According to the American Optometric Association (AOA), amblyopia, commonly known as “lazy eye,” is a condition, typically unilateral but sometimes bilateral, where the best corrected visual acuity is worse than 20/20 without any obvious structural issues or ocular disease.

A person with amblyopia not only experiences reduced visual acuity in one eye (or both eyes in some cases) but also has deficits in other visual skills in both eyes. Amblyopia is a vision problem affecting both eyes, which includes:

• Increased sensitivity to contour interaction effects
• Abnormal spatial distortions and uncertainty
• Unsteady and inaccurate monocular fixation
• Poor eye tracking ability
• Reduced contrast sensitivity
• Inaccurate accommodative response

Amblyopia generally develops in children up to the age of 6-8 years.

At our office, we treat amblyopia with little to no patching. Instead, we use a binocular vision training approach to help the brain learn to work with both eyes.

There’s no need for traditional patching anymore. Amblyopia can be treated at any age, and there is no critical period for treatment.

For more information, please refer to the following resources:

• VisionHelp Amblyopia Resources
• AOA Amblyopia Care Guidelines
• Jillian’s Story: How Vision Therapy Changed My Daughter’s Life by Robin Benoit and Jillian Benoit

Both books are available at OEPF.org/shop.