What is a Functional Vision Exam?
When adults, and children have 20/20 (perfect vision) but still have difficulties with everyday activities, or show signs of increasing prescription glasses, a functional vision exam is necessary.
Functional vision is how your entire visual system - the eyes, brain, the visual pathways - work together to help you interact with your environment.
Functional vision includes the following visual skill areas:
Eye Teaming
Occurs when the eyes align to focus on the same point on an object and work together in a coordinated and precise way. Good eye teaming allows efficient, single, comfortable vision and depth perception.
Eye Focusing
This encompasses your ability to see an object clearly, and your ability to shift focus between objects at different distances. This may be achieved with prescription eyeglasses.
Eye Movement
This includes your eyes' ability to maintain fixation on a moving object through space, move fixation from one object to another, or sustain fixation on a stationary object.
A functional vision exam is performed by the doctor, prior to initiation of therapy. The examination takes 90 minutes. The end results will be provided in a report format and reviewed with the family on a subsequent day.
Our Approach
Based on the results of a functional vision exam, we select a therapy option specific to each patient that is going to alleviate symptoms and offer the best quality of life in regards to that patient’s needs.
Therapy Options Following A Functional Vision Exam
Myopia (near-sightedness) is having difficulty to see distant objects with the natural eyes. The age of onset of myopia will determine the risk level to the eye health.
- Early Onset (Age 0-6): prescription will worsen until age 24
- Typical Onset (Age 8-10): prescription will worsen until age 15
- Late Onset (Age 14+): prescription will worsen until age 16/17
As the prescription worsens, the eye becomes larger, stretching the inside of the eye, which can result in serious eye health complications, including blindness.
Myopia Management includes frequent monitoring by the doctor, while the patient follows a customized therapy plan.
Vision therapy involves customized exercises, activities and treatments, to improve visual function.
Have a look at some of our success stories:
Success Stories
H.R.
This young lady faced the challenge of double vision, resulting in difficulties such as losing her place while reading and skipping words. To address these issues, a personalized therapy program was developed to meet her specific goals. In just five months of consistent weekly vision therapy sessions, she experienced a remarkable resolution of her complaints and significant improvement in her visual skills. Congratulations to her and her family for their support throughout this transformative journey!
J.J.
This high school senior faced challenges with double vision, particularly after engaging in school work. To address this, a tailored therapy program was developed to alleviate her visually debilitating symptoms and equip her with tools for her future visual needs. Remarkably, after just four months of consistent weekly vision therapy sessions, she not only experienced symptomatic improvement but also achieved outstanding results in her final assessment. Congratulations to her for her remarkable progress, and kudos to the support provided by her family throughout this journey!