MEGAN'S SUCCESS STORY

 Highlighting the Problem

When Megan Johnston was three, her parents noticed a turn in her eye “her eyes were crossing and weren’t aligning properly” says her mother, Colleen. “We tried patching her eye and it wasn't working, it was difficult to patch a toddler’s eye - she was finding it difficult to walk up steps and to do cross-motor activities, difficulty reading and writing in school, she even had to use a yellow highlighter to help her read — so we decided to come to Dr. Hutchens to see what we could do”

Seeing the Plan

At The VDC, vision therapy isn’t just about getting you to see more clearly; we focus on developmental and neuro optometry and look at how your vision system is affecting your everyday life. For Megan, we wanted to improve her visual efficiency and give her the ability to participate confidently in day-to-day activities.

We diagnosed three visual dysfunctions affecting Megan's daily life, particularly with reading, and treated them through:

• Balance beam training to work on spatial awareness

• Using specialized computer games to improve depth perception and localization

• Eye-tracking exercises to help Megan’s ability to align her eyes and develop appropriate eye movements.

• Using specialized lenses and prisms to improve her focusing and eye teaming skills.

• And lots of at-home therapy exercises to ensure Megan’s progress was on track.

“Dr. Hutchens looked at how the visual system affects the whole body,” says mom “The most important thing is that Megan’s self-esteem and confidence has improved by coming to vision therapy.” 

A Better View

“I couldn't ride my scooter or catch a ball in gym class” Megan recalls “but now I can see perfectly straight with my glasses”; “I can make my eyes crossed and uncrossed, which I couldn't do before, I can ride a scooter and my grades are so much higher. Dr Hutchens was very kind and welcoming and funny with all the things she did — she really helped me get through vision therapy.”

The reward comes in seeing a patient like Megan get back on track, that’s the best part of what we do. Seeing Megan read at the same level as her peers, being able to ride her scooter, and participate in everyday activities like a kid should make all of us at the Vision Development Centre love what my job does every day.

“I was just… happy” says Megan, describing her feelings once her vision had improved through therapy and corrective lenses. Towards the end of Megan’s recovery, there was one particular session, where Meghan was practicing a brock string technique without her glasses and she was able to align both her eyes without the use of her glasses. Colleen looked at Meghan and said “ this is the first time I’ve seen both eyes straighten on their own” — safe to say tears were shed that day, by the family and by us.

And we couldn’t be happier to see Megan’s success.

Do you think you could be seeing things a little more clearly? Get in touch with us today to see if Vision Therapy might be the solution for you.