Concussion Continued

If you have ever experienced a concussion, there are a number of symptoms that relate to the connection between vision function and concussions. These symptoms can include:

• –blurred vision – especially when reading

• –headaches associated with reading

• –double vision

• –eye pain

• –poor reading comprehension

• –light sensitivity

• –frequent loss of place when reading

When having these symptoms, then what?

"For the student athlete, these symptoms can have a huge effect on learning and school performance.  These vision problems can also linger months after the initial pain and headaches associated with the concussion have gone away. The most common causes of these problems are a convergence insufficiency (eyes that don’t work well together at near) and/or accommodative (focusing) insufficiency following the injury.

The good news is that these vision problems respond well to optometric intervention. Treatment usually consists of a combination of glasses for reading and optometric vision therapy.  These treatments allow the student to return to their academic activities much sooner than just waiting for things to clear up on their own."

I also wanted to touch base on a test that can be performed on the sidelines of sports events to make return-to-game decisions. We have heard or seen athletes go back into a game after experiencing a concussion. Long- and short-term effects can be very dangerous.

After a concussion the ability to perform saccadic eye movements (changing gaze) will be impaired. "Saccadic eye movements are very complex and require coordination across a wide network of anatomical structures in the brain. Concussions have immediate impact on the brain’s networking skills. The result is decreased performance on tests of saccadic eye movements, especially subjective procedures that require a verbal response from the athlete.

The King-Devick Test has been used to evaluate the eye movement skills of children, especially those with learning and reading problems. Now, it can be used on the sidelines of sports events to make return-to-game decisions! A decrease in performance from a baseline measurement is a very strong indicator that the athlete has suffered a concussion and should not be allowed to return to the playing field until evaluated by a neurologist."

The King-Devick might look very familiar to most of you that have had your child perform the Perceptual Motor Evaluation here at our office. Take a look at this video:

Please spread the word about the King-Devick Test. It can make a huge difference in a lot of athletes lives. If you or someone you know has recently had a concussion go to your local optometrist and neurologist.

Some of the information was taken from COVD blogs here: 
There's More to Concussions than Meets the Eye
Eye Protect Brain

Concussion

Last week, I blogged about Traumatic Brain Injury. Today, I want to focus on concussions. This is such a hot topic these days. A month ago, PBS Frontline did an investigative piece called, "League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis." If you haven't seen it, watch the full story here. 

Leading up to that there were numerous articles about concussions:
Wall Street Journal
USA Today
New York Times
Time Magazine
National  Geographic


There are a number of symptoms that relate to the connection between vision function and concussions. These symptoms can include:

• –blurred vision – especially when reading

• –headaches associated with reading

• –double vision

• –eye pain

• –poor reading comprehension

• –light sensitivity

• –frequent loss of place when reading

So once a concussed person experiences these symptoms, then what? I will discuss that in our next blog. I will also discuss a screening test that provides an effective way to detect early signs of concussion. Stay tuned! 

Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation

Today we are going to talk about neuro-optometric rehabilitation. This is an individualized treatment regime for patients with visual deficits as a direct result of a brain injury. 

Brain injuries can come in many forms:

• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
• Mild Acquired Brain Injury
• Mild Closed Head Injury
• Post-Concussive Syndrome
• Cervical Trauma Syndrome
• Post Traumatic Vision Syndrome
• Stroke
• Cerebral Palsy
• Cerebral Vascular Accident 

The following is a list of symptoms of visual problems which can result from brain injuries:

• Sensitivity to light, glare sensitivity 
• Blurred Vision
• Reading difficulties; words appear to move
• Comprehension difficulty
• Attention and concentration difficulty
• Memory difficulty
• Double vision
• Aching eyes
• Headaches with visual tasks
• Inability to maintain visual contact
• Reduction or loss of visual field
• Difficulties with eye movements, such as:
  1. Ocular pursuits (eye tracking ability)
  2. Saccadics (shifting gaze quickly from one point to the other)
  3. Accommodative inability (focusing)
  4. Binocular vision (eye alignment, eye teaming)
• Visual field loss

These visual problems can be successfully decreased or eliminated with neuro-optometric rehabilitation. The goal of the therapy is to train healthy parts of the brain to perform the work of the damaged part of the brain. Corrective lenses (such as prism lenses) is another treatment to decrease/ eliminate visual problems.

Here at Optometric Physicians, we want to be able to help our patients regain control and independence in everyday living situations.  Those affected by a TBI should first schedule a comprehensive eye exam. Click on this link for some of our success stories. 

Home Therapy

Being part of a vision therapy program is a lot of hard work. I will be the first to admit it. Our program consists of approximately 30 minutes of one-on-one in-office therapy, one to two times a week. On top of that, we recommend 20-30 minutes of home therapy six times per week. 

