Vision Rehabilitation Program
Purpose
Beaumont's highly trained Occupational Therapists provide comprehensive assessment and integrative treatment incorporating visual motor and visual perceptual training to optimize a child's performance. The Pediatric Rehabilitation program offers one-to-one treatment sessions, as well as group programs; a prescription is required for all of these services.
Service Overview
Therapists meet monthly with the pediatric optometrist to review patient progress and discuss new treatment techniques. In addition, the therapists collaborate with other specialists overseeing the child's care.
Related Programs
We offer a 6-week program called I-Spy (see our Group Programs insert). We offer the Functional Visual Skills Group Program year round. As with our other groups, the cost of these groups is subsidized by a grant from the University of Michigan Dance Marathon, making our groups more affordable than most in the community.
The Functional Visual Skills Group is a 12-week program that coordinates group activities with a home program to achieve goals related to visual motor and visual perceptual performance. Each session runs 50 minutes.Three levels are offered:
Level I (Basic)
This level focuses on training in basic visual motor skills, eye-hand coordination skills, and visual perceptual skills including directionality and laterality concepts.
Level II (Intermediate)
This level continues building and strengthening the basic skills program with simultaneous multi-sensory processing and peripheral awareness training, as well as advanced visual perceptual skills.
Level III (Advanced)
This level builds on the previous two levels and expands the focus to include binocular skills with visual aids and techniques recommended by the optometrist or ophthalmologist.
Conditions Treated
Common diagnoses treated include, but are not limited to:
- Convergence insufficiency
- Infantile cerebral palsy
- Hypotonia
- Lack of coordination
- Spastic hemiplegia and hemiparesis
- Traumatic brain injury
- Birth trauma
Benefits
Patients often find the following outcomes after receiving vision rehab:
- Improved reading and writing skills and overall school performance
- Improved ability to copy from a chalkboard at school
- Reduced symptoms such as headaches, blurred vision, double vision, dizziness, squinting, tearfulness, redness and suppression
- Enhanced depth perception skills
- Enhanced body awareness, balance and coordination
- Most parents have great satisfaction regarding their child's improvement in some form of academics (reading, writing, sports, etc.)