Behavioural Optometry

Behavioural optometry is a particular branch of optometry that recognises that posture, general health, and the external environment can have an affect on eyesight. It comes in part from the work of Wilhelm Reich and William Bates who pioneered of the Bates Eye Method. Treatment involves eye exercises and the use of training lenses. Typically it uses lenses that are weaker than those normally prescribed - full compensatory lenses.

Behavioural optometrist Raymond Gottlieb specialised in devising means of enhancing children's vision. Gottlieb believes that the school environment and teaching methods can actually encourage myopia. Our perceptual abilities function best when we know that we can handle the environment successfully. However if we expect the environment to overwhelm us, our sensory integration can fragment and our perceptual fields may shrink.

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