HTS Home Therapy System
Understanding the HTS Home Therapy System
HTS is a computer-based software program designed for home use that trains two essential visual skills: vergence and accommodation. Vergence is the ability of your two eyes to aim together at the same point, whether that point is close up or far away. Accommodation is the ability of the eyes to shift focus between different distances, such as looking from a book to a whiteboard and back again. These two skills work together constantly throughout the day, and when either one is weak or poorly coordinated, it can cause eyestrain, headaches, blurred vision, and difficulty with reading or schoolwork.
HTS delivers structured exercises through software installed on a home computer. Your doctor prescribes the specific exercises and difficulty levels based on findings from your comprehensive evaluation. The software guides you or your child through each session, tracks performance automatically, and adjusts the challenge level as the visual system improves. Your clinical team reviews the data from each session to monitor progress and make changes to the program when needed. Convergence insufficiency, the condition where the eyes struggle to aim together for close-up tasks like reading, affects roughly 5% of school-age children according to population-based research published in 1999. HTS was developed specifically to provide consistent, structured training for this type of visual difficulty in the home setting.
HTS uses the principle of neuroplasticity to strengthen the neural pathways that control vergence and accommodation. Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to build new connections and reinforce existing ones through repeated, targeted practice. Each exercise in HTS presents a visual task that requires the eyes to converge, diverge, or shift focus in a specific way. As you or your child practices these tasks regularly, the brain builds stronger and more efficient pathways for controlling these eye movements. Over time, what once required conscious effort becomes more automatic and comfortable.
The software presents exercises using targets and visual patterns that require precise eye coordination to complete correctly. Sessions are typically brief, often 15 to 20 minutes, and are completed several times per week at home. The program tracks accuracy, response time, and other performance metrics, giving your clinical team objective data on how the visual system is responding to the training. This data-driven approach allows your doctor to see exactly where progress is occurring and where the program may need adjustment.
The brain builds new neural connections most effectively through frequent, consistent practice. Office-based therapy sessions provide intensive, supervised training, but they typically occur once or twice per week. HTS fills the gaps between those visits by giving the brain additional opportunities to practice and reinforce the skills being developed during in-office sessions. The NIH-funded Convergence Insufficiency Treatment Trial, published in Archives of Ophthalmology in 2008, evaluated multiple treatment approaches for convergence insufficiency, including home-based vergence training. The study found that while office-based therapy produced the strongest outcomes, home-based training produced measurable improvement, particularly when used to reinforce the gains made during supervised therapy sessions. This finding supports the role of HTS as a valuable extension of your in-office treatment program rather than a replacement for it.
What to Expect
Your doctor prescribes HTS based on the results of your comprehensive evaluation. The prescription includes the specific exercises, difficulty levels, and session frequency that match your individual needs. Our clinical team walks you through the software setup and demonstrates how to complete each exercise correctly. You will receive clear instructions on how often to use HTS, how long each session should last, and what to do if you or your child experiences difficulty with any of the exercises. The goal is for you to feel confident using the system at home from the very first session.
HTS is designed to be straightforward for both children and adults. The interface guides the user through each exercise step by step, and the software provides feedback during the session so the patient knows whether they are performing the task correctly. For younger children, a parent or caregiver may sit with the child during the first few sessions to help them get comfortable with the program.
A typical HTS session takes about 15 to 20 minutes. During the session, the software presents a series of vergence and accommodation exercises. Each exercise requires the eyes to perform a specific movement or focusing task. The software tracks how accurately and quickly the eyes respond, and it adjusts the difficulty based on the patient's performance. When the eyes perform well at a given level, the software increases the challenge. When the patient needs more practice, the software holds the difficulty steady until the skill is more secure.
Consistency is more important than session length. Patients who complete their prescribed sessions regularly tend to build visual skills more quickly than those who practice only occasionally. Your clinical team monitors the data from your home sessions and discusses your progress at each office visit. If the exercises need to be adjusted, your doctor updates the prescription based on what the data shows.
One of the strengths of HTS is its built-in progress tracking. The software records performance data from every session, including accuracy, response times, and the difficulty levels completed. Your clinical team reviews this data to measure how the visual system is responding to the training. This objective measurement allows your doctor to make informed decisions about your treatment program, including when to advance the difficulty, when to shift focus to different exercises, and when the home training goals have been met. You can see your own progress over time, which helps keep motivation strong throughout the training period.
HTS as Part of Your Treatment Program
The visual system is made up of many interconnected processes that must work together for vision to feel effortless. Eye coordination, focusing ability, visual processing speed, depth perception, and sensory integration each depend on different neural pathways. Training only one of these systems while leaving the others untreated produces incomplete results. A patient whose eyes now converge more efficiently may still struggle if the brain cannot process the incoming visual information quickly enough, or if the sensory system remains overwhelmed by everyday input. This is why we use a coordinated approach called Neuro-Visual Performance Training, which combines multiple treatments into one integrated program designed to address the full complexity of the visual system.
