Who is reading this blog?

The Nashville Vision Therapy blog has been a great tool for a lot of my patients. My ideas for each blog usually comes from a conversation with one of my students parents. Yes, I always am listening! My hope is that my readers enjoy what I write and your questions are answered. But then I ask, who is reading this blog?

I am able to look at various statistics about our blog's performance. I see the blog post views, and what days people viewed it. But the most fascinating thing to me is people who view our blog are from the not only here in America, but Hong Kong, Australia, United Kingdom, Singapore, Ukraine, South Africa, Belgium, Canada, and India. We are reaching people all across the world. That is just cool to me!

I would love more interaction on my blog which means more comments!

Might I ask: Who are you?  What has brought you to this blog?  What are you most interested in reading about? Do you have any questions? Tell me!

Please use the comments and tell us where you are from and what has brought you to this blog. Thank you Internet  for creating a Vision Therapy community that expands all over the world!

Family Game Night!

Decades ago, families often spent more quality time together. Nowadays I feel like there are significantly more distractions. At our fingertips, we have 300+ channels on television, iPhones, personal computers, and video games. It seems like family time often takes a back seat to the distractions. One way to bring back that quality time is to start a dedicated family game night each week. 

Family game night is important in so many levels. First and foremost, it's quality time with your family. It can also be a learning opportunity. During games your children learn about good sportsmanship, following directions, good communication skills, coordination skills, and perceptual skills. Which brings me to my next point: we can incorporate Vision Therapy into our family game night! Here are some board games you can incorporate:


1. Rory's Story Cubes- This game can develop visual thinking including visualization, visual memory, form perception, pattern recognition, and sequencing.

2. Make 'N' Break- This game can develop spatial and logical skills.

3. Rush Hour/ Rush Hour Jr.- The game can develop memory skills, spatial skills, and problem solving.

4. Scrabble- (One of my all time favorites) This game develops memory and visualization skills. Most definitely builds your vocabulary!

5. Boggle- Another great word game. Improves speed and recognition, and visual memory.

6. Matching Card Games- There are so many great matching card games. This will help develop visual memory skills.

7. Puzzles- Helps children understand that a whole is made of parts, developes hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, builds visual-perception skills. Also develops attention, concentration and thinking skills such as recognizing, remembering, matching, sorting and problem solving. We love puzzles!

8. Connect Four- Helps develop eye-hand coordination skills, visual-perceptual skills, and fine motor skills.

9.  Labyrinth- Helps develop motor skills, concentration, perception, reasoning, and most of all, patience!

10. Jenga - This game helps develop depth perception and eye-hand coordination.

There are TEN great board games to play on family game night. As you can see there are many benefits to setting aside a night each week as family game night. 

If you forget what visual-perception skills are here is the complete series:

I.Visual Discrimination

II. Visual Memory

III.Spatial Relations

IV. Form Constancy

V. Sequential Memory

VI. Figure Ground

2013 is here!

Welcome to 2013! When I was in elementary school, we were asked to draw a picture of what we thought the 2000's were going to look like. I drew a picture of robots on a moving sidewalk with floating cars all around. Maybe I was thinking we would be like The Jetsons... Nonetheless, I feel like 2013 is going to be a great year filled with so many great and positive things, even George Jetson would be impressed.

To start the New Year we always set resolutions. These resolutions are goals we set to better ourselves. So today I am going to ask you to set three New Years Resolutions to improve your eye sight.

No. 1 - Set up your yearly visit with your optometrist. A comprehensive eye exam can serve as an early detector of serious health problems before other symptoms occur. Make your appointment for your annual comprehensive eye exam today! And please remind your friends and family too!
 
No. 2 - Get yourself and the family (yes, even your children) a new pair of sunglasses. Your sunglasses need to be polarized and non glare Ultraviolet (UV) protection. It is a must. Research has shown that exposure to small amounts of UV-B radiation over a period of many years contributes to the development of cataracts, pterygium (tissue growth on the surface of the eye), and can cause macular degeneration (damage to the retina). Stop by Optometric Physicians of Middle Tennessee and get the family and yourself a good pair of sunglasses. 
 
No. 3 - If you are a parent, a teacher, an aunt or uncle, a sister or brother and you know someone that has any of the following symptoms:

• Lazy eye, crossed-eyes, or wandering eyes
• Turn or tilts head to see
• Squinting or covering one eye to see
• Excessive blinking
• Short attention span (diagnosed with ADHD or ADD)
• Daydreaming
• Poor handwriting
• Poor visual/motor skills (hand-eye coordination)
• Frequently drops things or bumps into things
• Omits words while reading
• Reverses words or numbers
• Frequently looses place while reading
• Uses finger to keep place while reading
• Complains of headaches, eyestrain, dizziness or nausea while reading
• Complains of double vision
• Birth injury
• Brain trauma

Please spread the word and help them schedule a Comprehensive Eye Exam. There is a solution to these symptoms! 
 
Making these three vision related New Years resolutions not only changes your life, but you are helping others too. Spread the word and make these three resolutions your top priority.You can schedule your appointments here at Optometric Physicians of Middle Tennessee: 615-386-3036. We would love to serve you! Happy New Year!