Prior to starting Vision Therapy, I was non-functional and I was losing hope with my recovery. I sustained my first brain injury 7 years ago from a sports-related cause and have since had 20+ other brain injuries. By the time I reached out to Dr. Kim for treatment, I was unable to walk, drive, or talk for normal periods of time. I woke up and fell asleep in pain, my brain fog was constant, and my eye strain was so severe I could barely open my eyes. I was non-functional and list everything from my career, my social life, and my physical activity. Throughout Vision Therapy, Dr. Kim and her team were extremely patient and confident with their treatment plan. It was definitely hard, emotional, and draining at times, but I kept my hope and was always excited to see them every week. It took about 4 months to start seeing changes in my symptoms but I have been progressing ever since. My pain is now just discomfort and my brain fog was cut to a fraction of what it was. I have much more endurance throughout the day, I am able to socialize again, and I am able to walk a little farther each day! I feel less anxious about normal activities and have joy and gratitude in my life again. I am beyond thankful for Dr. Kim and her team who never gave up on me. Overall, my experience with Visualeyes Optometry has been extremely successful and I couldn't be more grateful for such an amazing team!
ES
We take for granted the roll of sight in development of social, physical, emotional development. When vision is impaired, socialization and understanding what is required of may not make "sense" to a kid. They may in fact be labeled weird, or even inaccurately diagnosed, when the remedy was an issue of sight and not a cognitive or social issue after all.
Our child’s maturity has increased over the course of her 1 year Vision Therapy sessions with Dr. Susan Kim and her amazing staff. When she first started here, she would hide under the desks, and regress to toddler like behaviors. When she would decide to leave the cover of the desk, she would interact perhaps awkwardly, in a stand back way watching the response of the technicians and other children in the therapy space before she engaged further.
Once she engaged further, she may not have been sure of the right behavior or words, and often one can see the "immaturity" but the fact that she was given permission to observe and evaluate the appropriateness of her response was encouraging and told us as parents that this was the right center for her Binocular Vision Therapy. The staff accepted her and each session she had with them we saw improvement.
The “play” with the toys in the treatment room has also matured. Her imagination (Theta) was overpoweringly dominant at the onset, however, by the end of her treatment program, her verbal and physical play matured drastically to age appropriate levels.
Prior to Vision Therapy, she would push back emotionally and refuse to do work or check out daydreaming. What they were asking her to do was very difficult for her considering her Binocular Dysfunction, inability to focus, double vision, blur vision, depth perception issues which caused dizziness, nausea, and low confidence. It was never that she could not understand content, it was that her ability to keep track of that content as it changed was nearly impossible. She would go on overload and her understanding of what was being required was not a linear processing as is required in the classroom setting.
These may seem like small changes, however they are happening because the neuronal pathways are changing and new neuronal growth I suspect has happened. These seemingly small changes translated into enormous gains:
- Her language skills have improved. Better flow and level of descriptive words.
- Her ability to keep up academically in a school setting where things are moving faster have also improved beyond measure.
- Her confidence has skyrocketed.
- Her social life has been transformed. She is now “popular” and sought after for play dates, when once she was labeled weird and teased.
- Her coordination has increased 10 fold.
- Her depth perception issues have disappeared.
- Her reading level went from 2nd grade to 9th grade. She has just started 7thgrade.
- Her mathematic strengths are finally showing up in her “grades” and it is spilling over into her skills in science.
- Her emotional resilience has improved and she rarely breaks down in crying fits.
- Improvement in AD/HD related issues.
- She can drown out distractions and focus on tasks better than ever.
- Improved attention & flexibility.
- Her anxiety has reduced.
Anxiety is prevalent when stress enters the picture. Stress becomes more intense when children in learning situations have difficulty due to their need to find their own method after observing that the 'required" method is less effective for them. The longer you wait, the more crippling the anxiety becomes in your child. I wish we would have discovered this sooner.
With attention you want flexibility so that one can choose and implement a range of attention types or styles. When our child first began her sessions here, she did not have access yet to the flexibility required to understand and choose a type of attention shifting that was being asked of her. It happens, it takes time, and Visualeyes has the tools to make it possible for your child if you stick with it. Be religious in having your child execute the online classes and once weekly in office sessions.
- SW
Before Vision Therapy, I had trouble concentrating because words would blend together and I would fall asleep. It took so much energy just to comprehend a paragraph because of the strain, and I'd have to read it over and over. I also had many headaches and would tire easily after school. After taking eye therapy for a few months, I made new friends with my eye therapists and slowly felt less fatigued and was able to concentrate on studying for SAT and have written better essays. I've also felt a difference whenever I skipped a day of eye therapy. Doing it continuously, I noticed that I was able to perform higher in my arts, studies, and even my social life. I now have much more control over my eyes and can diverge and converge my eyes with ease. Thank You! I really recommend Visualeyes Optometry.
L.S.
Dr. Kim, you've made a huge difference in my kid's life.
Two years ago, in 1st grade, my child was reading far behind grade level - at a reading level B or C. Reading exhausted him, caused headaches, and was barely possible.
Two weeks ago, he startled us by bringing home The Penderwicks from the library. It's a level Q chapter book - appropriate for grades 3-7 and well above his "just right" reading level. It's a serious challenge for him. He's been reading it out loud to us, and it's slow going and he struggles. He's been so proud to do it though. He's so proud that he insisted on writing thank you notes to each of you, with a picture of him reading it, so you can see how far he's come. If you haven't gotten yours yet, watch for it: it's on the way.
It's been such slow going, reading this book, that he hadn't finished the first chapter by the time it was due back at the library. Yesterday, he came home from school and proudly announced that he's renewed it and meant to keep going. The patience he's showing astounds us and we're just grateful that somehow he was born that way. The confidence he's showing is due to you.
You sat in IEP meetings. They made a difference. You identified his challenges. It helped us seek out solutions. You supported his hard work to adjust his crazy vision. Now his eye work more like normal eyes. You were patient. You encouraged him. Now he can read.
You've changed his life, and ours, for the better. Drastically. Thank you.
- GV
During our first visit with Dr. Kim, we were very surprised to observe how poorly our son was able to see with his non-dominant eye. It was upsetting to learn that he struggled to process images with that eye, as he had not exhibited any of the typical struggles often seen in patients with poor visual function. However, since starting Vision Therapy, the improvement in his vision has been tremendous. Together with corrective lenses, the Vision Therapy has helped bring his non-dominant eye to near-normal vision, and we are confident that it will contribute to his future success in school, sports and daily activities!
- KG
I experienced many changes after the first few sessions. I was already improving in my reading comprehension and my headaches went away. It was very nice being able to negotiate the amount of work I had outside of appointments because of my busy schedule. The overall experience was great and everyone was so invested in helping me achieve my goals.
- AS
Before Visualeyes I would constantly lose my place when reading and would have a harder time reading out loud. Now, not only am I able to read out loud more confidently and not lose my place when reading, but I have better control of my eyes and improved distance vision. Thank you so much!
- CC