Getting my patients to do the therapy at home is such a BIG part of their success. Why is it so important?

Simply said, your visual system is working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. With vision therapy we are looking to change the behavior of your visual system and to do that it is all about repetition. That is the key to being successful. Our goal is to make the visual system automated (which means working on it's own without you having to think about it), and the best way to do that is through repetition.

Doing vision therapy at home can be tough, especially when you have to do it six times per week. But as your child learns the skill they're working on, starts to ingrain the skill, and finally begins integrating that skill into a fully functioning visual system, that makes all the hard work SO worth it.

Seeing your vision therapist one or two times a week for in-office therapy is not enough. You will see better and faster results when therapy is also done at home six times a week for 20-30 minutes. Then you can be another success story!

To close, it takes a team. I will do my part, but we need your help too. Parents, together let's help your child!

 I have also written many blogs about different ways to make therapy fun:

How to Make Vision Therapy Home Exercises Fun!

Fun Home Exercises! Continued.... 

Travel Therapy 

Family Game Night! 

Workin' the Vestibular System

Work that Peripheral Vision 

Vision Therapy Masking Tape Games

 

 

 

 

 

Learning Disabilities Awareness Month

October is Learning Disabilities Awareness month! "While educators may have been taught that vision has nothing to do with learning, COVD is sending the message that vision has everything to do with learning." Check out the article below, you will really enjoy it. Pass it along to your friends and family.

Vision Problems Mistaken for Learning Disabilities: College of Optometrists in Vision Development Observes Learning Disabilities Awareness Month

More articles that I have blogged about that are related to Vision and Learning:

• How are Vision and Learning linked?
• Does your child have bad handwriting?
• My child gets vision screenings at school isn't that good enough?
• Teacher Resources

If you or your child struggles with "top 5 signs" you need to make an appointment with us or your local Optometrist. 

Nashville Vision Therapy
4322 Harding Pike, Suite 214
Nashville, TN 37203
ph. (615) 386-3086

It's a Brain Thing

Coming back from the seminar, I was filled with more knowledge and therapy procedures. I was excited to show my patients some new fun exercises. Today I am going to share some of my notes I  wrote down:

• Eye turn is not the problem- only a symptom.
• Eye turn is not an eye muscle problem- hence why surgery to correct an eye turn is just a cosmetic treatment. 
• Not an eye muscle problem- it is a brain thing
• 3-6 mounts of age is when eye teaming develops
• Eye turn is a binocular vision problem
• Goal in vision therapy is to make the patient a two eyed person
• 83% of the acuity goes back with just passive patching. Passive patching: just putting a patch over "strong eye" to use "weaker eye" for a number of hours without any stimulation. 
• Does your child have a constant head tilt? Head tilt to the left means your right eye is dominant. Head tilt to the right means you are left eye dominant.
• Head tilt compensates for what going on. It helps suppress other eye. 
• The eyes don't tell us what to see. The brain tells your eyes what to look for.
• Sue Barry- does Brock String exercise 5-10 minutes a day. Still!
• With Vision Therapy we try to develop a new neuro-pathway.
• If the visual system is not your child's dominant sense then they touch everything or are easily distracted. Who can relate with this?
• Call the "good/strong eye" the "teaching eye" and the "bad/weaker eye" the "learning eye".   

The is just a tidbit I took away from this past weeks seminar. I defiantly had a lot of "aha" moments. Have you learned anything new recently? Or have any "aha" moments? Share it!  Until next time! Have a great weekend. 

I'm ready to learn!

This weekend I am heading to Detroit for an Advance Vision Therapy Seminar. I will be learning more about Strabismus and Amblyopia. I am hoping to bring back more new VT tools and ideas to help my patients.

Let's talk about what Strabismus! Straight from the COVD website:

Strabismus or crossed eyes, is the inability to point both eyes in the same direction at the same time. One eye may appear to turn in (esotropia), out (exotropia), up (hypertropia), or down (hypotropia). The eye turn may occur constantly or only intermittently. Eye-turning may change from one eye to the other, and may only appear when a person is tired or has done a lot of reading. Strabismus may cause double vision. To avoid seeing double, vision in one eye may be ignored resulting in a lazy eye (amblyopia).


Crossed eyes most often develop in infants and young children, although it can occur in adults. This may also be caused by:

• Inadequate development of eye coordination in childhood
• Excessive farsightedness or differences between the vision in each eye
• Problems with the eye muscles that control eye movement
• Head trauma, stroke, or other general health problems

-----
To repeat, "to avoid seeing double, vision in one eye may be ignored resulting in a lazy eye (amblyopia)." What does that crazy looking word mean?


When the clarity or alignment of the images from the two eyes is very different, or if the child sees double, the brain may begin to ignore the vision in one eye. This can result in amblyopia. The favored eye compensates for the "lazy eye," so the child with amblyopia may not be aware of the problem until the better eye is covered.

