The Rehabilitation Therapist as Vision Mechanic

Vision is our furthest reaching sense giving us much of the information we know about our surroundings. Good visual skills are vital to our everyday functioning. Without good vision, the simplest tasks become very difficult.

With vision being so important to function, the ability to assess, and understand the visual system should be a part of every occupational and physical therapists process. We assess range of motion, strength and coordination for every muscle in the body, but have poor understanding of the visual system.

“They didn’t teach us that in school”

In OT and PT school, we spend a few hours discussing eye muscles, cranial nerves and maybe some time on low vision diagnoses, but the most common visual problems are poorly covered.

Diagnoses like amblyopia, strabismus and anisometropia have functional consequences and affect our patients outcomes yet many therapists are unaware of these. Mis-information, over-generalization and over-reaching claims make it difficult for the therapist to separate the facts and myths, so our outcomes remain limited by our lack of knowledge is such an important area.

At VisionMechanic.net, we separate the science from the hype and help you get the best from your patients. Our two day live course, the Vision Rehab Roadshow, also separates the science from the myth then gives you the tools you need to understand and improve the visual skills and the outcomes of your patients.

You can learn a lot more about eyes and vision and how it all works at VisionMechanic.net and through our courses on-line, so feel free to have a look. You’ll be especially interested in spending time with us if you’re a parent, a teacher, therapist or doctor working with reading, developmental, and learning disorders, or even brain injuries.

We’d appreciate it if you Liked and shared this video series if you find it helpful. We’re planning a lot of new content so subscribe to ensure you see all the new videos as they come out. Go to VisionMechanic.net to let us know if there’s a topic you’d like us to cover in an upcoming episode of the VisionMechanic. 

All science, with just a little attitude and no filler. That’s the Vision Mechanic. See you next time.

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