Discovering Vision Therapy Blog

Ben’s Vision Therapy Success Story

 

Ben used to see double.  Not anymore.

A success story from a client at The Vision Therapy Center: My son, Ben (age 7 yrs old), would often tell me he could see double. In jest, I would say, “I can do that too.” But what I wasn’t realizing was Ben was not “making” his eyes see double like I was. When Ben started reading, I noticed his left eye would go out to the left as he read. I still didn’t realize it was a real vision problem. After all he was able to read fine.

One day I decided everybody in our family needed to have an eye exam. We all went to the same optometrist for our appointments. Ben was called in first. The doctor came out and called me and my husband in. He said, “I want you to see what your son’s eyes are doing.” He then proceeded to hold a “blocker” in front of his eye and we could see his eye “go out” time after time.

We then were told about The Vision Therapy Center through our school. We called and made an appointment. The first visit consisted of many eye tests to either confirm or deny what the original doctor noticed. After the exam, we met with Dr. Knueppel. She proceeded to show us Ben’s eye “going out” and also informed us that Ben was seeing double at times and didn’t have good depth perception. Then Dr. Knueppel told us something that our original doctor did not and that was there was something that could be done to help him! She explained to us there are exercises that will help Ben strengthen his eyes and teach him how to manipulate his eyes to do what they are suppose to do and NOT what they want to do.

Dr. Knueppel prescribed nine months of vision therapy. Ben met with a therapist for one hour each week and then he had approximately 20 – 30 minutes of eye exercises assigned to him that he did at home 5 days a week. Quite honestly, some of the exercises looked pretty silly at times, but they actually worked! This is a big commitment for any family, but one we are so grateful we took seriously.

I took Ben in for his 6 month review and exam. Ben took the tests they provided and I was thrilled to learn of his results. Ben was taught how to control the double vision and much to my surprise Ben made a huge improvement in his speed of reading.

At the first exam, Ben was 7 yrs. old and half-way through the 2nd grade. Ben’s speed of reading (not what he was comprehending, but the speed in which his eyes were moving while he was reading) was that of a 1st grader two months into the year. But after 6 months of vision therapy, Ben had completed 2nd grade, was reading at a speed of a 3rd grader, nine months into the year. That was a huge improvement and made for a much happier little boy!!

After completing the nine months of therapy, Ben had made tremendous progress. He was not seeing double anymore, he was able to see in 3-D like the rest of us instead of 2-D, was reading at a much faster pace and was able to control his eyes from “going out.”

After Ben graduated from the nine months of vision therapy, he was given a maintenance assignment. For 3 month, he did a few minutes a day, 5 days a week. This helped him maintain all of his progress. Now Ben is down to just a few minutes a day, 2 times a week to keep his success going.

This took a lot of dedication from not only Ben, but us as parents to make sure the exercises were getting done. I can’t tell you how grateful our family is to Dr. Knueppel and The Vision Therapy Center team! Their dedication to our son’s vision improvements is very much appreciated! Thank you for helping Ben!!

Respectfully,

Ben and Jackie Kasabian Sr., Parents of Ben

This is a success story submitted directly from a client of The Vision Therapy Center. This is a testimonial, and the person submitting the story was not compensated in any way for their contribution.

Posted by   The Vision Therapy Center, Reviewed by Dr. Kellye Knueppel

The content in this post created was written by professional writers and then reviewed and edited for medical accuracy by Dr. Kellye Knueppel of The Vision Therapy Center.   Learn more about Dr. Knueppel's medical background