My DD has astigmatism and we have always been able to treat her with a simple pair of glasses. My son has lack of convergence...meaning his eyes don't come together. It never has been an issue but the pitchers are getting faster. Some people I know say there is no cure and he should just take up soccer. Has anyone been able to successfully treat this issue?
Vision problems - Lack of Convergence
- Thread starter BrianTx01
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My DD had a perception issue that manifested similarly to Dyslexia (but wasn't). She saw a specialist who worked her through a series of visual exercises training her eyes and brain to better work together. Part of the exercise series worked on strengthening the eye muscles to enhance focusing at various distances. Her grades shot up, as did her batting average. Not sure if something like this would work for your kids, but we felt that it made a huge difference in DD's life, and the Softball improvement was a bonus.
softgabby
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I'm a little bit nearsighted and have slight astigmatism. I can wear glasses or contacts to correct it. I really haven't noticed any difficulty hitting or receiving pitches. I'm actually thinking about getting LASIK done as I'm tired of poking myself in the eye to insert contacts.
BrianTx01 I am an optometrist. Yes, convergence issues can be treated quite successfully. In your area, you can find an optometrist that specializes in binocular vision and offers vision therapy. Information of convergence insufficiency can be found here https://www.covd.org/page/convergence.
I have sent many patients to optometrists specializing in vision therapy (I do not) with amazing results. Binocular vision issues have been found to limit kids in learning, reading, and sports performance in many documented studies. Additional studies have proven that vision therapy has benefited those with binocular vision problems. Vision Therapy involves a re-wiring of the pathways in the brain that involve eye teaming, eye tracking, eye focusing, and visual perception.
Good luck, I am sure your son will excel in any sport with the proper tools (ie, excellent binocular vision).
I have sent many patients to optometrists specializing in vision therapy (I do not) with amazing results. Binocular vision issues have been found to limit kids in learning, reading, and sports performance in many documented studies. Additional studies have proven that vision therapy has benefited those with binocular vision problems. Vision Therapy involves a re-wiring of the pathways in the brain that involve eye teaming, eye tracking, eye focusing, and visual perception.
Good luck, I am sure your son will excel in any sport with the proper tools (ie, excellent binocular vision).
- May 25, 2018
- 16
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@2sDad how can you tell if someone has convergence issues? After reading the info in the link you shared, I’m left wondering if this may be affecting my DD. She wears glasses but often complains about headaches when required to read for an extended period of time. She has started having some serious issues at the plate that I’ve just been passing off as timing issues trying to catch up to better pitching. I even had her try hitting without her glasses thinking that her prescription might be off. Is this something that is detected by a standard eye exam or does it require a special test? TIA
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I am not a doctor but I just asked my son to follow my finger from far away to his noise. In most cases the eyes turn in. In his cases the eyes stay straight forward.
Most optometrists will check for those issues during a standard exam. Certainly, if you ask them specifically to see if they have the issue, they can evaluate it. The link should list providers in your area that do test for binocular vision issues. Good luck and keep us updated.
Convergence can be trained and improved. It is a part of the Vizual Edge program, which was originally developed by an optometrist in my area to help kids with learning disabilities. Along the way he discovered anecdotally that the kids in that program were improving in sports as well, and thought, "Hey, there might be a business here." The company now works with many college and MLB teams. You can learn more about them at https://vizualedge.com/
Nice thing is it's all online, so you can do it anywhere and don't need any special equipment other than the 3D glasses they sell. It works on PCs, laptops, iPads, etc.
Nice thing is it's all online, so you can do it anywhere and don't need any special equipment other than the 3D glasses they sell. It works on PCs, laptops, iPads, etc.
- Jul 4, 2012
- 329
- 18
Bought younger DD a three month subscription. She's roughly two weeks into it and has an annual appointment with her eye Dr on Monday. I have never seen a kid work on hitting as hard as this kid, and she still has timing issues. Hoping we're onto something with this post. Thanks for the info!
Good luck with it! Hopefully it works for her. Please be sure to let us know how she progresses.
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