Mom Says Vision Therapy Is Worth the Investment

Jane Varakin of Richmond knew that her daughter’s eyesight was 20-20 – Eileen had just had her eyes checked.

Then why did the second-grader avoid reading and tell her mom that things were jumping and moving around the page and looked double?

“I knew she loved to learn but why was she not interested in reading?” Jane said. “She always wanted me to read to her.”

A nurse by trade, Jane investigated her daughter’s symptoms and learned about convergence insufficiency, a condition in which eyes are unable to work together when doing close-up work.

One eye will turn outward instead of inward with the other eye creating double or blurred vision.

Jane also discovered two other things – this condition could be treated with Vision Therapy, and that treatment was available at the Versailles office of Dr. Rick Graebe, a behavioral optometrist.

An exam at Dr. Graebe’s office confirmed Jane’s suspicions – Eileen had convergence insufficiency and trouble with depth perception.

Eileen started a once-a-week program in September that ran through May and included a few minutes of nightly, non-academic homework.

At Dr. Graebe’s office, which looks like a physical therapy office, Eileen moved her body on an exercise ball, wore eye patches and glasses with prisms and worked in structured therapy sessions on eye tracking exercises with the goal of getting her eyes to work in tandem

“She would read charts with little letters and at first she would skip lines. But she improved a lot in her reading,” Jane said.

The program also included light therapy, which helped open up Eileen’s visual pathways to combat her tunnel vision.

Eileen also loves to dance and before Vision Therapy had trouble with directionality.

“If you told her to move left, that was hard for her,” Jane said. “But that has improved too.”

With her reading, spelling and handwriting improved, Eileen enters third grade this school year at Model Lab School in Richmond as a better, more confident student.

“When we’re out, she will say, ‘Look mom. That sign says emergency exit,’” Jane said.

“I almost cried when that happened. She started picking up books and saying ‘I can read this to you.’

“Her self-esteem has gone up a lot. Vision Therapy was really worth the investment. It relieved so much stress on my daughter.”