Strabismus and Amblyopia are easily confused. But as you can see, there is a BIG difference between the two. I am excited to build more confidence and learn more fun exercises this weekend. Keep you posted! Have a great weekend, and I hope you do some learning this weekend too.

Vision Therapy Masking Tape Games

Happy September! Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend!

When you walk into our therapy room, you will always notice all the tape on the carpet. Here's another fun Vision Therapy game, with a little help from masking tape. It's easy, cheap, and effective!

Whose child is still reversing their b, d, p, q's? Here is a fun thing you can do:

Have your child stand in the middle and call out the letter you want them to hop to! FUN!

If you remember I blogged about balance and I used masking tape for the balance beam. Check it out here: Workin' the Vestibular System

For more ideas, visit What to Expect with a blog post titled "Indoor Family Activities- Just Add Masking Tape." These games work on a perceptual skills, balance, peripheral vision, and eye-hand coordination. That sounds like fun Vision Therapy to me!

Try these games out! I promise it will bring you lots of fun and it's easy clean up! Enjoy!

New School Year is Not the Only Thing New Around Here

I don't know about you, but this year is flying by. A month has passed since Duke has graced this blog!

What have we been up too? A new doctor - Dr. Dale Martin - has joined our team, we opened a new office in Hendersonville, and a lot more. Busy busy busy!

Yes! You heard me, we have a new office in Hendersonville! Though that office isn't offering vision therapy, we provide: Comprehensive Eye Exams, Contact Lenses, Advanced Dry Eye Treatment, and Pediatric Vision Care.

School is also back in session. With the new school year started that means new teachers. Do they know your child is/was in a Vision Therapy program? Do they know about classroom accommodations? Email me, if you need help with communicating with teachers: VT@rdeyes.com.

Keep me posted if you need any assistance with therapy at home and communication with teachers.

Treatment Tools

Meet Duke, an American Pit Bull Terrier. He is going to help us model each treatment lens we use here at Nashville Vision Therapy. Thanks, Duke!

To start us off, Duke is demonstrating his focusing abilities and anticipating a tracking exercises. He gets a little bored of just focusing and following a eyeball, so he decided to show us some fancy treatment tools our office uses during Vision Therapy.


Here we go...

Why is Duke wearing 4 lenses? Great question! These are called accommodative flippers. These lenses are used to improve the flexibility and strength of a patient’s focusing system. We use these with the Hart (letter) Chart, when reading, and when we use a tool called Aperture Rule. There are minus lenses on one side, and plus lenses on the other. The word "flipper" comes in handy because you flip the lenses back and forth while doing certain exercises to improve the focusing system.

Harry Potter is that you? No, it's just Duke wearing prisms! I could go on and on about prisms. We use them all the time, kids think they are so fun!  

"Prisms create total "eye-mind-body” changes and improved perception of depth and space.  Prism produces changes in orientation with corresponding shifts in both eye movement and pelvic positions. They are a valuable tool in breaking down patterns that have developed over time that enable the patient to cope with their visual condition." 

Here is a great article about prisms, which includes examples on how to use prisms in Vision Therapy exercises. Take a look: http://www.oepf.org/sites/default/files/22-5-FOX.pdf.


Duke circa 1970. These red/green (or can use red/blue lenses) lenses help us use both eyes together. Using these red/green lenses, allows us to see if a patient is suppressing the visual input from one eye.

When using these lenses we use a transparent film with red/ green stripes. We place this film over reading materials, hidden pictures, mazes, or letter charts. When doing the exercises you have to use both eyes enable to see the whole image. If you are not using both eyes, parts of the picture will be missing.


Each one of these tools helps the visual system work more efficiently. What do you think? Which lens have you used during therapy, and with what exercises? Have questions? Email us at VT@rdeyes.com.

Work that Peripheral Vision

Hello, readers. Happy Friday! If you remember, last week we talked about peripheral stability. As promised, here are some fun peripheral awareness exercises for home!
 
A couple of weeks ago I discussed building up the vestibular system. One of the exercises I mentioned was reading a letter chart while tossing a beanbag from your right to left hand and back again. This exercise is also great for your peripheral vision! Because you’re reading the letter chart, your central vision will be fixed straight ahead. This means that you will have to rely on your peripheral vision to get the beanbag back and forth. You can also use scarves (or a balloon) in place of beanbags to start, since the beanbags fall faster and will be more difficult.

Thanks to a fellow vision therapist, I have been doing a lot peripheral taps lately! They are a great easy home exercise. They note:

"Peripheral Taps
1.      Place your finger tips near your body facing the student
2.      Without taking their eyes off of you (I put a stick on my nose for children to focus on), have the student tap your fingers with his/her finger tips.
3.      Alternate hands and places around the face.”

