Patient Success Story- Jack, Age 11, Length of Treatment: 8 months
Jack’s Success Story:
“Before vision therapy, I was having problems with focusing on the words while I was reading and the words were blurry at first, and they would go into two words. But now since I’ve done eye therapy, it’s all gone. It’s helped in school, sports, reading, focusing, and everything else. It’s made my life better.”
Jack’s mom’s success story:
“Before vision therapy, Jack was having problems with comprehension, reading out loud, writing and staying engaged in the classroom. He is an outgoing, very athletic young man with lots of friends but was challenged with long hours of homework. ‘I can’t’ was the first words out of his mouth when doing homework. After 3 months in therapy, his willingness began to improve, and grades increased 10 points. Since then he went from a D student to an A/B student, completing his homework and studying on his own. His confidence in himself has been the best outcome ever.”
When I first started seeing Jack, he complained of words “flipping or looking backward,” moving around on the page, and seeing double. When initially evaluated, he was diagnosed with accommodation insufficiency, difficulty with saccades, intermittent alternating exotropia, and convergence insufficiency. This basically means his eyes did not turn in enough to focus on near work. His eyes had a tendency to drift outward. He had difficulty rapidly moving his eyes between fixation points, and he had trouble switching his focus from near to far and vice versa. It is no wonder he was fidgety and easily distractable when reading!
Jack’s success with vision therapy is mainly due to his dedication to completing home therapy 5-6 times a week. It is not enough to do vision therapy in the office for 45 minutes a week, 20 minutes a day makes all the difference. It is best to get into a routine so that you don’t forget or put it off. Resistance to home therapy at first is completely normal and even expected. At first, Jack’s mom had to make him do the home therapy each day, but by the end of therapy, he was the one reminding his mom! School work and reading gradually shifted from being a frustrating task to a fun activity that boosted his confidence when he started receiving higher grades. He was ecstatic that vision therapy not only helped him in school but sports as well! Jack loves baseball and was so excited when his skills improved. He also mentioned having difficulty rock climbing before, but now he can make it to the very top!
When doing vision therapy, it is very easy for a child to become discouraged due to the challenging nature of the activities. But if they know what they are working for, why they are doing each activity, and begin to see the progress, then they can fully dedicate themselves to the program. That dedication is essential in order to see full results. Vision is learned! We cannot learn for you; we can only guide you in the proper direction of learning. YOU must do the learning. Jack is a prime example of how hard work in vision therapy can change your life! We are so proud of him and all of our patients for their hard work and determination.
-Emily Thompson, Vision Therapist
