years. However, glasses alone do not address other visual challenges like eye-tracking, eye-teaming, focusing ability, or visual processing skills. Optometric vision therapy is necessary to develop these skills, just as piano practice is needed to master the instrument. For example, a child struggling with eye-teaming and tracking cannot benefit maximally from glasses alone. Similarly, a person with uncoordinated eyes will face difficulties without proper vision therapy.
Just as a pianist needs both the right stool and practice to master the piano, individuals seeking optimal visual function may require more than just glasses. Vision therapy can unlock their full potential.
After so many years of examining people’s visual system, I have found that everyone wants only the best solution for themselves or their child. LedermanVision provides this, offering everything that can be found anywhere in the world, and a lot more too. I prescribe focus/prism glasses and/or optometric vision therapy when beneficial for the patient.
Not getting the right solution can end up with months or years loss of a person’s life in which they could otherwise have been well on the way to making real progress in their studies or at work. Sometimes, the issues are not vision-related at all. Sometimes focus/prism glasses suffice, and sometimes you need help from optometric vision therapy too. Our goal is to take an hour to evaluate the situation and to provide the best solution for every patient at every age, helping them achieve their full potential.
