Mon–Fri · 9am–6pm
Walesby Vision Center — Where Vision Is More Than Just 20/20
Vision Therapy

Physical therapy for the eyes and brain.

Some vision problems can't be fixed with glasses, contacts, or patching. When the eyes don't team, track, or focus properly, the fix is training the visual system itself — and that's what we've done here since 1957.

Sight vs. vision

Your child can be "20/20" and still have a vision problem.

20/20 only means seeing clearly at distance. Vision is the whole system: aiming both eyes at the same point, tracking a line of print, shifting focus, and turning what the eyes take in into meaning. When any of those skills is weak, reading gets slow, homework hurts, and a bright child starts to believe they're not smart.

Vision therapy is an individualized, doctor-supervised program that trains eye alignment, eye teaming, tracking, focusing, and visual processing — using therapeutic lenses, prisms, filters, and specialized equipment. In the final phases, the new skills are made automatic so they hold for life.

A young Walesby patient tracing at a therapy instrument that generations of patients have used
Who benefits

The conditions we treat every day.

Learning-related vision problems

Weak eye movement, focusing, convergence, and visual memory skills undermine reading, writing, and learning — and are often mistaken for ADHD or dyslexia.

Convergence insufficiency

The eyes don't turn inward properly for near work, so print blurs, doubles, or "swims." The most-studied condition in vision therapy — see the research below.

Strabismus & amblyopia

Eye turns and lazy eye respond to structured therapy at far higher cure rates than surgery, glasses, or patching alone — in children and adults.

Poor binocular coordination

When the two eyes won't work as a team, reading, sports, depth perception, and even eye contact suffer. Therapy builds that teamwork.

Concussion, TBI & neuro rehab

Head injury, stroke, whiplash, and developmental conditions can disrupt vision — including double vision. Rehabilitation restores visual function.

Eyestrain, screens & sports vision

Computer vision syndrome from modern screen life, and the eye-hand speed, tracking, and peripheral awareness athletes rely on — both trainable.

The evidence

Backed by NIH-funded research.

The landmark Convergence Insufficiency Treatment Trial — funded by the National Eye Institute and run across major clinical centers including the Mayo Clinic — found that in-office vision therapy was the most effective treatment studied for convergence insufficiency in children, outperforming home-based exercises and placebo.

Read the randomized trial (Archives of Ophthalmology, 2008) →
View the trial registration at ClinicalTrials.gov →

What treatment looks like

In-office, hands-on, and measured at every phase.

2–3 hrs / week

In-office sessions with doctors and certified therapists — we put the emphasis on trained therapy, not worksheets at home.

7–12 months

Typical program length depending on severity, with integration breaks built in so gains become permanent.

Progress checks

Roughly 3–4 formal evaluations during the program measure exactly what's improving.

15–18 weeks

When most families notice performance improving — many see it sooner.

What makes our program different: our doctors perform hands-on therapy themselves, alongside a deep bench of trained therapists — the only program in the region built that way.

Questions parents ask us

The honest answers.

How do I know my child has a binocular vision problem?
Ask yourself: Does your child like to read — or read only because they have to? Do they skip words, lose their place, or have poor comprehension? Do their eyes hurt or their head ache after extended work? Is your child an underachiever, slow to finish homework, or struggling with timed tests? Are they clumsy, with poor eye-hand coordination? If any of those ring true, take the pre-screen or call us.
My child already passed an eye exam. Could there still be a problem?
Yes. A routine exam checks sight and eye health. We perform an additional, in-depth battery of tests specifically designed to diagnose binocular vision dysfunctions that routine exams don't look for.
My child has ADD/ADHD. Is vision still worth checking?
Especially then. More than half the symptoms of ADHD and binocular vision dysfunction overlap, and both conditions can coexist. It's always best to rule out a visual dysfunction first — or shortly after an AD(H)D diagnosis — so the right problem gets treated.
Do you treat dyslexia?
True dyslexia is relatively rare. Many children labeled dyslexic because of letter reversals actually have a binocular vision or visual processing dysfunction. Treating the visual problem trains the brain to understand what the eyes see and reduces or eliminates the reversals.
How long does vision therapy take?
Typically 7 to 12 months depending on severity, at 2–3 hours per week in office, with integration breaks of 6+ weeks built into the program and 3–4 progress evaluations along the way.
When will we see results?
Typical performance improvements show at 15–18 weeks, and a good percentage of patients see improvement well before that.
What's the success rate?
Success means eliminating the dysfunctions identified in the evaluation, reducing symptoms, and improving performance and quality of life. It is directly proportional to commitment: patients who put in the effort get the outcome.
What makes Walesby's program unique?
We're the only facility in the region where the doctors perform hands-on therapy themselves, in addition to a highly trained staff of therapists — and we've been doing exactly this since 1957.