Fun Facts

In the last two weeks there have been NO blogs. Unfortunately, my computer received a lethal virus, and I have been computer-less for almost two weeks. For the time being I will leave you with these facts from the COVD website:  

How Vision Problems Can Interfere with Learning

• “25% of students in grades K-6 have visual problems that are serious enough to impede learning.”  - American Public Health Association
• "When vision problems go undetected, children almost invariably have trouble reading and doing their schoolwork. They often display fatigue, fidgeting, and frustrations in the classroom—traits that can lead to a misdiagnosis of dyslexia or other learning disabilities.”  - American Optometric Association
• “It is estimated that 80% of children with a learning disability have an undiagnosed vision problem.”  - Vision Council of America
• “Early diagnosis and treatment of children’s vision problems is a necessary component to school readiness and academic learning; and that vision screening is not a substitute for a complete eye and vision evaluation by an eye doctor.  Comprehensive eye and vision examinations ... are important for all children first entering school and regularly throughout their school-aged years to ensure healthy eyes and adequate visual skills essential for successful academic achievement.”  - National PTA Policy Statement 2005, Elements of Comprehensive Health Programs
• "Early testing for vision problems is key to preventing learning disabilities or, in some cases, significant visual impairment in children."  -  Ned Calonge, MD, MPH, Task Force Chairman, Chief Medical Officer and State Epidemiologist at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
• “A three year study of 540 children found that those children who had visual perceptual and eye movement difficulties did poorly on standardized tests.”  - Dr. Lynn Hellerstein, FAAO, FCOVD, Developmental Optometrist and Past President of COVD.

These are great facts to send to friends or family! Pass them along!

It Takes Two

I have wrote several blog post about how to make Vision Therapy fun, and how to incorporate therapy into family time. I am trying to motivate my parents to do the therapy with their children 5-6 times a week. I want to see my students meet their goals! I will do what-ever I have to do to make the process of home therapy easier. I read this article on the COVD website and I thought I should share it with you. Check it out:

It Takes Two

by Dr. Rochelle Mozlin

Today I examined a 9 year old boy with autism.  He had been examined 2 years ago and glasses were prescribed for full-time wear.  But his parents never had the glasses made.  They sought a second opinion and were told he only needed the glasses for reading.  Mom would often read with him and never noticed any difficulties and so decided that he probably didn't need the glasses at all.  Now, two years later, his teacher called home because he was having difficulty seeing anything written on the board unless he walked to the front of the classroom.  So mom brought him back.

This child is VERY hyperopic and astigmatic.  Without lenses, his visual acuity at both distance and near is significantly reduced.  He also has an exotropia (his eye is turned outward) which is much worse when he does not have appropriate lenses.  When I put the lenses on, his vision improved. But he is amblyopic.  Because he has always had blurry vision, he has not developed the ability to see the smaller letters or use his vision effectively.  I expect his vision to improve as he wears the lenses.

I wanted to laugh and cry.  I was happy that I will have a positive impact on this young child's vision and his life!  He will be able to participate much more actively in all his activities.  His autism surely poses other difficulties in his daily life and I am thrilled to eliminate (or at least mitigate) any visual deficiencies.  I am giving him a chance to interact with his world in a much more meaningful way.  But 2 years lost......... what if he had received those glasses 2 years ago?  What opportunities to learn and grow have been lost because he could not see?

It takes two.  I can do my part but I need help!  I need parents too.  I need parents to bring their children in for comprehensive eye examinations.  I need parents to ask questions if they don't understand.  I need parents to comply with treatment plans (even if their children are not happy), I need them to return for follow-up care.

Parents, please help me help your child.  Schedule that exam.   Make sure your child wears the glasses in school.  Call me if you have questions or concerns.  Together we can accomplish so much, but I can't do it alone.

_____________________________________________

This article is great! I can relate on so many levels! It really does take two. We are a team, and I want to help your children, but we are in this together. Help me help your child! Comply with our treatment plans: Do the home therapy, come to the weekly appointments. And you will be just like our success stories shared here.

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!
 

Putting 2012 to Bed

As we are closing up 2012, I feel like there is a lot of great things that have happened this year. From our children reading better, to catching touchdowns, to expanding peripheral awareness, to new office gadgets, to a new website, to this new blog! Here at Optometric Physicians, we have a lot to be thankful for.

