A college-level softball player who played was having difficulty keeping track of the ball when there were pop-up fouls.
In addition, when hitting she reported she lost awareness of the ball. "I was swinging late."
After an evaluation, she was prescribed contact lenses and underwent vision therapy.
Her therapy taught her how to follow the ball and improved her reaction time when hitting.
The contact lenses, in addition to providing improved clarity, were tinted to reduce glare, which improved her ability to respond to foul balls following treatment.
A minor league hockey player was having difficulty on the ice following a mid-ice collision with another player.
He was struggling to keep up with the pace of the game, was losing his footing on the ice, and couldn’t follow the puck.
He was in danger of being cut from the team.
Upon evaluation, it was determined that a mild concussion from the collision had resulted in the players central/peripheral integration and eye teaming to become disorganized.
After working with vision training, the player was able to return to play and is playing in the NHL.
“T” was a very angry high school student.
When I first met him he was all in black and pretty much snarled at me that he didn’t want to be here.
I responded that he was here so he might as well come on back. When we got back to the treatment room he told me that his family was wasting their money, he was obviously stupid.
Although he could see clearly at distance when trying to focus at near his eyes did not team together well.
This resulted in difficulty with tracking, eyestrain and intermittent double vision. "T" had never said anything to anyone about it because it was just how he saw, and he had ‘20/20’ vision.
As I listened to him I began to realize that...
...but in reality he just couldn’t make sense of what he was reading because of his visual system.
I explained to him why reading was so difficult and asked him to give me a chance. He reluctantly agreed. Over the course of 3 months as we worked on activities to improve his binocular skills I noticed a pronounced difference.
The snarling Goth looking angry teen was beginning to look forward to coming to his sessions.
He admitted that he was getting better grades and that he actually was beginning to enjoy school! By the end of his treatment he was achieving good grades and was a much happier young man.
I later learned that he decided to attend a local college after graduation. Something his family thought would never happen!
A baseball player whose position was shortstop had difficulty fielding ground balls.
He was excellent with line drives and pop-ups but consistently failed to field a ground ball.
During his routine eye exam, the doctor noticed when looking downward, his eye teaming was not as efficient when looking downward as when looking up.
Began eye training exercises to learn to use his visual system more efficiently in a down gaze.
After three months of training his ability to field ground balls greatly improved.
During a baseball game a player was at bat and as he was swinging the bat the ball ricocheted off his bat and hit him in the head.
The symptoms continued to the next day and his family decided to have him evaluated.
We were fortunate because he had already had a baseline of how his visual system and ocular motor system worked.
So after he was hit and diagnosed with a concussion we were able to compare the data to what he had previously and figure a program that would bring him up to speed .
This was very beneficial because we didn’t have to wait for him to start needing the accommodations we could start right away and provide a letter to all his teachers for him to have that opportunity to still be successful and have a time to heal.
He was given glasses with tint and prism that allowed for light sensitivity and trouble with reading.
We provided a letter to the teachers to allow him extra time to complete his assignments and even reduce some of the assignments that were given.
At the end, he was given the accommodations and the therapeutic tools needed to bring him back up to speed.
A college student on the University of Arizona Dive team hit the water at an awkward angle and sustained a minor concussion.
Following the concussion, she was losing her concentration during her dives and was unable to complete her flips properly.
Her life goal was to go to law school, she was in danger of losing her scholarship due to the difficulties she was having with equilibrium.
An evaluation found that her visual system had become disorganized which was causing the loss of equilibrium on her dives.
Vision training corrected the binocular dysfunction and allowed her to continue to compete safely.
He tried a number of different prescriptions but none of them ever felt that it was really working especially on the field.
...about the difference between wearing glasses and contacts and how he could use the contacts for his side vision to better react and more efficient eye teaming skills, he decided to make the change.
Unfortunately, the contacts he was given at another optical office still didn’t feel effective.
After he came to my office for an evaluation we had found that the contacts were not functionally helping him have the best potential for his eyes to work.
He did some pre-testing and in that testing we watched how he could follow an image going in a circular pattern horizontal and vertical.
His right eye was actually pulling down slightly in a circular pattern as well as when he looked from up down and horizontally.
After we discussed the results of these findings he had mentioned that sometimes he has trouble with reading.
We talked about how words could move a little bit on a page or he could skip while he was reading.
He replied yes enthusiastically, "I have had those issues just didn’t know what to do about it."
At the end of the exam we changed his prescription to be more functional and taught him techniques to use his side and center vision and create a much more dynamic a teaming system.
He now could appreciate a more integrated depth perception.
He now hits better than he has ever before!
L is a 74 year old who suffered a stroke.
When he first came into the office he had difficulty with eye hand coordination, his golf game was declining and he was very concerned that he would not be able to maintain his active lifestyle.
Of particular concern to him was he was an avid skier and he was concerned he would not be able to hit the slopes again.
We began working with L to help him regain as much of his visual field as possible in combination with learning to constantly scan into his area of loss.
One of the first things he noticed was that as his visual field began to open more he was having less difficulty with eating.
Over time he became more and more confident and secure in his space and reported that when he went to his favorite ski resort he was able to ski with no difficulty
“M” is a 50 year old principal of a local school.
She reported that following the accident she was having difficulty with her balance, headaches and couldn’t seem to keep up with the paperwork required when doing her job.
Additionally she said she used to be an avid reader and found she could not enjoy reading anymore.
Her evaluation showed that she had suffered a concussion from the accident. Frequently concussions lead to difficulty with the visual system.
Her eyes were overreacting to light, they were not aiming together at near which was causing eye strain and headaches. Her balance issues were due to a mid-line shift.
Frequently after a concussion those 3 systems become confused and a person’s sense of center is off.
This results in loss of balance.
She was given a glasses prescription with special lenses and tint to help while we worked with her to re learn how to use her eyes together and a special pair of prism goggle to use when doing activities to help her rediscover her midline.
After 6 months of treatment she no longer needed the goggles, her balance was improved, she was doing well and work and enjoyed her job and reading again.
“H” was a 72 year old man suffering from Parkinson’s. He came to us asking if we could do anything to help him.
He realized that his illness was progressive but he was having more and more difficulty with balance and wanted to know if we could help.
We worked a lot with H on walking, central peripheral integration and rhythm. We explained to him that peripheral vision needs to work with central vision to help stabilize balance.
As we worked with him his wife reported that he was more stable when walking and seemed to be able to concentrate better.
K is a 75 year old retired gentleman who was having difficulty with reading and balance following a car accident and minor concussion.
n evaluation found that following the accident as a result of the concussion the reason his balance was off and he was having difficulty with reading wasn’t his glasses.
His eyes were not teaming correctly and his central and peripheral vision was not working effectively together.
This resulted in his eyes, body and brain no longer in agreement about where middle was.
We began training first to reestablish the integration between his central and peripheral vision then to get his eyes to team together better.
Following treatment K reports that he is more aware of his surroundings and he not bumping into things as often.
J was struggling to read, would not pay attention in class and had trouble looking at the board.
J's mother brought them to us for an evaluation and it was determined that J had an ocular motor deficient (meaning he couldn’t track well).
This delightful full of energy little boy began working with us and after only 3 weeks his mother came in excited and reported to us that he was actually starting to read!
In addition he was paying attention in class better and his handwriting was improving.
