Several teachers have told me that my daughter is one of the hardest working students they have had. She has always gone to highly rated schools and her teachers have been top notch. My husband and I have read the books, hired the tutors, purchased the learning programs, and joined the online support groups. We have basically tried everything under the sun to help our daughter be a successful learner, but despite our efforts she never progressed like we hoped and expected.
In first grade, we ruled out vision problems as part of the process to obtain Miss A’s IEP (Individulaized Education Program). We were told to go to an Ophthalmologist instead of an Optometrist just to rule out anything that could be affecting her reading. The ophthalmologist not only told us that her vision was 20/20, but also made us feel as if we had wasted her time.
Fast-forward 2 years when Miss A’s counselor noticed her rubbing her red eyes after a long test. We went to a local Optometrist this time. She did need glasses but this was not the bothersome part, the eye doctor noticed that Miss A needed to use her finger to track as she read the letter chart on the wall. She doesn’t specialize in vision problems that can affect school work, but she pointed us in the direction of someone who does.
We went to see Dr. Genia Beasley, who is board certified in Vision Therapy and Vision Rehabilitation. My little Miss A went to several appointments where she received computerized tests to determine visual responsiveness and they mapped her eye tracking capabilities.
During the initial tests, Miss A put goggles on while the team tracked her eye movement as she read a passage. The results showed us that she is unable to read words from left to right as most children do. Her eyes have to scan the page to see what she has read and find her place. She has binocular vision dysfunction.
We also noticed that several times during the passage her eyes were not moving in the same direction. This is called Binocular Fusion Disfunction. Her vision tracking, eye teaming issues and Saccadic Eye Movement inhibit her from being a successful reader. Saccadic Eye Movement is quickly moving from word to word and the end of line to the beginning of the next line. She is unable to follow lines in a passage correctly and cannot keep her place when reading. In addition, her eyes do not always work in sync with each other causing blurry words and sometimes words that “jump” off the page mid-sentence. It takes my child almost triple the time for her to focus on a word as it does her average peer.
When we received this information, we were both relieved and heartbroken. We were relieved to finally have an answer to why my daughter gives it every single thing she’s got and still struggles like no child should. We were relieved to find out that weekly vision therapy will correct these problems and we will be able to get her back on track to becoming a happy student.
Towards the end of testing, the team also recommended a Functional Visual Field Test. Her field was tested for size, perception of motion and response to color. We found out that my daughter has stress-induced reduction sensitivity of her peripheral vision. For her, she only sees things as she would looking through her binoculars (except she’s not seeing things larger). Can you imagine being so stressed your brain only allows your eyes to see only the things immediately in front of you?
Her doctor fixed her peripheral vision in one month using Syntonic Phototherapy, or light therapy, which is the use of different frequencies of color to enhance visual attention and balance the autonomic nervous system, which controls her visual field. We rented equipment to continue this treatment daily for 4 weeks. Before we started she couldn’t hit a pickle ball with her racket very often. After just 3 days, we couldn’t believe the improvement. We actually had her switch rackets just to rule them out. By the time she completed therapy she was hitting 75 percent of the balls hit to her. I’m sold on light therapy. It’s like magic and it gives me so much faith in vision therapy going forward. As you can see below, on her first test she couldn’t even see outside the circle. One month later at the retest, she can see outside the square as shown where they drew the white circle.
Initial Perceptual Field Test 
Black Line Shows Perimeters 
Perceptual Field Test One Month Later
A progress check after only a few weeks of vision therapy showed her right eye was actually starting to track as it should and had shown much improvement. It’s exciting to see our hard work pay off and can’t wait until both eyes are tracking and teaming as they should.
The heartbreaking part of all of this is that we had NO IDEA that she was struggling with these vision problems. We thought we were doing everything right and had looked into everything. I’m honestly very weary about sharing my daughters story on a blog. The fact is that I wish I would have been aware of these vision issues years ago and I want others to know that vision could be a missing puzzle piece in their child’s educational achievement.
Here are some things you can watch out for. – Headaches in forehead or temples – Print blurs after reading short time – Complaints of seeing double – Words move on the page- Head turns as reads across page – Loses place frequently during reading- Needs finger or marker to keep place- Skips lines unknowingly – Repeats letters within words- Omits letters or numbers- Must feel things to get an idea- Confuses left-right directions- Fails to recognize same word in next sentence- Repeatedly confuses words with similar beginnings and endings.
If these items are present, you may want to speak to a specialist in binocular vision. Your child may have 20/20 vision, but other problems with their vision can cause learning struggles. You will also want to chose someone who offers vision therapy. COVD.org (College of Optometrist in Vision Development) can also help you find someone who is fellow certified. My little Miss A. never told us that words swim on the page, probably because she thought what she was seeing was normal. The success stories I have been reading are amazing. I’m anxious to share our success story as well.