Oh how fun; yes 3-D movies can be so amazing! Sometimes it looks like the objects and characters in the film are so close you could reach out touch them! So, taking the kids to the movies…the 3-D movies can be a big adventure…right?
But what if the 3-D adventure, instead of being a wonderful experience of visual delight turned into a woeful experience of headache and feeling yucky? Why would something created to be a super cool entertainment experience not be so wonderful? And does the inability to enjoy a 3-D movie reveal something more seriously wrong with a child’s vision?
Created by the talented Becca Sherry and Charles Fortenbacher, the following video helps to shed some light on this serious public health issue…what 3-D movies can reveal about your child’s vision.
Oh yes, the 3-D movie experience for you child should be a fun and exciting experience but when it is not, for additional information the following resources are very helpful:
- The College of Optometrists in Vision Development on 3-D Stereovision
- The American Optometric Association’s, 3-D Vision and Eye Health
- VisionHelp website- Is Your Child Ready to Experience the Magic of 3D at Home?
- VisionHelp Blog posts on 3-D viewing
And by all means enjoy the movies, especially the 3-D movies!
Nancy Torgerson, O.D., FCOVD
The VisionHelp Blog 
Bravo Dr. Torgerson! Excellent blog piece. And kudos once again to the Fortenbacher Group.
The Fortenbacher Group is amazing!
I am so thankful they have the passion to help end the struggle that many have with vision and learning.
Thanks all, for investing in the binocular futures of kids everywhere!
This is all great and wonderful information but it would be even greater if Vision Therapy were more affordable and offered in most cities. We had to travel over 500 miles to see a specialist for a few months and it wasn’t easy and we can’t afford to continue.
You raise an important issue Jill. Even though vision therapy is taught in every College of Optometry in the US, it still remains a subspecialty that requires extensive post graduate study. In addition the delivery of care system that must be created by the doctor is very challenging and often he/she has greater administrative and management challenges than in traditional practice. Therefore, at the present time you are correct, there are not enough doctors pursuing this avenue of practice to meet with the need for care. To address the need for more doctors, the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD) has a very active “Student Membership” program that helps to introduce and provide training in the practice of developmental vision and vision therapy to all optometry students in the US. In addition, all of those in the VisionHelp Group are involved as adjunct faculty in Colleges of Optometry around the country as Externship sites and/or Private Practice Residencies . While this does not address the immediate need, it does create mechanism to grow the doctors available to meet the need.
The cost of care issue you raised is a personal one for each family. While many major medical insurances do pay for vision therapy (in part of in full) for those who do not have an insurance that covers vision therapy service and have financial hardship, all offices in the VisionHelp Group have special financial arrangements/ programs to make the access to care.
What can the public do? The more that patients like you who cry out for improved access to vision therapy care, the more colleges of optometry, member organizations within Optometry and young doctors will take notice and with time the next generation of doctors will become available to provide care for the demand that exits.
You may also be interested into this essay by Cynthia Freeland “On Being Stereoblind in an Era of 3D Movies”
http://commons.pacificu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1437&context=eip
I’ve been watching at home some 3D videos. Our TV is of the “passive” type (plain, inexpensive polarized lenses are needed for it) and stopping where I could see 3D.
Basically large images, very close, where the disparity between left and right image is the biggest.
Then I’ve started thinking about the horopter and how double images just before or just after the plane of focus are still perceived as one, although closer or further from us.
I can’t remember seeing any where a discussion on how the horopter changes in the case of strabismus.
It must still be there but either smaller or deformed, with a 2D area in the center due to suppression.
I’m curious because I’ve been trying to reconcile the way I see 3D movied (with some small degree of 3D) with the way I see normally around me.
I’m going to blog about it on sovoto.com
Our appoligies Emanuele for not “accepting” your comment sooner. It somehow got past us! Excellent suggestion and thankyou for the link to the paper on Stereo blindness.
ha ha, not a problem, mine was mainly a mumble mumble!
My biggest compliments for the video!!! That’s the kind of video that will make the message of VT accessible. Dr. Fortenbacher, I wrote you earlier about wanting to subtitle some of them for local use in Belgium/Holland but I will get back to you on that later when I feel better.