As time passes more and more evidence emerges, which supports the importance of binocular vision training approaches in combination with the conventional amblyopia treatment. In the last decade or so top researchers in the field have argued in several important studies that binocular vision function cannot be thoroughly addressed solely by the conventional means (such as patching and penalization), and that binocular vision training may indeed be just as important as conventional treatment when it comes to amblyopia.
Vision training inherently addresses boredom of conventional amblyopia treatment
Binocular vision training addresses one of the most important drawbacks of conventional amblyopia treatment – compliance. It is not a secret that patching is boring which all too often leads to poor compliance and therefore not ideal treatment outcome. Binocular vision training tends to inherently overcome those drawbacks as it utilizes activities or games that are far more interesting for the kids. Or at least does so on paper. In reality, though, compliance is oftentimes still a problem.
Albeit reduced the loss of interest remains an issue
The main advantage of gamification vision training is the assumption that playing games is enjoyable for the kids and therefore much less of a burden than patching. Whilst this is entirely true there are several limitations that must be kept in mind when either developing or recommending vision training solutions to the kids. Firstly, it is important that games are suitable for children’s age as studies show that children younger than about 5-6 years might experience difficulties comprehending certain game tasks. It is also important that children can perform the training at home rather than on an outpatient basis, as children and their parents are sometimes, for various reasons, unable to engage in outpatient-based training. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the games must be interesting and diverse – mitigating the loss of interest which is apparent at all ages.
Our AmblyoPlay team strives to deliver the best vision training possible which is interesting, diverse, and suitable for children of all ages.