The problems of occlusion

More children happy by less sticking

The quote from orthoptist Caroline Jordaan actually says it all. Every child deserves to just be a child and to be able to develop at their own pace. It is part of a happy childhood to be able to learn and play freely. Suffering from discomforts due to a taped eye is not part of this.

The most commonly used treatment method

Lazy eye, amblyopia in medical terms, is an eye condition that affects about 3% to 5% of young children. If not treated properly, it can lead to vision problems later in life.

Since the eighteenth century, the most common treatment method has been to cover the good eye (occlusion). The theory behind this is that the neural network responsible for controlling the lazy eye is put to work to improve vision.

But this form of therapy is also one of the most stressful. More and more studies show that the effectiveness and desirability of this way of treatment can be questioned. Although the method can be effective, the negative side effects make the treatment difficult for parents and child to continue.

In a nutshell, these are the problems that occlusion brings:

• The underlying problem is not treated
  Patching only trains the weak eye. It does not solve the problem of binocular vision (the cooperation between two eyes). In some cases, the good eye may even deteriorate.

• Stress for child and parents
  Occlusion is drastic for children. Applying the eye patch is not pleasant and the eye patch also gets in the way of daily activities.

• Impact on child well-being
  A quarter of children with an eye patch appear to be bullied, which results in a lot of misery.

• Difficult to maintain
  Only 50% of children and their parents adhere to the prescribed masking time. This means that the treatment has to be continued unnecessarily long.

No eye patches, just games!

With this in mind, the Vedea method was developed. A form of therapy based on games with so-called dichoptic training as a starting point.

Dichoptic means that both eyes are trained. The images from the games stimulate both the lazy and the good eye and both eyes have to work together to make one image from the two images. This activates the brain and improves binocular vision.

It has been shown that gaming for 30 minutes a day can be up to 8 times more effective than occlusion. It is also much more fun for children to do. And by offering a varied range of games, games and educational content, it is challenging and interesting for a large group of children to continue working on their vision for a longer period of time.

The games can be played via a VR headset in which a telephone is placed. This way, a broad target group can use the method. In addition, the field of vision is well closed off by using a VR headset, allowing the entire field of vision to be used.

The aim is of course to minimize taping as much as possible. Research and practical use will have to show whether it is possible to completely eliminate occlusion or whether the combination of the two approaches has the best effect.

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