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TESTIMONIAL
T. G. was first seen in June 2004. His mother stated that he had problems with reading comprehension, and that he inverted words often when reading. He was entering the 5th grade, had failed the 2nd grade, and had academic concerns since kindergarten. He had been receiving regular and frequent extra curricular tutoring.
While interviewing and observing T.G., it was obvious that there were numerous ocular deficiency symptoms including: blurred and double vision; loss of place while reading; and, using his finger to keep his place while reading. Oftentimes, T.G. was excused from school because of his severe headaches.
The developmental vision evaluation revealed a loss of clarity while viewing distant objects, early changes in the optical focus of the eye, deficits in fixations, following, focusing and fusion. He had trouble with spatial awareness, visual memory, visual imaging, visualization and the integration of his visual system with the action and language systems. Sadly, this was in spite of annual vision screenings performed by his different schools and the family pediatrician. The parents were encouraged to begin vision therapy and lens therapy but did not follow-up for the next 12 months.
T.G. was seen again in June 2005 and was regressing further in school. He had more behavioral difficulties such as becoming easily distracted, misplacing papers and belongings, and, difficulty in completing assignments in a reasonable timeframe. During this period, he had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder by his school psychologist. Results of our follow-up exam findings indicated that T.G.’s “numbers” had deteriorated further, as well. Near the end of the evaluation he stated that he was feeling lightheaded. I recall the shock his Dad experienced when observing that T.G. was only seeing double until things were two feet away from him. The parents were now eager to begin treatment, as nothing else had fixed T.G.’s multiple visual and behavioral problems. He received his treatment lenses in June ‘05 and began his weekly vision therapy treatments in August ‘05. Within four weeks, his headaches had all but disappeared. His eight week progress evaluation, in October ’05,, showed several exciting changes including significantly increased self-confidence, better grades in school, reading on his own, improved handwriting and communication skills, and better skills at video games. His reading comprehension had also improved, and he was having fewer letter reversals. He was more relaxed, less fatigued and maintained eye contact. Out of a list of possible evaluation observations, the family had noticed improvements in 40.
At T.G.’s December ’05 progress evaluation, he said “I am focusing more when reading, and I solve problems easier than I did.” His mother commented that he has much more confidence and “self-projection.” There were changes noted in 33 areas including: reading; academics; emotional/behavioral changes; and, localization/??? changes. There were concurrent improvements in optometric analytical findings. He is scheduled for follow-up evaluation in February ’06.
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Dr. Mark Roberts,
We would liked to thank you and express how overwhelmingly pleased we are with the improvements our son J has made because of vision therapy. When we came to you over a year ago, we were out of options. J was struggling both at home and in school, and at the time, we had no idea just how much was because of his vision.
J had been in occupational therapy for more than a year with marginal improvements. We were fortunate to have a therapist, Lyddan Pawlowski (Ling & Kerr), recognize that his problems were "in his eyes" (as she said) and we were fortunate that she recommended vision therapy with your specifically.
Initially we suspected that J was having visual motor difficulty because of his reading. His reading was very slow and labored. He required a finger to keep his place and still needed to cover up all but the line being read to keep from mistakenly reading other lines. He often missed the first or last words of a line and usually missed small words like 'a' and 'an.' By the end of reading just a few pages, he was rubbing his eyes and tearing from eye fatigue.
J's reading was a big concern, so was his writing. He wrote very slowly and copied words even slower. His letters and words were not evenly spaced and the height of the letters was always inconsistent. He avoided all written and near-vision work both at home and school.
By the end of first grade, J's challenges were causing such frustration in school and home that he began to lose all confidence in himself. At times he would call himself stupid and say, "I can't do anything." This was the most frustrating thing to see as a parent. We knew he is smart and capable. He loved to learn, but was continuing to fail when he tried. We did not know how to help him and we knew that with out a significant change, J would never reach his fullest potential.
Within six months of therapy, we could tell the difference that vision therapy was making. His reading level increased dramatically. At the beginning of 2nd grade, he was reading at an early 1st grade level. Now, at the end of 2nd grade, he is already at an early 3rd grade level! J does not need any help to keep his place, never misses beginning and ending words and never blends lines together as he reads! He also has learned to read silently with wonderful reading comprehension. Best of all, now he loves to read! He reads books because he wants to.not because he has to!
J's writing and copying have also dramatically improved. His writing was nearly illegible a year ago. Now he can copy text without loosing his place and can remember longer strings of words to copy at a time. He is spacing and sizing letters and words better and has also learned to write in cursive, which is proving to be neater than his print!
So much of J's life has improved this year, and to our surprise, not just with reading and writing, Before therapy, J could not catch a ball, hit a golf ball, or throw a ball. Now he does all of these just for fun!
Before therapy, bilateral coordination was a big problem. Even with more than a year of occupational therapy, he still could not do jumping jacks and jumping rope seems like and unachievable skill. Now he can do both effortlessly!
When he walked or ran his arms did not swing naturally. He always appeared awkward and gawky. Now his body moves more naturally, smoothly and confidently.
In the past he was always on the move in high-speed and seemed to be very clumsy, constantly bumping into things, now he moves smoother and "on purpose" as if more aware of his surrounding.
His focus and attention have dramatically increased, and he is initiating and completing his class work and homework faster and with increasing independence. He is also enjoying his first sports activity, Karate. In fact in one year he earned his first two belts.
To our surprise, J's speech fluency has also improved. He had a difficult time putting his thoughts into words, as if he could not find or choose the right words to use. Now his sentences are smoother with less restarts in his speech.
The best evaluating comes from J himself. One day completely unsolicited J thanked me for taking home to vision therapy. When asked why, he said, "I liked it [therapy] because my eyes work better and I can read better and now I can look at people in the eye." He is now proud of himself and more confident in what he can do. Now he believes he can do anything if he tries!
Vision Therapy is by far the single best investment we could have ever made in our son's future.
With Sincerest Thanks,
O, C, M and J (age 8)
Jamestown, North Carolina
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