Vision Therapy Week 1

So our first week of therapy is completed and we both have seen the improvements.  Dr. Griffith also noticed her improvements since the last time Alli did the activities in the office.   Dr Griffith says that we are lucky to be homeschooling and be able to focus so completely on these exercises.  Alli likes our math games and Life of Fred books so we still use those and she loves the reading book we use "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" so we are continuing those, but everything else is on hold for now.  Vision Therapy is hard work for her and I both, I am grateful we have the flexibility to do what is best for Alli.


Doing these activities is very draining for her and makes her sleepy, head hurt, eyes hurt, dizzy, etc....but she has told me she wants to see like everybody else so she works EXTREMELY hard and is very proud of herself.  

She told me, "I always wondered what this looks like to other people" pointing at a paragraph in a book I was reading her.


The activity that made Alli shake and cry was VASTLY improved in one week.  Alli has LOTS of trouble using her right eye alone on all of the activities, but that activity in particular was very troubling for her.  The first time she was able to read out 17 pairs of letters.  By the end of the week she could read 26 pairs, nearly double!!

Another activity that works on her tracking ability, she could barely get to the 2nd column letters on the first day, but by the end she was getting almost through the 3rd column.  

 By the end of the week Alli was pretty tired of the same activities so it is nice to change things up a bit.  The picture above is a Bilateral Motor Coordination activity that is helped to make children aware of direction which is a cause of letter and number reversals.  

Thank you everyone for the emails and comments and encouragement.  This  WILL not be easy, but  I feel like a new chapter has started in Alli's life that will send her in the OPPOSITE direction of where she was heading.  

"Learning disabled, special education, resource, slow, lazy, unmotivated....." all the labels she would have gotten had she been in school.  I wonder how many other children are mislabeled?

I have done extensive research in the last 2 weeks and there are two sides to the story, as always!  So various professions - for example pediatricians and opthamologists will say this is a "made up problem" or a "learning disability that is not correctable" and vision therapy wont help.  I have decided to believe in this therapy - I think the results will speak for themselves. 

I spoke to one mother (Shane's cousin's wife) who said, "Do you want me to tell you how wonderfully life changing it will be or how INCREDIBLY hard it is going to be, cuz both are true!"  She also said - It is the one thing in life that is TOO good to be true, but it actually is true.

In a few months I will probably have a much stronger opinion in one direction or another - I sure hope it is that vision therapy is changing our lives for the better)


Anyone who thinks maybe YOUR child (or YOU - Shane is getting tested in May) might have some vision problems, I list a few resources I have found to be IMMENSELY helpful and encouraging:
Websites to research:

SUCCESS STORIES:  HERE, and HERE and HERE (facebook page - VISION THERAPY CHANGED MY LIFE) and HERE (update 9/12/2013 now Alli is on here!!!  YAY)!!

Regarding dyslexia and vision connection - this site has an entire story but this is a good start.

More of dyslexia and vision

Symptoms of a vision problem

VERY THOROUGH QUESTIONNAIRE INCLUDING EVALUATION FOR PHYSICAL, READING, COORDINATION, SPORTS, ATTENTION, BEHAVIOR  (Alli scored 184 - an evaluation is recommended at 31...)

A video to watch


Thank you to everyone for your support!  We appreciate it a lot!!