For Teachers, School Nurses, Pediatric Nurses, OTs, etc.

Amblyopia is the most common cause of monocular blindness in children. Shouldn't our ophthalmic and pediatric societies be advocating for early screening? Once the diagnosis is made, should we not offer our patients everything possible to treat this condition? -- Iris Stern, MD [More]

Mary visited the school nurse many times with complaints of blurry, watery eyes, headaches and stomach aches. ... her vision was reported to be OK [20/20]. ... [Then] examination revealed visual motor problems, double vision, and a condition called convergence insufficiency. [More]

I am writing my success story from a different perspective than that of a patient, or parent of a patient. I have been an educator for 45 years, functioning in such roles as a teacher, as principal and teacher simultaneously, as just a principal, and now as a director of a tutoring center. ... Eight years ago, as school principal ... [More]

I am a school board member ... mother of two sons ...who have benefited immensely from Vision Therapy. ...I am asking that the reader consider the following: the eye exams that are currently provided within the school system are incomplete and they provide students, parents and teachers a false sense of security regarding a child's ability ...double vision - although his eye health and acuity levels were normal [20/20]. ... There was never any indication throughout the child study team process, the on-site reading intervention programs, or the private tutoring programs that anything was wrong with Scott's vision. [More]

Often, the 20/20 test is the extent of vision testing done in schools and pediatricians' offices. [More]

...CORE evaluation [for son]... I was very pleased with how comprehensive the testing was. A final meeting was called with the specialists, our school nurse, his teacher, and myself, and his results were discussed. ...it became apparent to me that he [my son] had many visual issues. His eldest brother had been diagnosed with convergence insufficiency at the age of 20 after telling me he saw double [diplopia]. I suspected my youngest son had the same trouble. [More]

His first grade teacher,"...get his eyes checked again."
...the standard tests for 20/20 ..."Great! His eyes weren't the problem."
...the gap between his effort and results continued ... One Resource teacher got quite depressed. "So much effort here and so little progress"," she said.

...If only the tests for eye teaming, focusing, and tracking had been added to the usual eye tests given, what a bright world this could have been much earlier. ... The teachers did their job, but you only know what you know. ...information must be provided to teachers, children, and parents. There are kids that pass the current 20/20 eye exam in schools, and these children can't "see." [More]

...our previous pediatrician in NYC thought her eyes were just fine. ...we were seeing various developmental things that made us wonder. ...Our new pediatrician recognized immediately that Haley had a vision problem and we set about getting a diagnosis [intermittent exotropia], which eventually led us to Vision Therapy ...we honestly didn't know if therapy was for us. ...we'd been told time and time again that she needed surgery. We are extremely happy that we took this route [non-surgical vision therapy treatment]. ...Looking back, surgery seems a barbaric choice. We feel like it very well could have made the whole situation worse, by trying to surgically fix an "intermittent" problem ... [More]

At the age of two, Kaitlyn was evaluated by an ophthalmologist due to low visual acuity. An MRI was done to rule out any neuro-masses. ...recommended for testing to rule out ADD. She was evaluated by three educational psychologists. It was recommended that she have a developmental eye exam due to an overall weakness in visual-spatial and visual-motor skills. Since Vision Therapy, we have noticed a big difference ... [More]

I assured her [the teacher] that her vision had tested "better than 20/20."  ...I wish I had known you could have better than 20/20 vision and not be able to unscramble the words on a page. I wonder how many kids struggle through school with a vision problem that could be corrected. [More]

...please try to look at vision therapy with an open mind. I realize that sometimes parents of kids with special needs can get up-in-arms abut the educational professionals responsible for placing their children. ...Both sides have the best interest of the children in mind ... I hope parents, teachers, therapists, and pediatricians will take another look at Vision Therapy, and ask people who have taken advantage of the service how they liked it. [More]

...he was obstinate and hard to reach. ... the doctors and teachers felt he had ADHD. ...Now, our son's positive result from Vision Therapy brings to mind the TV commercial for MasterCard: "Having our son back as a confident, caring, READING individual ... Priceless!" Would we recommend Vision Therapy to others? Absolutely! [More]

The 4K teachers advice was to let it ride and see how he does in 5K, she felt it was a developmental thing that would pass. The psychologist wanted us to consider Ritalin. Thank God we continued to search for an answer! [More]

When his kindergarten teacher had the same concerns (without knowing of his preschool problems) I had him evaluated and he was diagnosed as ADD. ...[Later,] The optometrist found that my son had limited peripheral vision and monocular vision [suppressed vision in one eye]. It finally all made sense! His inability to concentrate, limited attention span, class clown personality, sloppy writing, poor coordination, inability to excel in sports, etc. were all effects of his inability to see properly. ...He has done Vision Therapy ... [More]

... took him for an eye exam and explained that he got headaches when he read, ... his report came back stating he had 20/20 vision. His 2nd grade teacher recommended Dr. X. ... after months of Vision Therapy, his scores jumped. [More]

From kindergarten on, Evan showed signs of stress upon departing for school (crying, kicking the back of the car seats, irrationality). This behavior also occurred whenever we worked on homework together. We had numerous teacher conferences over these early years about these signs of stress. Now, after completion of Vision Therapy, Evan finishes his homework lickety-split, no complaints ...has improved in spelling and comprehension to a great degree. ...His interest and performance more closely match his level of intelligence. [More]

I am the parent of an autistic child. ...My son, Kyle, had throwing and catching a ball on his IEP for about 6 years... After all that time, he still was not able to catch even a beach ball. It simply bounced off his stomach and then he moved his arms... A vision examination two years ago revealed that Kyle had, among other things, significant convergence problems [convergence insufficiency] ...His eyes were working independently, rather than together [depth perception], so that he saw two pictures instead of one [double vision]. In addition to enabling Kyle to see moving objects, Vision Therapy has improved his reading efficiency and comfort, increased his depth perception and improved horizontal and vertical eye tracking (imperative for math and reading music). These exercises also decreased Kyle's overuse of peripheral vision, reduced his gaze (and task) avoidance, and decreased eye poking and other physical signs of visual strain. ...

The bad news is that a lot of Kyle's early years were wasted (for example, as a human target, rather than a participant in ball games) because parents, educators and pediatricians alike were unaware of the limits of his vision. We accepted, and even ignored, many of Kyle's behavioral differences because those characteristics are known to be associated with autism. The good news is... [More]

Congratulations on an excellent web sites! As an orthoptist, I was very impressed by your presentation and manner in which you conveyed ocular motility and binocular vision information.
Rebekah Duyshart

Wonderful sites!! Read about the vision3d.com web site in the AMA News. This is a great site for helping others to see 3d. It's very hard to teach this to people who disbelieve in or don't appreciate the concept of stereoscopic vision. Good work!
William Wilder, M.D.