Vision Therapy Success Story

As you’ll read in the Vision Therapy Success story below, Breanna, Alison and Timothy had a very positive experience with Vision Therapy. Breanna, the patient, calls it “amazing”. Her mother, Alison, refers to it as “a miracle”.

Her father, Timothy, says “All of this would not have been possible without the help of Dr. Collier and her vision therapy team.”

Here is their Vision Therapy Success story in their own words…

Here’s the transcript of the image above vision therapy success story:

A Vision Therapy Success Story

When I first started Vision Therapy, my eyes:

My eyes hurt a lot as I read or even looked at the blackboard, for a long period of time. They would also become dry and red. This would make me lose focus on my schoolwork, to have to stop listening and taking notes to rub my eyes numerous times. It even got to the point where I couldn’t take notes, so my teachers would have to copy them done for me while I just listened.

And now my eyes are:

Not hurting at all if I read or look up at the board. I can now focus and take my notes in class. I don’t have problems with the redness of my eyes or with them getting dry and irritated.

The activities in Vision Therapy were:

The activities in Vision Therapy were fun. They were helpful and cool. Converging and Diverging was fun, your eyes go in, and they move out. You eventually get the to point where you can do it on queue.

Vision Therapy was:

Amazing!

How I feel about Vision Therapy:

Vision Therapy was a blast! I always looked forward to having Dr. Collier come in and say, “Hi.” Leslie was funny and creative, and super nice worked with me a lot on the keeping my eyes to continue to focus. Corinne, also super nice and creative, was the one who taught me to focus and pull my eyes in and then pull out.

What my parents/family/friends think about my Vision Therapy experience:

My parents want to write something:

Vision therapy has quite simply been the most positive thing in Breanna’s life. It’s a miracle. We thought she had ADD all these years; her school thought she had a reading comprehension problem. We didn’t know what to do. A routine eye exam at Westfarms Eye Associates with doctors who are well versed in accommodative infacility proved there was nothing wrong with Bree’s learning capacity. It was her eyes all this time. She was literally crossing her eyes trying to focus on words. When we were first told about her vision focusing problems, we were devastated, but it made total sense. No wonder she wasn’t taking notes in class. No wonder she wasn’t paying attention. She couldn’t see! When Dr. Collier told us her vision could be corrected with the therapy–and that it would only take 5-6 months–we were a little doubtful, but over the course of those months we watched as Bree’s vision as it went from 20-50 to better than 20-20. She is so confident now because she finally feels like she is at the same level as her classmates, can read just as easily as they can, and her grades–they’ve gone from C’s and D’s to A’s and B’s. It’s night and day. Even her teachers could see a visible difference in her attitude and confidence within weeks of the therapy. We can’t thank you enough.–Alison L., Breanna’s mother

Coming from a background in medicine, I have struggled, both professionally and as a parent, to understand what issues were affecting Bree’s reading and comprehension in school and at home. Relying on the experience and training of both her physician and teachers, Bree’s mother and I have gone back and forth between eye doctors, psychologists and family physicians in order to find the appropriate diagnosis. From being told that Bree needs glasses to suggestions that she might have a learning disorder, Bree has endured all types of testing and scrutiny, and as parents her mother and I have run the emotional gauntlet. We knew that Bree did not have ADD or a learning disability, but she was having difficulty focusing, both on the board and on her work. Her glasses were not helping her and she was easily becoming distracted because she could not focus on what was going on. The school insisted that she had a learning disability and her physician was all too willing to prescribe ADD medications. It was not until she had a routine eye exam at Westfarms Eye Associates that she was diagnosed with accommodative infacility. Having never heard of the disorder and after years of back and forth with medical professionals, I was highly skeptical that she could be diagnosed so quickly. What’s more, Dr. Collier felt that vision therapy would help correct the disorder within months and that Bree would not need glasses at all. However, after only two weeks of vision therapy, Bree was already noticing an improvement in school and her mother and I were amazed at her instant improvement in reading comprehension. Within weeks even her teachers saw an improvement in her attention in class and in her grades. Having completed the program, Bree is now doing better than ever. Her grades are the best they have been, she enjoys reading, and her self-esteem has grown. All of this would not have been possible without the help of Dr. Collier and her Vision Therapy team. ~ Timothy L., Breanna’s father

Now I can:

Look forward to the rest of my 8th grade year, and getting reading for high school!

Additional comments:

You have made a huge impact on my life.

Please note: In-office therapy under the direction of a Behavioral Optometrist using prisms, filters and lenses, as used with our patients, is far more effective than home-based therapy.

Read More Vision Therapy Success Stories From Our Patients