05 What is Vision Therapy?

"If you want to understand the whole child you must understand their visual system and if you want to understand their visual system you must understand the whole child.” - Famed Yale pediatrician, Dr. Arnold Lucius Gesell

Vision therapy is a brain-based program of "eye exercises" designed to change the way one’s neural networks control any variety of visual skills which are assessed and remediated. Douglas W. Stephey, O.D., M.S provides information regarding the various vision therapy methods utilized in his practice.

Douglas W. Stephey, O.D., M.S.

208 West Badillo St Covina, CA 91723

Phone: [phone]

Website: http://bit.ly/DouglasWStephey

Website Videos: http://bit.ly/DrStepheyOptometryVideos

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 Transcription Below:

Tim Edwards: The Move Look and Listen Podcast with Dr. Doug Stephey is brought to you by Audible. Get a free audio book download and a 30-day free trial audible membership www.audibletrial.com/inbound. You'll find over 180,000 titles to choose from, including several books mentioned here in the podcast. Support the Move Look & Listen Podcast by visiting www.audibletrial.com/inbound. 

Dr. Stephey: If our two eyes are not working together well as a fast synchronized team. Our internal mapquest continues to be off. It's consistently inconsistent with our ability to judge time and space. Those that don't feel well-grounded, those that have some measure of anxiety, oftentimes it starts in the visual system. If you can't move, look and listen in a fast, accurate, effortless, sustainable, age-appropriate, meaningful way, you're in a world of hurt. There's a whole world in vision and how it affects brain function that no one's ever shared with you. 20/20 is perceived as a holy grail of going to the eye doctor. Well, I'm here to change that paradigm. 

Tim Edwards: This is the Move Look & Listen podcast with Dr. Doug Stephey. I'm Tim Edwards with the Inbound Podcasting Network and a patient of Dr. Stephey's and we appreciate you tuning into the podcast today. We know when you hear the, the term or the word or the profession, optometrist, you think I'm going to go get some glasses, get some contacts and be on my way. And that's traditionally what happens when you go see an optometrist. Well, if you listen to some of our previous episodes, you know that I have a video production marketing company and I have interviewed dozens of optometrists here in the southern California area, but there was this one day that I produced a video for Dr. Doug Stephey in Covina, California. That changed the way I thought of optometrists, or at least this one in particular. Because Dr. Stephey was the first optometrist that told me about vision therapy, not just how I could see 20/20. 

Tim Edwards: Dr. Stephey we have touched on vision therapy in previous episodes, and you talked a little bit about what it entails. But let's just dedicate an entire episode to vision therapy. Because future podcasts will depend upon the information we present today. 

Dr. Stephey: Tim, I think it's a wonderful idea and there is a lot of information and misinformation about vision therapy and what it is and what it does. So one of the first myths that I want to talk about is when somebody says, well, I heard vision therapy doesn't work. And I say it doesn't work to do what? And then they say, what do you mean? And I say, what do you mean?

Dr. Stephey: You're the one that said vision therapy doesn't work. I'm asking you it doesn't work to do what? And then they pause again and then I say jokingly, well, does vision therapy cure world hunger? No. Vision therapy doesn't work to do that? And then we have a chuckle about that because that seems so preposterous, right? 

Tim Edwards: Right. 

Dr. Stephey: But it opens the discussion to talk about what vision therapy does and doesn't do. For example, there are components within medicine and education that put out the argument. There is no proof that vision therapy cures dyslexia. Therefore vision therapy doesn't work