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  Treating The Visual Side Of Learning

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Treating The Visual Side Of Learning

Vision Therapy Is A Highly Effective Non-Surgical Treatment

Reporting
Dr. Sean Kenniff
E-mail

If a child is having trouble reading and has been labeled with a learning disability, a parent may want to consider getting his vision checked.

Jadyn Mahra, 9, of Weston makes frequent trips to the eye doctor. His mother began to notice a change in his reading abilities.

"He could read well. He could read much above his grade level, but he didn't have very good fluency," said Paula Mahraj.

"I kept on losing my spot and I was reading really slow," said Jadyn.

When he was diagnosed with dyslexia, that's when his mother started looking for alternatives, which was found with Dr. Aman Sappal of the Sheridan Eye Center in Pembroke Pines.

"Children as well as adults now that are doing frequent computer usage will often complain of having an eye ache, a brow ache, seeing blurry. For parents, they will notice that their children are disinterested in reading."

These are symptoms of focusing and alignment problems. These conditions can only be detected through what is called a vision therapy evaluation.

Once diagnosed, vision therapy can be done in the office or through a computer program you can do at home.

Five to six times a week, 20-30 minutes a day and the doctor says patients will begin to see results.

"If they do the therapy for about 3 to 4 months, there's almost complete resolution to the symptoms," said  Dr. Sappal. 

Since Jadyn started his vision therapy, his schoolwork has improved and his mom is relieved.

"I've been getting higher scores on my tests and I've been reading faster," said Jadyn.

"I think a lot of times people don't realize and they think their kid is just either lazy or you know maybe they have a learning disability. And it could just be that they need this vision therapy, and it's like a little miracle worker," said Paula.

Dr. Sappal says these types of vision problems can begin at age 5 and be detected all the way up to age 65.

Most insurance companies cover the test, some cover the therapy in the doctor's office, but so far, no insurance company is paying for the at-home computer therapy.