Another awesome activity (that works on tracking AND peripheral vision) that I found is described in the following video. This activity would be easy to create at home, and is fun and engaging! Using regular flashlight is just fine.

As Dr. Julie mentioned when children or adults block out peripheral vision which then creates a tunnel vision effect it can cause loss of concentration and/or difficulty driving.

These are fun, easy home exercises to do at home that will greatly improve your peripheral vision. Try them out and let us know how it goes!

Peripheral Stability

Since Autism Awareness month was in April, I have been doing more research on how vision is affected by the diagnosis. As you might remember in this blog,"The goals of treatment may be to help the autistic patient organize visual space and gain peripheral stability so that he or she can better attend to and appreciate central vision and gain more efficient eye coordination and visual information processing."

The main phrase that stood out to me was "peripheral stability." I emailed some fellow Vision Therapist on ways I can incorporate more fun peripheral vision exercises into our treatment.  From there I looked for articles about peripheral vision and found an article by Dr. Gallop, titled "The Peripheral Visual Awareness: The Central Issue". The article had so much great information that I thought I would share a few tidbits that helped me a lot.

"Peripheral vision is the lion’s share of vision and, is also a big part of life. It is involved with detecting and understanding the big picture – the context and changes in our environment. At least visually speaking, it helps to keep us in touch with our relationship to everything with which we share visual space. Peripheral vision is at the heart of awareness of, and response to, the total space volume of our visual environment and all its inhabitants. Without the involvement and guidance of peripheral awareness the fovea would, for the most part, be “lost in space,” not knowing where to turn."

"This may also contribute to attention problems because without sufficient peripheral awareness, the context of visual space is lost and it becomes difficult to distinguish figure from ground. The environment becomes a series of unconnected, unrelated details to be dealt with one at a time – the background is practically non-existent."

"It is important to note that the real importance of peripheral awareness is not in the receiving of information as much as is it is in the response to that information. Knowing what is in our surroundings is important in the context of action for survival. While it is certainly important to know what is going on out there, it is equally important to know what needs to be done and how to go about doing it in response to what is going on out there. Peripheral vision provides an early warning system and is what guides our movements in response."

"Peripheral vision supplies us with information about our relationship to our surroundings. It tells us where we are in relation to people, places and things in our immediate vicinity. It can provide significant information about who they are, what they are doing, and how that may affect us at that moment and in the near future. When functioning comfortably and effectively it can provide accurate information regarding size, shape, direction of movement, and even intent."

"Just as improvements achieved through vision training often transfer into improvements in areas such as problem solving, concentration and self-esteem, improvements in peripheral processing may transfer into more so-called peripheral aspects of our lives."

Our peripheral vision is not something to mess around with. It is an important for our survival! Loved this article! Next week I will gather up some great peripheral vision awareness exercises that you can do at home. 

CNN article

One of my favorite news apps on my phone is the CNN app. I like the quick videos, and articles of the current events happening around the world. I will say, the "Distraction" videos on CNN are always a favorite. Like this one:



While reading some articles, I stumbled upon this: Man: 3-D movie changed my sight for the better. It is about a man who "had poor depth perception. His eyes pointed outward and did not allow him to see, in stereo, a single image with both eyes." One day he went to see Hugo in 3-D and "to his amazement, the characters and scenery in this film jumped out at him in greater stereo vision than he had experienced before." And even after the movie ended, "perception of the real world was enhanced as well. A lamppost jumped out from the background, and the trees, cars and people looked somehow more vivid."

Did the 3-D movie cure his poor depth perception and make his eyes point in the same direction? Read the rest of the article to see what happens! Stereo Sue makes an appearance in the article too!

It was a very interesting article, that I was so excited to read! Has anyone else found any great articles, that you were excited to see that related to Vision Therapy? Pass it along!

Have a happy 4th of July! 

Workin' the Vestibular System

Today's blog is about balance. As you might expect, our visual system play a big role. And when we work our visual systems, our balance/coordination gets better. For more information on that, check out this blog, and this blog.

How can we speed up the process (per se) and incorporate balance either in everyday things or with our Vision Therapy exercises? Lucky you, I am going to give you some fun ideas:

• Put a letter (or shape, picture, number, arrow) chart at eye level and walk heel toe, heel toe forward, and then backward. Basically, walk a straight line while reading a letter chart.

• Walk a straight line while tossing a bean bag (or ball or scarf) from right to left hand.  Take it to the next level and add a letter chart while doing all that!  
• Reading a letter (or shape, picture, number, arrow) chart while bouncing (not too high) on a mini-trampoline.
• While jumping on a mini-trampoline catch bean bags, and different sizes/types of balls. 

