Recovery & Support for Lazy Eye

Managing amblyopia is usually a lifelong process. Ophthalmologists at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone work closely with parents to help children adhere to treatment and prevent the condition from worsening.

Whether your child has had nonsurgical or surgical treatment, regular follow-up visits are important so the doctor can monitor your child’s progress and address any new vision problems.

Specialists at the Sala Institute for Child and Family Centered Care provide your family with resources to support you and your child throughout diagnosis and treatment. These include child life services, social work, and other health and support services.

Visual Rehabilitation

Amblyopia may cause some degree of permanent vision loss in one or both of your child’s eyes. At Rusk Rehabilitation, pediatric occupational therapists work with neurodevelopmental optometrists, who specialize in assessing visual and perceptual problems and related challenges with movement. They create a personalized program to address your child’s compromised vision.

The Vision Program at Rusk Rehabilitation uses a variety of specialized equipment and computer programs to help children improve their eye-hand coordination, as well as reading and oculomotor skills, or the ability to track a moving target with the eyes. These include being able to track an object’s movement or shift a gaze from one object to the next.

Our occupational therapists also teach your child how to compensate for vision loss. They can recommend devices, such as special eyeglasses, hand-held magnifiers, talking alarm clocks, and computer screens that contain enlarged images for better viewing. These items can help your child achieve independence in daily living and in the classroom.
 
Adults may also benefit from visual and occupational therapy, which can help them to better navigate their surroundings.