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

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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!