HTS is designed to reinforce and extend the work done during in-office vision therapy sessions. Vision therapy builds the motor foundation for eye coordination, focusing, and tracking under the direct guidance of a trained therapist. HTS continues that training at home between visits, giving the brain additional practice opportunities that strengthen the neural pathways being developed in the office. The combination of supervised, in-office vision therapy and consistent home-based training through HTS creates a more effective training cycle than either approach could provide on its own.
HTS also works alongside other computerized training tools in your program. VTS4, for example, is another software-based system that your doctor may include in your treatment plan to target additional visual skills. When HTS and VTS4 are used together as part of a coordinated home program, they address a broader range of visual functions than either system targets individually. Your doctor selects the specific combination of home and office treatments based on what your evaluation reveals about your visual system. Each tool in the program has a defined role, and the tools are designed to work together so that gains in one area support progress in the others.
Every treatment plan begins with a comprehensive evaluation that goes well beyond a standard eye exam. Your doctor assesses the full range of functional vision skills, including vergence, accommodation, eye tracking, visual processing, sensory integration, and autonomic nervous system function. Based on these findings, your doctor determines whether HTS is the right fit for your home training program and selects the specific exercises and difficulty levels that match your individual needs. No two patients receive the same program, because no two patients present with the same pattern of visual difficulty. Some patients begin using HTS early in their treatment to build basic vergence and accommodation skills. Others add HTS later in the program to reinforce and extend gains made during in-office therapy. Progress is measured objectively through the software's performance data and through standardized clinical testing at your office visits. Your treatment plan adapts as you improve, with new challenges introduced based on what the objective data reveals.
Frequently Asked Questions
HTS is not a replacement for in-office vision therapy. It is designed to reinforce and extend the work done during supervised therapy sessions. Research, including the NIH-funded Convergence Insufficiency Treatment Trial, has shown that office-based therapy produces the strongest outcomes for conditions like convergence insufficiency. HTS adds value by providing consistent, structured practice between office visits, which helps the brain build stronger neural connections more quickly. Your doctor determines how HTS fits into your overall treatment program based on your individual needs.
Your doctor prescribes a specific session schedule based on your child's evaluation results and treatment goals. Most patients are asked to complete sessions several times per week, with each session lasting about 15 to 20 minutes. Consistency is more important than the length of any individual session. Patients who complete their prescribed sessions regularly tend to make faster and more stable progress than those who practice less consistently.
HTS runs on a standard home computer. Our clinical team provides specific system requirements and walks you through the setup process. Some exercises may require red and blue glasses, which are provided as part of your program. The setup is straightforward, and our team is available to help if you have questions during installation or use.
HTS tracks performance data from every session, including accuracy, response times, and difficulty levels completed. Your clinical team reviews this data at each office visit and discusses your progress with you. In addition to the software data, your doctor measures your visual skills through standardized clinical testing at regular intervals. Many patients and parents also notice improvements in daily activities, such as reduced eye strain during reading, fewer headaches, and improved comfort with near work. These real-world improvements, combined with objective clinical measurements, provide a clear picture of how the training is progressing.
My daughter loved everything about this place. It has helped her so much in school and at home. They are wonderful people and we are truly thankful and blessed because also they gave her confidence in herself. ❤️❤️❤️
Michelle Donoho
I told the staff about my goal of becoming an Army Aviator. At the beginning, I had extremely poor depth perception and now I am currently in flight school. I have nothing but good things to say about the staff and what they do. I was skeptical coming into the program, but the results of therapy changed my life.
Allison Ferguson
Aaron was in an automobile accident with head trauma had severe double vision. We went for therapy for three years and they totally corrected his double vision. We love Jennifer
Veronica Williams
Dr. Graebe and his staff are absolutely wonderful. I have seen so many improvements in my day to day life. My issues presented after I had PRK eye surgery and no longer wore corrective lenses. The surgery gave me 20/15 vision. Now my anxiety is completely gone, I’m back in college with excellent grades, I love driving again, and my coordination is back. Those are just some of the improvements. Dr. Graebe did a wonderful job helping me. I’ve seen some amazing results!
Chase Centers
We had such a great outcome with therapy from the Neuro-Visual Performance Institute! The therapy was intensive (and fun), but it really worked. Dr. Graebe and his staff are excellent. We loved the therapist, Jennifer, who worked with our child. We had a previous dyslexia diagnosis, and our child’s reading ability drastically improved through neuro-visual therapy.
Alison Joyce
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