EXCELerated Vision

Vision Therapy Isn’t Just About Eyes

As a 4th year Optometry student at Michigan College of Optometry, I had assumed that the goal of vision therapy was only to target the eye coordination skills that our patients have trouble with in the clinic and improve on them to eliminate symptoms or prevent symptoms from arising in the future.  After my rotation here at Wow Vision Therapy, I have learned that vision therapy is about so much more than just the eyes.

 

There is a phrase that I heard when I first started here, and I’ve never forgotten it.  “If you can’t coordinate your body movements, you can’t coordinate your eye movements.”  I have found this to be so true.  When a patient doesn’t have good control over simple body movements, then it is difficult to control the eyes in a coordinated fashion because all of the mind’s attention is on controlling the body, not the eyes.

 

Here at Wow Vision Therapy, we work on not only eye movements but body movements as well.  We do something called “Chapters” which is a series of coordinated body movements that focus on being able to make the upper half of the body move in sync with the lower half of the body.  As the difficulty increases with each Chapter, vision plays a more significant role in the successful completion of them by requiring balance or noticing simultaneous movements between the arms and legs.  Just in the short amount of time I have been here I have seen many children graduate from the program that are less clumsy and are able to ride a 2-wheel bike now when they never could before.  The coordination learned through the combination of vision and movement during the Chapters plays a significant role in this successful outcome.

 

Also during my time here at Wow Vision Therapy, I discovered that vision therapy can also help eliminate motion sickness!  Motion sickness and how to cope with it is not only related to movement, but it also has a visual aspect to it.  During our “see-sick protocol”, patients are taught how to cope with motion by using their vision to help stabilize and balance themselves to eliminate the woozy feeling that excessive motion can cause.  I have suffered from getting car-sick my whole life, and after doing our “see-sick protocol”, I was able to study in the car all the way to Pennsylvania and back without even a hint of car-sickness!  I have also had many of my own patients experience a huge improvement in their motion sickness after completing this protocol.

 

If you or your child is experiencing trouble with coordination, balance or motion sickness, give Wow Vision Therapy a call (if you are in South West Michigan) or contact the College of Optometrists in Vision Development at www.covd.org for a doctor near you.  You may be surprised at how many issues can be corrected and improved with vision therapy!

Erica Oosting

Michigan College of Optometry 4th Year Intern

Vision Therapy Reduces Motion Sickness

Motion Sickness occurs when the brain receives conflicting information from our senses.  A familiar example is watching a chase scene on the big screen.  Our eyes are telling the brain that we are in motion while our body is saying that we are sitting still in a dark theater.  While not everyone in the audience will experience motion sickness, those with a lower tolerance for sensory mismatch will.  Common symptoms and signs include dizziness, pale skin, sweating, headache and vomiting. In addition to motion pictures, car rides and boat rides will also cause an onset of symptoms.

Since visual motion can cause motion sickness, desensitizing motion-sensitive people to moving objects can alleviate symptoms.  Vision therapy accomplishes this through activities that induce visual motion.  Therapy starts at a level that the patient is comfortable with, then gradually increase increase in demand as the patient progresses.  As the patient becomes desensitized to visual motion, symptoms become less severe, less frequent and, eventually a thing of the past.

Prior to my internship at Wow Vision Therapy, I didn't know that vision therapy can help reduce motion sickness.  During this summer I had the opportunity to work with an 11 year old avid reader with motion sickness.  Before every car trip, she had to take a motion-sickness pill.  She used to get headaches after reading a few minutes in the car.  After just a few sessions of vision therapy, she noticed that her motion sickness was greatly reduced.  She didn't need her medicine until a few hours into the trip.  After a couple more sessions, she reported that she didn't experience any car-sickness during her family's 11- hour road trip, and she was able to read in the car without any headaches.  Not only was she excited by the results, I was equally excited to see how motion sickness was successfully treated by vision therapy.

Do you suffer from motion sickness?  Do you dread getting in a car or a boat?  Do you want to be able to enjoy a book during road trips?  If you answer yes to any of these questions, I encourage you to make an appointment with Dr. Fortenbacher today to see if you are a candidate for vision therapy.  Perhaps you too will benefit from vision therapy.

Anh La, Intern

Michigan College of Optometry

Success is Riding a Bike!

William came prepared to his 3 month progress evaluation. He brought his bike! Prior to vision therapy William could not ride his bike. This was a major frustration. While he finished his VT in February 2007 (the snowiest month of the winter), William shows us (along with his mother and vision therapist, Denise) how he is now applying his newly developed vision skills. Congratulations William!