• Jump on the mini-trampoline to a beat. Metronomes work great! Crank it up a notch and add a letter chart. Read letters and jump to the beat. Whoa!
• When reading or doing homework, sit on an exercise ball. You will find, that (No. 1) it is very comfortable, (No. 2) helps your attention and (No. 3) works that vestibular system.
• Go to the play ground and use the balance beams. 
• Stand on one foot and read the letter chart. Alternate feet between every 5-10 lines. 
• Balance boards are a great tool: catch bean bags, catch/bounce balls, read the letter chart while balancing!
• Balance boards with an arrow chart: shift your weight on the balance board  in the direction the arrow tells you. Just like the video above! 

 

• Stand on the Balance board while hitting a balloon in the air. Don't let that balloon hit the ground! 
• Wii Fit balance board games!

How is that for fun, fun, fun!!! Give these a try and crank up that home therapy. Make it interactive, and be creative. Have any questions? Email me: VT@rdeyes.com

Skydiving

My fellow teammate has helped me get more organized with my blogs. When looking at the blog scheduled for this week, the subject is "Personal Connection Blog." I wanted to blog about something fun or exciting that I have done and relate it to what I do... Vision Therapy!

Over Memorial Day weekend, I headed south to Mississippi to visit my niece and then couple days later I met up with my in-laws. Don't worry it gets more exciting. I went skydiving. Yes, you heard right, I jumped out of a perfectly functioning airplane.

But don't worry, I did it for a good cause - I jumped out of an airplane to support and to celebrate my mother in-law's 60th birthday. Not only that, I helped her cross out an item off her bucket list. After we safely landed and we calmed our nerves, we talked about the jump. She mentioned that months leading up to the jump, all she visualized (great VT word!) floating in the air and seeing what the birds saw. What she didn't visualize was the process of jumping out of an airplane. As much as my mother-law enjoyed it, she said she would never do it again (case in point with picture down below).

You are probably thinking, how is this going to relate to Vision Therapy? Here's a good quote I found (bold text is my emphasis):



-Any process of personal growth and healing requires us periodically to let go of what we have or of what we know and sit with the anxiety that comes with being in uncharted territory. We come to points where we recognize that what we are doing or clinging to no longer serves us. 

We must let go of what we have that no longer works for us in order to make room for the better and healthier. We can’t wait until the newer and better are here to let go of the old—we must let go and hang out in the space in-between.

It’s like jumping out of an airplane and being in free fall, waiting for the parachute to open. With time and experience, it becomes not so much terrifying as it is exhilarating, and we let go more readily of the old and are more comfortable in the space between, as we wait to discover what comes next.-

When embarking into our Vision Therapy program (uncharted territory), the experience can be terrifying (especially for a child). You have to let go of your normal to-do's and open up room for new to-do's (like home therapy and weekly visits). But with time and experience in the program, you begin to discover a whole new world. 

Closing the School Year

Tis the season for school parties, signing yearbooks and graduation celebrations. Sounds to me like the end of the school year - and final report cards. This can be a relief, or it can bring on frustrations.

How did your child do this year? If your child did poorly, what is the next step? Push them along, summer school, tutoring? There are a lot of options.

Has your child ever had an Comprehensive Eye Exam? If not, a trip to your local optometrist could help come next fall. Why? Check out how vision and learning are linked here.


Does your child have any of these symptoms?

If your child is experiencing some of these symptoms it can cause challenges in the school setting and in everyday life. Don't worry, there is a solution - Vision Therapy! Vision Therapy helps you develop the visual skills necessary for good vision. We use optical devices and exercises to change the way that the brain uses the eyes in order to improve visual skills. For our success stories, check them out here.

Don't wait any longer, and get your child scheduled for an Comprehensive Eye exam. During the dog days of summer, it is a great time to prepare for the new school year. If you have any questions, call: (615) 386-3036 or email: VT@rdeyes.com.

Wii Fit

It’s new equipment time at the office again!

Our most recent VT addition might surprise you—it’s a Wii Fit!
I’m still learning all the in and outs of the new programs that the Wii provides us with here, but what from what I’ve seen so far, this is a fantastic addition to our therapy program!

Many of the Wii Fit programs emphasize the importance of balance to good vision. I’ll explain the link between the vestibular (relating to balance) and visual system in more detail in a future blog, but the key point is that there IS a relationship between the two systems. Several of the Wii activities require the player to stand on the Wii Balance Board. By shifting your weight on the board, you can move a cross on the screen. The goal is to keep that cross in the middle of a target on the screen, while performing other visual tasks at the same time. It takes practice!

Some ways that you can incorporate this same type of thing at home? Well, if you have a Wii Fit, you can do a ton of balancing games in your very own home! No Wii Fit? No problem! Things as simple as doing home exercises while standing on one foot work on the connection between the vestibular and visual systems. Balance beams at playgrounds are another way to beef up that connection—but be careful! Be sure to mix it up—you don’t want to be staring at a TV screen all day!