Thank you to all for being apart of our journey. You have allowed us to be apart of your families, and I thank you for all your hard work and dedication.




Today I wanted to touch on the most popular blogs this year:

1. Our series on Perceptual Skills:

I.Visual Discrimination

II. Visual Memory

III.Spatial Relations

IV. Form Constancy

V. Sequential Memory

VI. Figure Ground

2. How to Make Vision Therapy Home Exercises Fun! & Fun Home Exercises! Continued....: We all know Home Vision Therapy needs to be fun to help motivate our patients. Those blogs are great resources.   

3. Let Your Children Explore and Play! : I am a big advocate of hands-on-activities, as opposed to electronics like an iPhone/iPad or a Nintendo DS.

4. What are Primative Reflexes? : This is a great subject, and is a very challenging subject to understand, which is why I think it makes the "most popular blog list" this year. For the whole series: What Causes Reflexes to Be Retained?, Retained Reflexes related to Learning Difficulties.

5. Is there correlation between ADD/ADHD and vision problems?: Most of my patients are diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, and since there is a correlation between the two, it intrigues our readers.

6. And finally - Vision Therapy Resources: Who doesn't want to know more about Vision Therapy?! These are great resources that some of my parents loved.

There it is... I have enjoyed blogging and learning more about what I am passionate about - VISION THERAPY! What were your favorite blogs this year?! What would you like me to blog about?

Have a great holiday season! And looking forward to seeing you all in the New Year! 

Our New Gadgets and Gizmos

For a long time now I have been wanting to do a blog on the new cool things that have been brought to our office. As our practice grows we have the opportunity to find more ways to accommodate and help our patients. One way we stay up to date is through technology. Today I am going to talk about two technological ways we are making what we do better!

First up: Sanet Vision Integrator (SVI). This 46” touch screen monitor is designed to improve visual abilities for a wide range of patients with visually-related learning problems, strabismus, amblyopia, and traumatic brain injury (TBI). It is also very effective for sports vision enhancement work with athletes.

The key features that make this “all in one” instrument so useful are the variety of programs and many ways that visual abilities can be enhanced. The SVI instrument actually “speaks”, instructing the patient to respond to verbal commands, improving auditory-visual integration and memory. The SVI can be used to enhance the following visual abilities: Pursuits, saccades, fixation stability, eye-hand coordination, visual reaction time, speed and span of recognition, automaticity, and contrast sensitivity, plus visual and auditory sequencing and memory. In addition it is extremely effective when working with visual acuity improvement in patients with amblyopia, TBI patients with visual field loss, visual-spatial neglect, and visual-vestibular integration problems, and with patients with rhythm, reading, and math problems.

As you can see, it is a great asset to our Vision Therapy Program. Click here for video demonstrations.

Next: Diopsys^® NOVA-VEP. This test called Visual Evoked Potential (VEP) objectively measures the functional responses of the entire visual pathway from the anterior segment of the eye to the visual cortex. By using VEP, the device provides quantitative information to support the interpretation and management of eye and vision deficits, and reports and documents the results of practitioner intervention for tracking patients’ response. It is easy to use, non-invasive, and provides a quick qualitative analysis of the VEP waveform and easy quantitative analysis of the amplitude (strength) and latency (speed) values. We test children six months of age and older, patients with a degenerative process such as glaucoma or multiple sclerosis (MS), or patients following a neurological event like traumatic brain injury (TBI) or stroke in order to help the clinician detect visual deficits such as optic nerve disorders, amblyopia, and other neuro-visual disorders.

In easier terms it is measuring the communication between your eyes and the brain. Isn't that our goal with Vision Therapy?! Now we have a test that shows us the wavelengths of the brain activity through both eyes. This test can also show the effectiveness Vision Therapy has of each patient. WOW!

As you can see these are two tests to be very excited about. Thankful we have the opportunity to provide our patients with the best up-to-date technology.

Lastly, another new thing is Optometric Physicians of Middle Tennessee has a twitter! If you would like to follow click here.

Thanks for all the followers and readers, we appreciate you!