Wow Vision Therapy Blog

As a 4th year Optometry student at Michigan College ofåÊOptometry,åÊI had assumed that the goal of vision therapy was only to target the eyeåÊcoordination skills that our patients have trouble with in the clinic and improve on them to eliminate symptoms or prevent symptoms from arising in the future.åÊ After my rotationåÊhere at Wow Vision Therapy, I have learned that vision therapy is about so much more than just the eyes.

There is a phrase that I heard when I first started here, and I‰Ûªve never forgotten it.åÊ ‰ÛÏIf you can‰Ûªt coordinate your body movements, you can‰Ûªt coordinate your eye movements.‰ÛåÊ I have found this to be so true.åÊ When a patient doesn‰Ûªt have good control over simple body movements, then it is difficult to control the eyes in a coordinated fashion because all of the mind‰Ûªs attention is on controlling the body, not the eyes.

Here at Wow Vision Therapy, we work on not only eye movements but body movements as well.åÊ We do something called ‰ÛÏChapters‰Û which is a series of coordinated body movements that focus on being able to make the upper half of the body move in sync with the lower half of the body.åÊ As the difficulty increases with each Chapter, vision plays a more significant role in the successful completion of them by requiring balance or noticing simultaneous movements between the arms and legs.åÊ Just in the short amount of time I have been here I have seen many children graduate from the program that are less clumsy and are able to ride a 2-wheel bike now when they never could before.åÊ The coordination learned through the combination of vision and movement during the Chapters plays a significant role in this successful outcome.

Also during my time here at Wow Vision Therapy, I discovered that vision therapy can also help eliminate motion sickness!åÊ Motion sickness and how to cope with it is not only related to movement, but it also has a visual aspect to it.åÊ During our ‰ÛÏsee-sick protocol‰Û, patients are taught how to cope with motion by using their vision to help stabilize and balance themselves to eliminate the woozy feeling that excessive motion can cause.åÊ I have suffered from getting car-sick my whole life, and after doing our ‰ÛÏsee-sick protocol‰Û, I was able to study in the car all the way to Pennsylvania and back without even a hint of car-sickness!åÊ I have also had many of my own patients experience a huge improvement in their motion sickness after completing this protocol.

If you or your child is experiencing trouble with coordination, balance or motion sickness, give Wow Vision Therapy a call (if you are in South West Michigan) or contact the College of Optometrists in Vision Development at www.covd.org for a doctor near you.åÊ You may be surprised at how many issues can be corrected and improved with vision therapy!

Erica Oosting

Michigan College of Optometry 4th Year Intern