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

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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!