Vision Therapy - How to See Effortlessly

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By Gedalya Shindler Is my vision normal? We take it for granted that we see the same way as everyone else; but do we? How do you know that you or your child is seeing normally? This question can be subdivided into two areas, visual efficiency and visual perception. This article will focus on visual efficiency. Many people are not using their eyes appropriately, which can lead to reduced efficiency, comprehension or performance. This can negatively affect academic performance, or productivity at work, and cause pain or discomfort. Understood simply, visual efficiency means the ability to point and focus the eyes at the object of interest, so that we see a clear and single visual image, maintain focus, and move the eyes accurately towards the next point of interest. Sounds straightforward enough, but for many people this is a real challenge and stress to the visual system, especially in today’s world, where we are expected to spend so much time analyzing close objects on our computer screens, in books and (worst of all) on our phones. Our eye muscles are designed to be in equilibrium for distance viewing. Close work is a challenge to the visual system, and people react to this challenge in different ways. The lucky ones manage to deal with it without any problems; they never require glasses until middle-age, they never have vision-related headaches and can enjoy reading for as long as they wish without fatiguing. You may even know some people like this. Most of us, however, react to visual stress in one way or another. Some develop myopia (nearsightedness). Some avoid extended close work, survive on the minimum, or even drop out of school. Others contend with the stress and suffer headache, eye strain or other symptoms. How can we measure visual stress? At Shindler Insight, I perform a battery of tests which probe the efficiency of the visual system. While I’m certainly very interested in determining the best prescription for acute distance vision, I am far more inter