When I asked my son (eleven years old) to write a thank you to his therapist, he wrote, “Thank you for helping me with my vision.  It changed my life.” I think his own words best sum up our vision therapy experience.  The first change in his life was the end of chronic headaches.  Andre use to come home from school on a daily basis, complaining of a headache.  After exploring all other medical possibilities, we were stumped at the cause of the headaches.  Part of our motivation in coming for an eye evaluation was the hope that the source of the headaches was his vision.  The therapy team conveyed to us that this is a common symptom for visual difficulties.  They anticipated that the headaches would end six to eight weeks after therapy started.   As anticipated, Andre’s daily headaches ended after a few months of therapy.

Approximately three months into therapy, Andre and I were discussing the impact of therapy on his vision.  His most significant observation was that he felt more confident.  He felt more confident in school, he felt more confident in sports activities and he felt more comfortable interacting with other people.  Andre has always struggled with making eye contact. It was not until vision therapy that we realized how difficult and uncomfortable it was for him to try to make eye contact.  With the help of a teacher and vision therapy, Andre’s eye contact has improved significantly.  It has helped his social confidence and skills to be able to make eye contact more comfortably.

The most dramatic improvement made through vision therapy was his penmanship.  Andre had always struggled with fine motor skills. We completed two years of private occupational therapy.  A school occupational therapist worked with Andre on a regular basis.  We tried handwriting programs and countless workbooks.  With the aid of vision therapy and a concentrated effort on the part of our therapist to work on his handwriting, we made more progress in six weeks than we had made in six years!  Andre had an aide in the classroom to help him scribe his work.  Six months into therapy, Andre was able to accomplish all his own work.  Achieving this level of independence has been one of Andre’s proudest accomplishments to date.

As he heads to middle school next year, he feels fully prepared for all of the challenges ahead of him.  Vision therapy was a significant monetary and time commitment for our family.  When we chose to take on vision therapy, our hope was to get rid of the headaches and improve Andre’s penmanship.  Not only did we accomplish these goals, but also we gained far more than we ever expected.  We are grateful to Andre’s therapist for “changing his life.”