Who Is Qualified to Provide Vision Therapy?

Why Only Optometrists Can Properly Diagnose and Treat Functional Vision Problems

If you’re exploring vision therapy for your child—or even for yourself—you may be wondering:

“Can an occupational therapist do vision therapy?”
 “Does my ophthalmologist offer it?”
 “Who’s really qualified to diagnose and treat visual dysfunctions?”

Let’s clear the air. The short answer:

The only professional trained, licensed, and legally authorized to diagnose visual dysfunctions and provide vision therapy is an optometrist, specifically, a doctor with advanced training in behavioral and developmental vision care.

What Vision Therapy Actually Is (and Isn’t)

Vision therapy is not just eye exercises. It’s not general sensory integration. And it’s definitely not something you can learn from a weekend workshop.

Vision therapy is a doctor-supervised, individualized program that retrains the brain and eyes to work together more efficiently. It targets specific visual deficits like:

• Eye teaming (binocularity)

• Tracking and saccadic movement

• Accommodation (eye focusing)

• Visual processing

• Visual-motor integration

And critically, it often involves the prescription use of lenses and prisms—which are medical tools that can only be used by licensed optometrists or ophthalmologists.

Why Occupational Therapists Are Not Qualified

Occupational therapists (OTs) are valuable professionals who support many aspects of development, but when it comes to vision, there are serious limitations:

• No formal training in optics or visual development

• Cannot diagnose refractive errors or binocular vision dysfunctions

• Cannot prescribe or use therapeutic lenses or prisms

• Cannot rule out medical eye conditions like retinal or neurological problems

• Cannot legally manage functional vision cases as primary providers

Some OTs offer “vision-like” activities, but these are not vision therapy in the clinical sense—and they can mislead families into thinking they’ve addressed the root visual issue, when they haven’t.

In fact, delaying proper care from an optometrist can mean a child continues to struggle unnecessarily.

Why Ophthalmologists Don’t Do Vision Therapy

It’s a fair question—ophthalmologists are doctors too, right? Yes. But they are medical and surgical eye doctors. Their training is focused on:

• Diagnosing and treating eye diseases

• Performing surgeries (e.g., cataracts, retinal repair, glaucoma)

• Managing urgent medical conditions of the eye

They do not receive in-depth training in:

• Functional vision development

• Visual processing

• Behavioral optics

• Therapeutic neuro-visual rehabilitation

In fact, vision therapy doesn’t fit within the medical-surgical model that governs ophthalmology. Surgeons don’t do therapy. That’s not what they’re trained or licensed to do.

Optometrists: The Only Professional for Vision Therapy

Doctors of optometry are trained in:

• Eye anatomy and physiology

• Optics and visual perception

• Binocular vision and neuro-visual development

• Diagnosing both refractive and functional vision problems

• Prescribing glasses, lenses, and therapeutic prisms

• Designing and supervising customized therapy programs

And developmental or behavioral optometrists go even further, with postdoctoral education and clinical expertise in:

• Pediatric vision development

• Vision and learning

• Visual rehabilitation after brain injuries

• Cognitive neuroscience applied to the visual system

Only an optometrist can offer the full scope of what true vision therapy requires: clinical diagnosis, medical supervision, and integrated therapeutic treatment.

Why This Matters for Your Family

If your child is struggling with reading, coordination, attention, or visual comfort, you deserve answers that go beyond checklists and guesswork, and more importantly, you deserve care that addresses the root cause, not just the symptoms.

Vision therapy isn’t something to dabble in. It’s evidence-based, outcome-driven, and doctor-delivered. You wouldn’t go to a dentist for physical therapy—and you shouldn’t go to anyone but an optometrist for vision therapy.

The Bottom Line

• Occupational therapists cannot diagnose or treat visual dysfunctions.

• Ophthalmologists are surgeons, not vision therapists.

• Optometrists are the only professionals trained and authorized to provide vision therapy.

If you're looking for real, lasting change, not just activity worksheets or symptom management, it starts with the right diagnosis and the right provider.