I’ll keep you updated as we get more into depth with all of the new features, but until then, play on!

It is Library Time

This week, I have had a lot my parents talk about how they took their children to the library. That inspired me to write about how the library is a great resource!

This quote sums it up great:

By providing a wide range of material and activities, public libraries provide an opportunity for children to experience the enjoyment of reading and the excitement of discovering knowledge and works of imagination. The Public Library Service – IFLA/UNES CO Guidelines for development, 2001

My favorite thing about this quote is how one of the guidelines for the Public Library, is to expand a child's imagination! I believe that imagination goes hand-in-hand with visualization. What's not to like about that! I wrote about how Visualization is so important in learning.

This week, go the library and check out some Magic Eye Books! The book are know as "aerobics for the eyes." And it is said that they improve vision, relax the body and calm the mind! These books will help you focus your eyes together to see a 3D image pop. It is fun!

Support your local library and let your children's imagination run wild!

Click the link to see what's going on at the Nashville Public Library.

Pollen, Pollen, Pollen! It's Everywhere!

It was a gorgeous weekend. Did you get to play catch with your children this past week? I played ball with my dog, Duke at Centennial park this weekend, and he loved every minute!

Being outside these past couple weeks has caused many patients to come into our office with itchy, red eyes and swollen eyelids, with lots of watering to go with it. Any of those symptoms sound familiar? I bet, because it's allergy season!

Did you know? Nashville is ranked 36th in the Allergy Capitals for 2013. Check it out: Spring Allergy Chart

Also if you are curious about the activity of pollen throughout America check out this website: The Weather Channel

Very interesting! How can this information help us? One, it shows we are not alone! Two, it shows us we have to be more cautious during this season. It illustrates the many allergens in the air which are causing those red, itchy, watery eyes.

Feeling overwhelmed by all this allergy news? Don't worry, there are many solutions!

The first treatment is avoiding it! To alleviate allergy symptoms, stay inside with the air conditioner on. Make sure you use high quality furnace filters that trap common allergens and replace the filters frequently.

If outdoors activities are more your style, make sure to wear wrap-around sunglasses to help shield you eyes from the many allergens.

Another option is medication. Some over-the-counter eye drops are great choices to relieve allergy symptoms. Call us 615-386-3036 or email us at vt@rdeyes.com if you would like guidance on which eye drops would be the best fit for you.  If symptoms persist even after given the recommended drops, please make an appointment with us!

A special note to all the contact lens wearers out there: cleaning your contacts becomes even more important during this time. Excess airborne allergens can get on your lenses and cause discomfort. If you wear contacts and would like to find an eye-drop to relieve your allergy symptoms, please contact our office. Some drops can discolor or damage certain lenses, and we want to keep you comfortable AND seeing well!

Let's all protect our eyes during these season! We can help! 

Spring has arrived!

Warmer weather has arrived! It's that time to let you children go outside to play and explore! Today we are going to talk about catching and throwing. We are going to talk about why it is important!

Growing up, I played softball.  I never understood the importance of playing softball, I just knew it was fun and I loved being part of a team.  Little did I know just playing catch was building up my visual system.

Here's why playing catch is important: First and foremost while throwing and catching we are building our visual skills. It can also help us detect visual problems.

Many times as I am talking with our patients' parents, aside from asking about school performance I ask, "Do they like to play sports?" or, "How are they with catching?" Most of parents say, "They hate sports, and are not very good at catching." Bingo! That tells me that their visual system needs to learn to work in a different way to accomplish the task.

In a previous blog about Sports Therapy, I wrote about sports and how they have different visual demands. Check it out:

• Passing/shooting aim (depth perception and eye/hand coordination)
• Improved defensive and offensive awareness (peripheral vision)
• Enhanced reaction time (eye/hand coordination)
• Improved hitting in baseball (tracking and depth perception)
• Improved fielding (tracking and depth perception)

All these visual demands require good eye teaming and focusing ability. If you are lacking either skill, catching will be very difficult.

Starting this weekend, go out and play ball with your children! It will strengthen their visual skills, help their eyes (and brain) learn to refocus and work together.

If you find that your child is having difficulty catching, it is time for a Comprehensive Evaluation here at Optometric Physicians.

April is Autism Awareness Month

Signs of Autism: PSA Provides Parents with a New Look

College of Optometrists in Vision Development Release PSA on Autism & Vision

 

Lack of eye contact, staring at spinning objects or light, fleeting peripheral glances, side viewing, and difficulty attending visually are behaviors typically associated with autism.  Yet these can also be signs that there is a visual component to your child’s challenges.  This April, the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD) is participating in Autism Awareness Month and releasing a Public Service Announcement to help educate parents on the visual component to Autism.

