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Vision Therapy

Optometric vision therapy is designed to improve the efficiency and performance of the visual system and enhance visual skills, retraining and strengthening the brain’s connection with the eyes.

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Our behavioural optometrist

Emma Drewery is a behavioural optometrist, specialising in optometric vision therapy. She is one of only two optometrists in Scotland who are accredited to the British Association of Behavioural Optometrists (BABO), and she is also a member of the American Optometric Extension Program Foundation.
She holds a diploma in Sports Vision and is a facilitator on courses held by BABO as well as a member of the BABO education committee. Emma regularly receives referrals and is called upon to provide behavioural optometry expertise and opinion to other professionals including teachers, occupational therapists and fellow optometrists.

Understanding vision therapy

Untreated visual issues can cause headaches, blurry vision and sore eyes, print may appear to move or jump around the page, missing or skipping, of words and avoidance of reading. If using vision is difficult, it can lead to poor visual memory and long term memory, difficulties copying from board or book, short attention span, messy handwriting and poor hand eye coordination.

Training the brain to see well

Vision is about the brain processing what the eyes see and then acting accordingly. This is an incredibly complex process requiring many parts of the visual system, body and brain to perform a role.

Optometric vision therapy is designed to improve the efficiency and performance of the visual system and enhance visual skills, retraining and strengthening the brain’s connection with the eyes.

Vision therapy can help reduce the visual issues experienced with specific learning related disorders such as those found in dyslexia and dyspraxia, and develop the visual skills in children and adults with Asperger’s and autism.  It can also help with specific eye conditions such as strabismus, amblyopia, decompensating muscle issues and poor ocular motor skills.

How do we diagnose vision issues?

A behavioural optometrist looks at how all the senses work together, vision, hearing, balance and the brain all need to communicate, for example for good hand eye coordination when catching a ball, you need your brain and vision to work efficiently together to move quickly. If a child struggles to read, there may be processing issues being exacerbated by poor visual development and delayed visual skills, they may greatly benefit from vision therapy. Just as the brain can learn new languages, good vision can also be learned and developed if given the right training.

Vision Therapy vs Visual Stress

Visual stress is more commonly understood by individuals and education professionals, and is often a patient’s first port of call when they are concerned about their child’s reading or vision. It can have hugely beneficial results for children who find reading difficult and uncomfortable. It looks at how the eyes work together, and often results in the child using a colour overlay to make reading more comfortable.

Vision Therapy is a more complex examination looking in more depth into visual development, visual processing and efficiency of visual skills, gross motor development and fine motor skills. It is looking at the connection of the brain and the eyes, hence why it can help those with various wider health issues, in particular those affecting the brain. It can only be performed by a qualified Behavioural Optometrist, of which Emma is one of only two in Scotland.



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