Welcome to the world of Vision Therapy or VT for short!
Visual therapy (VT) is an important part of your child’s treatment for the problems they are having in school, sports, and at home. VT can help your child’s life improve in many aspects, but also improve your life as well.
Vision Therapy is an amazing program. Please remember this cannot “cure” your child but can help guide your child and you towards helpful, proactive activities to enhance their eyesight. Only you and your child can help to eliminate the visual problems by putting in the work at the clinic and at home.
To make VT more effective, to meet the challenge they have been given for the week, we tell your child, “Your challenge this week is to try to be able to do _____ next week.” Ask your child about their challenge for the week. Tell them they must do all the activities assigned to be able to meet that challenge.
Establishing a routine is key. Get in the habit of doing vision therapy at home for 20 minutes a day. Set up a vision therapy nook in the house. This will motivate them and challenge them when they are in this space. This could literally change your child’s life (and yours). Make it a one-on-one time you and your child look forward to each day and keep the area positive with as few distractions as possible, zero is ideal.
Your child will never forget the time they did VT. They will remember it changed their life and you were part of it. The time you spend together each day doing the activities will someday be special memories and moments your child and you cherish. Someday your child may come to you and say, “Remember all the fun we had together doing all that crazy VT stuff?” You both will remember and cherish the time you spent together, just the two of you.
Remind them to “relax and breathe” often and then you do the same along with them. Take breaks if one of you is becoming frustrated. Split the 20 minutes into two 10-minute sessions, if needed. Switch roles with them, you be the student periodically. Everything sent home for them to do is much harder than it looks. If you have no visual problems and it does seem easy, remember that your child would not be doing this therapy if it were easy for them to do. They are working hard! Remind them that you know it is not easy for them, and how proud you are of their hard work. Always give them tons of praise
With this, encourage your child to tell you stories in detail. Ask them if they can picture the story in their head. Visual imagery is particularly important to everyone and is a needed skill for success in reading; we will be working together to develop this. Have them tell you about their day, read stories without showing them the pictures, and then share the pictures the second time you read it, no matter their age. Ask them about the colors of things they see and other details around them. If they read chapter books, have them tell you how they see the characters.
Lastly, try to keep VT as fun as possible when you are doing these activities at home. Make sure nothing negative is associated with the tasks and the environment is warm and welcoming. This will allow your child to voluntarily participate in VT for longer than 20 min and that is a good thing! Just do not exceed 30 minutes at a time when at home.
Most importantly, know that as you start this journey in the Vision Therapy world, know that myself, and my staff will be here every step of the way. We will happily answer any questions you have and make sure you go home feeling confident in helping your kiddo throughout the week.
Your vision therapist will speak with Dr. Moore on the progress of your child, and they will help to keep the assignments in line with the areas that your child needs the most help.
Ultimately, we are working together to meet the vision needs of your child.
To benefit your child, we use a machine called the RightEye. It allows doctors and vision therapists to better understand the health, ability, and overall brain-to-eye function. Using leaser technology RightEye uncovers tracking, movement, visual/depth perception, binocular vision issues, ocular motor dysfunctions and eye alignment. click here to learn more about RightEye
We analyze the RightEye results and apply that to our real-time Vision Therapy tests. This allows our Vision Therapists to test each patient separately while seeing how the eyes work together and to customize a plan for every individual.
How we diagnose:
- Dr. Monica Rein-Moore examines each patient in a standard eye exam. Following this, if concerns or worries are brought up, then patients are scheduled for RightEye testing.
- After completion of the RightEye machine, Dr. Moore reviews the results and then passes the information to the selected Vision Therapist. Following this, a real-time test is performed and analyzed. Dr. Moore makes the diagnosis, a patient packet is drawn up, and the patient is invited into the Vision Therapy Program.
- Once deciding to do Vision Therapy, each patient will come into the office weekly to meet with their therapist for 45 minutes. Four home activities will be assigned each week and it is highly encouraged to do the homework 5 separate times outside of VT. Each week the therapist will assess your childs progress and every 6 to 9 visits Dr. Moore will see you and run additional tests. Every week things will be adjusted to fit your progress an visual needs.
click here to learn more about vt
CONNECTING THE EYES AND MIND ONE VISION EXCERCISE AT A TIME