As COVD President, Dr. David Damari notes, “Visual problems are very common in individuals with autism. Children on the autism spectrum often have eye coordination and eye movement disorders. For example, when asked to follow an object with their eyes, they usually do not look directly at the object. Instead, they will scan or look off to the side of the object. They might also have difficulty maintaining visual attention. At least one study suggests that more than 20% of those with autism have strabismus (eye turn) and 10% have amblyopia (lazy eye). Other studies support this high incidence of functional vision problems as well.”

Most people don’t realize our eyes are actually part of the brain. So it stands to reason that if someone has a neurological disorder that impacts the brain, their vision would be compromised in some way.  Children with ASD and other neurological disorders don’t complain verbally when their world doesn’t look right; they show us with their behavior.  When vision disorders are treated, one can see improvement in the child’s behavior and how he interacts with the world.

Here is one example of how a child’s behavior changed dramatically once the vision problem was treated.  As a pediatrician, Zach’s mother was aware of the symptoms of autism. While he had many symptoms of autism, he did not meet enough criteria for that diagnosis.  It wasn’t until she took him to a developmental optometrist that she understood how an undiagnosed vision problem could impact his quality of life.

Dr. Janna Jennings shares, “Zach begged me to bring him a loaded gun so he could shoot himself in the head … Since he started wearing the bifocals prescribed by the developmental optometrist a little over two years ago, he has never said another suicidal thing again. After a few months of vision therapy, he stopped saying he was stupid.”  While it took more than bifocals and vision therapy to help Zach fully recover, you can see the impact bifocals and vision therapy can make when there is a visual component to a child’s challenges.

“For this April’s observance of Autism Awareness month,” Damari continues, “we invite everyone to take a few minutes to view our Public Service Announcements and share them with your friends and relatives.”



Please contact us at 615-386-3036 or VT@rdeyes.com to learn more about how vision disorders can impact a child with ASD. 

Tell Your World

Want to tell the world about Vision Therapy? Start by telling YOUR world!

How did you find out about vision therapy?  Chances are you learned of it through a friend, a teacher, or an optometrist who has experienced the success of vision therapy, and wants to help spread the word.

This word-of-mouth is the most effective way to educate people about vision therapy.  It’s also the most critical, as many people have never heard of vision therapy, even though it could have a transformative effect on their lives.

The first step toward telling the world is to have people like you tell your world.  Help us by reaching out to your friends, family, schools, doctors and community.

Share through Social Media

• Spread the word to your Facebook connections.

Become a fan of Nashville Vision Therapy and then “Like” and/or comment on our articles.  Every week, we’ll post an informative article – please make sure you “Like” it and/or comment on it to pass it along to your friends.

• Tweet about us.

Follow us on Twitter and retweet our stories to your followers.

• Email our information.

Email our Vision Therapy Packet to your friends. Here is some sample email copy:

_____

Hi – I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but ___ recently underwent vision therapy, and the results have been amazing.  (Feel free to add details.)  I was surprised by how many people didn’t realize what vision therapy was. 

In fact, 1 in 4 children has an undetected vision problem that can impair their ability to learn. 

If your child has any of the following symptoms, they may have a vision problem:
• Struggles with school
• Can’t concentrate
• Frequent headaches
• Doesn’t like to read
• Has double vision
• Has problems playing catch or is overly clumsy

For more information, you can also visit Nashville Vision Therapy’s website at www.rdeyes.com/vision-therapy.

_________

Now VT World, go share your stories! Ready..... GO!

At Any Age

Last year I wrote a blog about Susan Barry. If you remember she was born "cross-eyed", and she saw her life in only two dimension. Later in life she saw a Developmental Optometrist and began vision therapy. At age 48 (yes, 48!) she started to see life in 3D!

Last October she was interviewed by NPR for NOVA web series called, "The Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers." I thought this was great video because Susan Barry never gave up despite what everyone was telling her. Also her story teaches us a great lesson: That with hard work and no matter what the age we are we can do anything! 

Playing to see

One thing that is important to understand about vision is that proper vision is a learned skill, just like balance in the rest of the body, or language. Visual development is linked closely to fine and gross motor development and cognitive development, so when you provide good opportunities for a child to work on visual development, you enhance their entire development.

How do you promote good visual development? Play! When children are out interacting with their environment, they are learning important visual lessons—how to judge the distance from other objects in space to themselves, for example. If you want some specific ideas on how to incorporate visual development into family activities, check out the Family Game Night blog. 

Keep in mind that motor development and visual development are interrelated, so delays in one tend to affect the other. Keeping children active and exploring new environments will foster good motor and visual development! Stay tuned for more, and as always, feel free to comment or contact us via email or phone if you have any questions!

Fashionable patching? It can be done!

We are pleased to announce that we will be offering spot patches in contact lens form and special sport tint lenses! What are these you ask?

