Millions of people every year are diagnosed with a Brain Injury. Brain Injuries can be classified as Traumatic or Non-Traumatic.
Traumatic Brain Injuries can result from:
- Falls
- Assaults
- Motor Vehicle Accident
- Sports Injuries
Non Traumatic Brain Injuries can result from a result of lack of oxygen, exposure to toxins or pressure from tumors etc.
- Stroke
- Aneurysm
- Tumor
No matter how mild or severe the symptoms are many people will experience visual disturbances of some kind. These may include:
- Blurry vision
- Double vision
- Eye strain, eye fatigue or headaches from reading or doing close work
- Words move around or appear to float when doing close work
- Lose your place when reading; skip words or the entire line
- Frequently bump into objects on one side of the body or fail to see an object on one side of the body (visual field deficit)
- Feeling anxious in crowded environments
An Occupational Therapist trained to evaluate your visual concerns can work with you to develop a treatment plan to help you improve on your daily activities. The therapist may make recommendations on adaptations and changes to the environment such as increase the lighting in the room, enlarge the print on the computer, choose larger print books. In the case of a visual field deficit (impairment to the peripheral field) the therapist can teach you compensatory strategies to improve on your visual search skills to prevent you from bumping into objects. Many strategies and exercises can be utilized to improve on reading skills and up close work as well. The therapist may also recommend you see either an Optometrist or an Ophthalmologist for corrective lenses or prisms to reduce double vision, blurry vision or improve on how clearly you are seeing near or distant objects.
I have 20 years experience working as an Occupational Therapist and have extra training in this area of working with visual deficits following a Brain Injury. I would love to help you return to doing the activities that are so meaningful to you.