Effectiveness of Vision Therapy in School Children with Symptomatic Convergence Insufficiency

PURPOSE To determine the effectiveness of vision therapy among Korean elementary school children with convergence insufficiency. METHODS A total of 235 elementary schoolchildren, 10.13 ± 2.45 years of age, were subjected to thorough eye examination including binocular vision testing. Of them, 32 individuals with symptomatic convergence insufficiency without strabismus, amblyopia, and ocular disease were chosen to receive vision therapy via brock string, barrel card, mirror stereoscope, prism goggles, and aperture rule for a duration of 8 weeks. RESULTS The results showed that most of the participants had severe problems in near point of convergence. After the vision therapy, the average near point of convergence improved by approximately 5.48 ± 0.96 cm in all participants. Moreover, vision therapy had an effect on increasing near positive fusional vergence and decreasing exophoria. Negative relative accommodation improved to 2.54 ± 0.51 and positive relative accommodation improved to -3.10 ± 1.08 diopters. After treatment, near phoria was 4.19 ± 1.66 and distance phoria was 1.61 ± 0.71 prism diopters. CONCLUSION Among convergence insufficiency symptoms, the following improved in particular: near point of convergence, exophoria, and near positive fusional vergence. These findings suggest that vision therapy is very effective to recover from symptomatic convergence insufficiency.