The Wow Vision Therapy Blog

Specialized treatment comes to Grand Rapids for children who struggle from vision and learning problems

One in 12 children struggle with serious vision problems that cause reading and learning problems yet those same children will pass the standard vision tests. Collin is one of these children who endured the struggle with frustration and lowself-esteem, but with his office-based optometric vision therapy treatment he has blossomed with new abilities and confidence!

 

 

Wow Vision Therapy is recognized as one of top specialty vision therapy practices in the US and is now open in Grand Rapids, Michigan on East Beltline! For more information take a look at our website at www.wowvision.net .

 

You can also learn more details on the impact of vision problems affecting learning by reading Dr. Fortenbacher’s VisionHelp article: How does it feel to have a vision related reading or learning problem?

 

Vision and Learning - What every parent should know

A brand new and uniquely informative video from some of the leading US experts in the field of developmental vision who speak about the human brain and how vision problems can lead to reading and learning problems. This video also features one of Wow Vision Therapy's patients, Reece and her father David who tells her story before and after vision therapy throughout interesting segments of the entire video. Dr. Fortenbacher, Founder, of Wow Vision Therapy is also a contributing expert in this important public awareness VisionHelp video.

  

A young girl's life of frustration when misdiagnosed with ADD

Frustrating? Yes. Upsetting? Of course! When a bright young lady has struggled for years at school, only to be assumed she had ADD. And just because her teacher suggested her behavior was probably ADD does not mean her teacher was at fault. Her behavior did look like ADD! But that is where the problem lies, because this is a common assumption made by many people when a child has behaviors of poor attention and concentration with reading. Immediately ADD or ADHD comes up and the child is too often put on psycho-stimulant medication without the necessary rule-outs of other conditions.

But thanks to Madison’s pediatrician who performed a simple test of Madison's binocular vision called a Near Point of Convergence Test, she found Madison had a vision problem called Convergence Insufficiency, a vision problem that affects 1 in 12 children, and referred her to see me for a comprehensive binocular vision evaluation. Take a look and hear from Madison’s mother, who tells the story about her daughter’s struggle with attention and concentration at school, disinterest in reading and loss of confidence transform into her success from the treatment of her binocular vision problems through advanced vision therapy care at Wow Vision Therapy.

   

Madison's story of success through office-based optometric vision therapy is validated in the latest scientific research  and published in: Optom Vis Sci. 2012 January ; 89(1): 12–18, Improvement in Academic Behaviors Following Successful Treatment of Convergence Insufficiency.

In addition, more evidence of Madison's successful treatment is outlined by the American Academy of Optometry published in August 2013 a position paper entitled,  American Academy of Optometry Binocular Vision, Perception, and Pediatric Optometry Position Paper on Optometric Care of the Struggling Student for parents, educators, and other professionals.

If you are located within Northern Indiana, Western or Southwestern Michigan and have a child who exhibits ADD-like behaviors, struggles in reading comprehension, homework is a battle, has headaches with reading or has other learning related difficulty, call our office and our patient care coordinators will help you by making an appointment with one of our Board Certified Doctors.  If you are not within the region of Wow Vision Therapy go to the College of Optometrists in Vision Development at www.covd.org and click on the Doctor Locator to find a specialist nearest you.

Dan L. Fortenbacher, O.D.,FCOVD

Jayce's Story...from struggle to confidence

Jayce's Story...Hear from a young boy's mother how vision therapy gave him a new outlook on reading and learning. Like so many children, when struggle turns to ease and success the emotional outcome is confidence! Too many children fight a senseless struggle with vision problems that affect reading and learning. If you agree we hope you will  share Jayce's story.

 

 

Wow Vision Therapy: Using Skype to Treat Patients Long-Distance

Using Skype to help a long distance patient have access to care is an emerging new technology at Wow Vision Therapy. In this short video, we show our patient James and his parents, Joel and Gina, and their 700 mile journey of success as James completes his Skype vision therapy treatment. — at Wow Vision Therapy.

 

Strabismus: Fixing Aloise's Gaze...A mother's story

For those families whose child has esotropia strabismus, crossed-eyes, here is Aloise’s story. See the surprising chain of events that lead to Aloise’s parents finding out about vision therapy and the marvelous changes that they never expected!

 

Fixing Aloise's Gaze

In this short video you will see 6 year old Aloise overcoming her constant right esotropia (crossed eye). Take a look at Aloise show off her emerging ability to consciously straighten her eyes. This important "motor fusion" ( eye muscle control) is an essential step in her ability to gain "sensory fusion" which is her neural "visual lock" and 3-D vision experience through binocular coordination of her eyes. When Aloise began with us at Wow Vision Therapy she had a constant 25 degree right eye-turn (with correction) at distance and near. Her right eye also had moderately reduced visual acuity due to amblyopia (lazy eye). Aloise is moderately farsightedness and wears spectacle correction full time including a bifocal. She works with us 2 days a week in office-base optometric vision therapy and does 15-20 minutes a day of home oriented activities on the days she is not here. She has never had eye muscle surgery as part of her treatment.

 

AJ's Story: Treating Developmental Delays with Vision Therapy

Take a look at AJ's story and you will see how a child with developmental delays can also have vision-related delays that interfere with many areas of life. AJ is not alone as children with delayed vision development will typically show poor academic progress and struggle with many routine activities in daily living. While age is not a barrier to treatment, when caught early and treated with office-based optometric vision therapy, a child with vision related developmental delays can often times catch up and show the progress expected for their age. In this short video you will hear AJ's parents describe their experience and AJ's success at Wow Vision Therapy.

  

 

 

Domenic's Story...Vision Problems Associated with Developmental Delays

"Developmental delays" is a common diagnosis for many children in our care at Wow Vision Therapy. In addition to office-based optometric vision therapy, helping children with developmental delays often requires a multidisciplinary approach, including occupational therapy, speech therapy and physical therapy.

In this short video, Domenic's story is told by his father along with video footage of Domenic while he was in vision therapy at Wow Vision Therapy. We invite you to take a moment of time and see if Domenic's story resonates with you and if so, help pass it on so that those children with developmental delays can be recognized and provided the vision care that is so important to their future. We are also happy to provide answers to your questions if you wish to leave a comment.

 

 

 

Treating Developmental Delays with Vision Therapy

Nathan is a child who had a history of significant developmental delays. Before vision therapy he struggled with hyperactivity, lack of focus, poor balance and difficulty with gross and fine motor ability. But, now thanks to early intervention and a multidisciplanary approach involving vision therapy, OT and speech therapy, Nathan has caught up and even begun to excel! Take a look and hear from Nathan's mother...

 

For more insights check out the post written by Dr. Dan Fortenbacher on the VisionHelp Blog entitled: 

Good sight and bad vision…recognizing the difference and how to explain it to parents