How Does Vision Therapy Help with Blurry Vision?
Wondering why your vision is blurry even if your eyeglass or contact lens prescription is up-to-date? Blurry vision may actually be related to focusing problems or issues with the way your eyes work together as a team. Fortunately, vision therapy can train your visual system to work more effectively, enhance the connection between the mind and the eyes, and improve the sharpness of your vision.
What Causes Blurry Vision?
Blurry vision can occur even if you have perfect vision or wear contacts or glasses. Visual conditions that may cause blurry vision include:
- Strabismus. Strabismus, also called "crossed" eyes, is an eye-teaming problem that happens when the eyes aren't perfectly aligned. Misalignments can be fairly minor and virtually unnoticeable yet still affect your vision. If one eye points to the side or points up while the other eye looks straight ahead, your brain receives conflicting information from the eyes. Blurriness occurs as the brain struggles to combine the information from both eyes.
- Amblyopia. Amblyopia or "lazy" eye happens when your brain focuses solely on the signals received from one eye and ignores the other eye. Amblyopia can be caused by untreated strabismus. The condition can cause blurry vision and poor depth perception.
- Focusing Issues. Blurriness may also be caused by a focusing problem, like convergence insufficiency or accommodative dysfunction. In convergence insufficiency, one eye turns inward more than the other when you look at close objects. Convergence insufficiency can occur due to a problem with the nerves that control eye muscles, according to the National Eye Institute. Accommodative dysfunction is a focusing issue that causes blurriness when you shift your focus between various distances. These eye-teaming problems may also cause headaches and fatigue when focusing.
- Tracking Problems. You may notice blurry vision if your eyes can't track objects smoothly. If everything gets blurry when you watch a golf ball fly through the sky or your vision blurs when you read, a tracking problem may be to blame.
Improving Blurry Vision with Vision Therapy
Vision therapy involves a custom-designed program of exercises and activities that improve eye teaming and coordination and strengthen the connection between the eyes and the brain. Therapy activities are designed to improve your specific visual condition and are conducted by a vision therapist, an optometrist who has special training in vision therapy techniques.
Your vision therapy plan depends on your diagnosis. If you have a focusing problem, you may play virtual reality games that help you handle quick focus changes and improve eye movements. Marsden ball activities can be helpful if blurriness is caused by eye tracking or coordination issues. As you keep your gaze on the swinging Marsden ball, you'll be improving your eye tracking abilities.
Therapy plans may also include special eyeglass lenses called prisms. Prisms change the way light bends as it enters your eyes and keeps light rays focused on the same place on the retina in both eyes. Changing the way light focuses on the light-sensing retinas ensures that the brain receives the same signals from both eyes.
Vision therapy offers an effective way to improve vision issues, according to several research studies. A study published in BMC Ophthalmology in 2022 explored the benefits of vision therapy for young adults with convergence insufficiency or accommodative dysfunction. After 12 weeks of virtual reality-based vision therapy, binocular vision was significantly improved. Binocular vision refers to the ability to use both eyes together.
A review published in Frontiers in Medicine in 2025 discussed recent advances in the non-surgical treatment of children with strabismus. The review evaluated several prism studies and noted that these studies suggest prisms can enhance visual function and the degree of strabismus. Other studies reviewed by the researchers noted the effectiveness of eye movement exercises in improving coordination between eye muscles and enhancing the stability and accuracy of eye movements.
Researchers didn't forget about adults. Although it was once thought that vision therapy could only be helpful for children, vision therapists now know that the adult brain is also capable of change and can form new pathways essential for vision. According to a case series published in Clinical Insights in Eyecare in 2024, three adults with strabismus experienced improvements in binocular vision after participating in vision therapy.
Struggling with blurry vision? Contact our office to schedule a comprehensive eye examination and visit with the vision therapist.
Sources:
National Eye Institute: Convergence Insufficiency, 12/4/2024
https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/eye-conditions-and-diseases/convergence-insufficiency
PubMed: BMC Ophthalmology: Virtual Reality-Based Vision Therapy versus OBVAT in the Treatment of Convergency Insufficiency, Accommodative Dysfunction: a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial, 4/21/2022
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35448970/
PMC: Frontiers in Medicine: Non-Surgical Treatment of Strabismus in Children: A Review of Recent Advances, 6/27/2025
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12245880/
Clinical Insights in Eyecare: Case Series: Neuroplasticity and Vision Therapy in Adults with Unilateral Small-Angle Esotropia, 4/29/2024
