Eye Wellness

When Michael first visited the optometrist he was experiencing frequent headaches and tummy aches, as well as sore, tired eyes. His grades were slipping at school and he disliked reading.

He was beginning to consider himself as “dumb”. The combination of eye glasses and vision therapy has made a world of difference to Michael. His grades have improved, particularly in Math, Reading, and Spelling, and his work is a lot neater and organized. He no longer experiences any physical symptoms and is even much less car sick. He now finds reading much easier and more enjoyable, and gets much less frustrated with his homework. The best improvement for me, as a parent, is that his self-esteem has increased and he no longer thinks he is stupid, and therefore, is a lot happier in general.

Michael has enjoyed the Vision Therapy sessions, finding them interesting, challenging, and he has never once complained about attending or doing his home activities. We are very glad that Michael has received Vision Therapy, and very grateful to everyone at Lynn Valley Optometry for helping him.

- From Michael’s Mother

Jason was in grade 2 when he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. He had coordination issues and had a hard time with motor skills.

We had him thoroughly tested by various specialists. His ears and eyes checked out fine. He was placed on drugs at 8 years old. First Ritalin (made him robotic and sad), then Dexedrine (made him pick) and then Strattera (gave him a tremor in his hands). Each time we tried a new drug, his attention level would improve marginally for about three weeks and then go back to normal. Drugs for us were not the answer and were not really helping, but we knew no other avenue.

We were introduced to Vision Therapy late spring 2006 when Jason was almost 14 years old. We learned that many children diagnosed with ADD have visual and auditory processing disorders. If they cannot process the information, it becomes uncomfortable and they will avoid it, leading to or at the very least inflating attention disorder symptoms. It sure made sense to us.

Through Vision Therapy, we have been able to achieve our goal. We have provided Jason with some new tools to make his life easier, thereby improving his quality of life. With new skills, his self-esteem has also improved.

Jason’s older brother took him out to play lacrosse catch, and when they came home, Ryan commented (unsolicited) that he couldn’t believe how much Jason’s eye-hand coordination has improved. Prior to therapy, Jason really couldn’t play catch well, never mind with a stick.

We see enough major improvements that we have to tell Jason constantly that since Vision Therapy, everything is to be looked at as new and to be tried over. All the things he couldn’t do well in the past must be erased, and he needs to try them again as they come up, because he has new abilities and skills.

Our only regret – that no one told us sooner so that we could have given Jason this 6 years earlier!

- Jason, Age 15 (from his mother)