Vision therapy

One of the areas that costs a lot but helped, especially for John, was Vision Therapy.

Leslie could not read well and John just was not able to see many things. For example, if you asked him to go into a room and find a red ball that was clearly visible, he probably could not have done that. After his evaluation, we were told that his major problems were a narrow field of vision (little peripheral vision), poor depth perception, and poor eye tracking.

Initially, both kids had a form of light therapy where they had to look at a green or amber light in a dark room for about 20 minutes. Then Leslie was given eye exercises which helped her eyes track better and, as a result, her ability to read improved.

John did only light therapy for 6 weeks, then started the eye exercises. We really started seeing improvement fast when he began the exercises. He used to shave and come out of the bathroom with blood all over his neck and face but now, amazingly, he can shave without a nick. He is handwriting has changed, became more legible (less of a scrawl) and he can write on a line now. He can now do simple things—like raking leaves or vacuuming better. He reports that he is much better at video games now—he thinks it is the tracking; he could not find his adversary easily before. He says it is much easier to cross a street now; before he had to really concentrate (understandably). I notice that he is not as awkward probably because he can see where is body is in relation to his environment.

The down side of  vision therapy is that each week we go in for evaluation/therapy, it costs $132 per kid. That's $528 per month because I can only afford to go in every other week.

We see New Horizons Vision Therapy in Waunakee, WI.

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After 5 months of Vision Therapy: John had a progress reading test to in his reading class at MATC. His teacher was amazed! He had gone up four reading levels! She said he was the star of his class as no one had improved that much. Leslie and John both did daily vision therapy at home for about 6 months.