Amblyopia (Lazy Eye)

Amblyopia is commonly referred to and known as “lazy eye”. It is when there is a reduction of vision in one eye when compared to the other. Although uncommon, lazy eye may sometimes involve both eyes. According to the National Institute of Health, amblyopia is the most common cause of visual impairment among children. Amblyopia is also a disorder of the brain’s ability where both eyes are unable to work together as a team.

It is best to treat amblyopia as soon as possible as the earlier it is diagnosed and treated, the more successful the outcomes tend to be. Patching the better seeing eye used to be the only proven method to be able to treat amblyopia. However, now the treatment of amblyopia includes vision therapy to help improve the visual abilities of the affected eye including accommodation (focusing), fication, saccades, pursuits (eye tracking) and spatial skills (eye-hand  coordination). Vision therapy may help to reduce the frequency of patching as the goal of therapy is to improve the eye coordination, stereopsis (depth perception) and reduce suppression.

​At Vision and Perception Practice, we provide the latest equipments and skills to assess a child’s eye tracking matched with norms, visual perceptual skills, visual information processing skills, and more to fully understand their learning abilities.