On Saturday, May 12, 2012, I had the pleasure of being a keynote speaker for the 4th Annual Pediatric Symposium sponsored by Memorial Children's Hospital - Children's Therapy Center in South Bend and the Logan Center.
My topic 2.5 hour lecture was entitled , Understanding the Role of Vision in Helping Children with SPD, ADHD, Autism, LD and Acquired Brain Injury. The audience was made up of Occupational Therapists, Speech Language Therapists, Social Workers, and other professionals in the rehabilitation community...all interested in helping children with developmental delays.
For those who might be interested in more information on this presentation, please feel free to drop me a note in the comment section below. Click here for more photos of the presentation.
Thanks to his primary care optometrist who identified, diagnosed and referred for proper treatment, this young boy was able to find the help he needed. Ian presented to Wow Vision Therapy with a severe form of Convergence Insufficiency (CI). This condition if not identified and treated would have led to a lifetime of struggle.
Convergence Insufficiency is a vision disorder that affects nearly 1 in 12 children and has consequences to a child's quality of life. This serious vision problem does not cause blindness, but it's impact can be nearly as severe as shown by this video on The VisionHelp Channel...
A real live example of this is told by Aiden's Success Story. His behaviors before treatment looked like ADD/ADHD.
To see what has been published in the professional journals, Optometry Times published it's lead story in March 2009 showing the evidenced-based research.
In 60 seconds and you will know why it is critically important to millions of children to find help that they need for their vision-related vision problem. Take a look...
Help be an advocate for children with vision-related reading problems...pass it on!
Just as so many other children are affected (research shows 1 in 12) by this vision problem known as Convergence Insufficiency (CI), Josh also struggled. The impact on him was that he had double vision and loss of interest for reading. It also made it difficult for him to play baseball or most any ball sport. As a result Josh lacked confidence at school and on the playground. Now after successful completion of his office-based optometric vision therapy Josh no longer sees double when reading, his comprehension and reading speed has significantly improved and he is gaining skill and confidence in sports. Now that he has good binocular vision, Josh no longer struggles and is a happy kid!
Wow Vision Therapy would like to acknowledge our Clinic Director, Dr. Lindsey Stull (center) in her recent accomplishment of attaining Board Certification in Developmental Vision and Vision Therapy through the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD) during the COVD Annual Meeting in Las Vegas October 26-29, 2011. Congratulating Dr. Stull in this photo is our Resident, Dr. Nhin Nguyen (left) and Dr. Fortenbacher (right).
Dr. Stull is now a Fellow in COVD which is one of the highest honors and recognition in Optometry, specific to the specialty of developmental/behavorial/rehabilitative optometry. For more information about Board Certification through COVD you can go to the COVD websitehere.
We are all very proud of Dr. Stull who now has the distinction of placing FCOVD after her name! CONGRATULATIONS Dr. Stull!!
From time to time there is a patient advocate who steps up and says, “enough is enough”! …meaning, more has to be done to help recognize children with vision related learning problems!
In this video provided from Dr. Robert Lederman on YouTube, a family member speaks out about the importance of early recognition of children with vision related learning problems.
At Wow Vision Therapy we recognize the vital role that parents and patients make to help educate the public about the serious impact vision problems involving binocular vision (eye teaming), accommodation (eye focusing), oculomotor abilities (eye movement control) and visual processing can have on reading and learning. For more examples, check out Wow Vision Therapy on Facebook.
Mack, who came into the office today for his vision therapy session, presented with some exciting news!
Mack is a bright young man who likes sports but (before vision therapy) was inconsistent in his batting. Mack struggled with a common binocular vision problem that affects 1:12 children and adults leading to headaches, transient blur and occasional double vision when reading. This common binocular dysfunction, known as Convergence Insufficiency, often affects the individual in many ways.
Dr. Len Press and I wrote a series for The VisionHelp Blog entitled: CI: The Private Eye Goes Public. To read more about this condition check out these posts:
Do you know of a family member who is plagued with motion sickness when ever they go for an extended car ride? Recently I posted on The VisionHelp Blog the details of a visual problem that affects millions of people, coined The See-Sick Syndrome. Once diagnosed and treated, those with SSS can have life long resolution of motion sickness. Dr. Lindsey Stull and I presented a lecture to area primary care optometrists entitled:The See-Sick Syndrome...Practical Diagnostic and Treatment Applications for the Primary Care OD.
Hear a mom describe how her son has responded to treatment at Wow Vision Therapy.
Over the last 3 decades I have worked with thousands of children and adults with binocular vision dysfunction and other visual brain related problems. Some of the most common conditions I have treated are the visual problems that involve poor eye coordination and visual processing ability. The impact of these visual conditions on a patients life can be significant. The overall impact of poor visual abilities in some of the key areas of visual acquisitions skills such as binocular vision, accommodation and oculomotor function can be very stressful causing reduced individual performance and even emotional side effects.
The emotional fallout of these visual conditions can take a significant toll on the child and the family. The following video byP.A.V.E. (Parents Active for Vision Education)describes the impact of an unaddressed vision related learning problem as well as the positive changes that occur when visual problems are identified and properly treated.
As a regional referral practice that specializing in developmental vision and therapy, most of our patients find their way to us through a doctor, occupational therapist, teacher, other professional or proactive parents who recognize and recommend us.
In the video below our patient Matthew was referred by his family primary care Optometrist with a binocular vision problem known as Convergence Insufficiency.Prior to treatment he was seeing double when trying to read or view anything within 20 inches. This caused Matthew, a bright boy, to struggle to keep-up in school. It was also beginning to have emotional side-effects on his self esteem.
This video shows how much better Matthew is doing within only 10 sessions of office-based optometric vision therapy in conjunction with home oriented activities...the evidenced-based proven standard of care for this diagnosis. Not only is Matthew no longer seeing double, his confidence is growing. Matthews response below sums it up!
Progress in vision therapy is not only about improving symptoms...it's about improving lives!