Spot Patch Contact Lens

The spot patch is for patients that have to wear a patch for extended periods of time.These lenses have a black spot in the middle that mimics a pupil, but is a bit larger. That spot blocks light to the pupil, thus effectively "patching" the eye in which the contact is worn. If you or your child wear their patch for more than an hour, the spot patch contact lens would be a great option!

Many people (especially teenagers) object to the patch for cosmetic reasons. Especially for patients who need to patch for long periods of time, a pirate-style patch is obvious and embarrassing.



As with any contact lenses, it's important to consider whether a spot patch lens is the right choice for you or the vision therapy patient in your life. Contact lenses require consistent care in the form of cleaning, appropriate storage, and correct insertion/removal of lens. Another consideration: contacts are small and easy to lose! However, a patch contact lens can be an excellent choice for the responsible patient.

Sport Tint Lenses

As you might imagine, sport tint lenses come in a variety of tints that can help enhance game play. For example, a gray-green tint may help golfers better differentiate distance on a golf course, while an amber tint helps block high amounts of blue light to heighten contrast and visual acuity, which is especially helpful in improving contrast on grass and against blue skies.

Questions about how patch or sport tint contact lenses can work for you? Get in touch with us! We'll be happy to answer any questions you might have!

Hope everyone has a WONDERFUL weekend!

VT from an Insider

Today, we have a special treat.... a guest blogger. I think you are really going to enjoy reading her perspective of Vision Therapy. Take a look:

Hello all! I’m a Vision Therapist in training here at Nashville Vision Therapy at Optometric Physicians of Middle Tennessee, and I’m excited to be entering such an interesting profession.

In addition to studying vision therapy (VT) and training to be a VT assistant, I have recently enrolled as a vision therapy patient! So for my first post to our VT blog, I’d like to briefly outline what the experience of vision therapy is like from a patient’s perspective, which may help facilitate conversation with a loved VT patient in your own life. 

Vision Therapy can be a sensitive subject

Remember that while it’s absolutely true that visual-system insufficiencies in no way reflect a person’s intelligence or intellect, a VT patient might have a difficult time keeping that in mind. Often there is a negative connotation with the word “therapy,” and patients feel that they are not measuring up to “normal standards,” which may cause embarrassment. As this blog has outlined, candidates for vision therapy often have visual difficulties that have impacted scholastic and/or physical achievements, and patients may feel sensitive about their inability to perform at the level that their peers can. It’s important to recognize that visual difficulties are a legitimate medical issue, and are in no way the fault of the patient. Keep a positive attitude about a patient’s progress, and openly address any negativity or embarrassment with compassion. Understanding and support, in addition to reinforcing the fact that visual difficulties are not a failing of the patient’s mental faculties, will help bolster confidence and make vision therapy even more effective.

Vision therapy can be HARD

Carving out half an hour a day to do anything in our busy lives is difficult. It can be especially hard to set aside time to do something uncomfortable or unpleasant. VT can be a bit like hitting the gym after a long break from your regular work-out routine, or beginning a new form of exercise, like dance, to which your body is not yet accustomed. Vision therapy asks the eyes to perform in ways that they are not used to doing, and there is physical effort exerted to complete the exercises. While the benefits of vision therapy certainly outweigh any discomfort, recognizing the effort that completing vision therapy requires can be very validating for the patient, and can be great encouragement to continue. Just a simple “I know that this can be hard or uncomfortable for you, and I’m so proud that you keep doing your best,” can influence a patient to, well, keep doing their best!

Vision therapy can be lonely

It might be difficult for a patient to describe how he/she sees the world, or it might be hard for a parent or a loved one to understand their description. In any case, knowing that they see differently from most people can make a patient feel a bit isolated. One way to combat that feeling is to be very active in your loved one’s daily therapy. Helping them with tracking, checking their accuracy on activities that ask them to read letters or numbers, or just being present and attentive while they do their therapy every day does WONDERS for the effectiveness of VT. Your involvement can help the patient stay focused, feel supported, and feel encouraged if they are having difficulties. Cheerful, positive involvement every day can turn vision therapy into an excellent time to bond and demonstrate love and support.

Vision therapy can be fun!

There have been (and will continue to be!) many blog posts already that illustrate wonderful ways to have fun with vision therapy. It may even be a great way to set aside time for the whole family to be involved in one activity together (e.g. playing a vision-friendly game). The more involvement and outside support a patient has, the more likely they are to complete daily exercises, and the more effective treatment will be!

So to wrap up, it’s important to keep in mind that any type of therapy can be physically and emotionally taxing, and the best things you can do to help out your loved one in vision therapy are:

• Keep open and honest communication, and offer support and encouragement when necessary
• Be involved!
• Remind yourself (and your loved one) that there is a BIG payoff for everyone’s hard work and dedication!

I’m looking forward to learning and sharing more over the next months, and feel free to get in touch with us with any questions or comments about the blogs we post!