If we diagnose your child with visual information processing dysfunction which was developed at a compensation for binocular dysfunction that is affecting school performance, there are three major barriers to successful treatment:
- Attention span
- Understanding the potential pitfalls in the treatment program
- Effective therapy
Attention Span
If 50 sessions of therapy are needed to improve your child’s reading performance, coming in to the office once a week will mean the program will take 50 weeks. It is difficult to maintain effort and attention for that long. Attempting to do so will significantly increase the failure rate. We urge parents to schedule visits at a frequency that will complete the program in less than six months, preferable less than four months.
Understand the potential pitfalls in the treatment program
A child with problems limited to "binocular vision dysfunction" will often respond in a consistent and linear manner. In other words, they will just get better.
A child who has a combination of binocular vision dysfunction and visual information processing dysfunction will usually show initial improvement, then go a period of increased headaches/double vision, before finally getting better. This can be very discouraging if you and your child are not aware that this situation could take place!
We can now predict which patients will get worse before they get better and accurately pinpoint when this phase will take place, so that temporary increases in symptoms of eyestrain or double vision are seen a signs of progress, as opposed to concern that the therapy is unsuccessful.
Doing more office visits per week and completing therapy in a shorter period of time tends to increase the success rate, stability, and quality of the final outcome.
Can therapy be done effectively?
Patients who have a combination of binocular vision dysfunction and visual information processing dysfunction will often have problems with visual attention. The more severe the visual attention issues, the less productive that home therapy activities tend to be. In some cases, doing home therapy activities may actually do more harm than good for the long-term progression of the program.
When offering therapy to patients 3-10 visits a week, we seldom encounter any patients who did not respond. Once proper diagnosis has been made, success rate is often directly proportional to the frequency of office visits. Doing more office visits per week and completing therapy in a shorter period of time tends to increase the success rate, stability, and quality of the final outcome.