We all know how important a good diet is for all of us. A few weeks ago we wrote about the importance of the Omega-3 Fatty Acids and now we just stumbled upon this very interesting article. It tells the story of a mother who changed the diet of her son and had very good results with reducing his ADHD through the dietary changes. By Colleen Kimmett STAT May 5, 2017 Dr. Rebecca Carey admits to being a little embarrassed about what her son, Mark, eats every day. Hamburger patties for breakfast, or bacon. A pack of raisins and a cookie for lunch; a turkey and cheese sandwich “if I’m lucky,” says Carey, but it usually comes back home. His favorite dinner is fish cakes and pasta, but all vegetables remain firmly untouched. ‘I just felt in my heart of hearts there had to be a better way.’ It’s the kind of diet — low in fruits and vegetables, high in carbs — that a doctor like herself might caution against. But it’s also low in milk, sugar, and artificial food additives — all things Carey believes worsen 10-year-old Mark’s attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, symptoms. Twice a day, in the morning at their home in Newburgh, Ind., and from the school nurse at lunch, he takes a vitamin and mineral supplement, which helps make up for the lack of veggies. It’s been six months on this diet, which Carey researched herself and tested out on Mark, and in that time he has transitioned off his ADHD medication. It wasn’t all smooth sailing; there were fights in the candy section of the grocery store, and Carey struggled to find quick, high-protein breakfasts. “But honestly, I would never go back,” she said. Carey is not the only one who’s trying this approach. Medication and therapy remain the most effective treatments for ADHD. But driven by concerns about the short- and long-term side effects of psychiatric medications on children, some parents are looking for ways to keep their kids on lower doses of the drugs, or to quit the drugs entirely. But addressing ADHD symptoms by changing diet can be a minefield. For one thing, while some diet interventions have scientific evidence to back them up, others don’t — and even the ones that do only seem effective for a subset of kids. Diet tweaks are oftentimes pretty harmless to try, but not universally so. And most pediatricians aren’t nearly as familiar with these approaches as they are with conventional medication. So amid a lot of confusing and contradictory information on the internet, and a big nutrition knowledge gap in the medical system, parents at their wits’ end are mapping out their own treatment plans through trial and error over the dinner table. Medication and Side Effects As of 2011, the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show, at least 6.4 million children in the US had been diagnosed with ADHD. Only about 6 percent are taking medication for the condition. The vast majority, then, are doing something else — perhaps counseling, or other forms of treatment, or nothing at all. One analysis found omega-3 supplements seemed to help with ADHD symptoms. The most common types of drug used for ADHD are methylphenidate and amphetamine, both stimulants that work on the central nervous system, sold under brand names Ritalin and Adderall. These drugs are considered the most effective ADHD treatment. Less is known, however, about the drugs’ long-term effects. Common side effects include loss of appetite, trouble sleeping, and anxiousness. Those side effects became a problem for Mark soon after he was first diagnosed with ADHD in kindergarten. At home, he’d always been a sensitive, irritable child, but in the classroom he started having “freakouts,” said Carey: throwing things, hiding under his desk, biting other students. Carey’s pediatrician put Mark through a behavioral test, found he measured high on the ADHD spectrum, and prescribed him behavioral therapy and Concerta, another common brand of methylphenidate. Carey was uncomfortable with the medication from the beginning. It became a constant fight to get Mark to eat; he shedded weight, and couldn’t fall asleep at night. Carey had a “gnawing feeling” that he’d have to always be on the drug. And it wasn’t helping his symptoms — instead, he seemed to be getting worse. After a year, his psychiatrist thought he was showing signs of bipolar disorder, and prescribed medication for that. “I just felt in my heart of hearts there had to be a better way,” said Carey. As a physician specializing in gastrointestinal disease, Carey had seen diet do tremendous things for her own patients. Mark’s diagnoses got her thinking about nutrition’s role in the brain, and she started to chart her own course of research and experimentation. Weighing Pros and Cons Dietary interventions tend to be relatively low-risk — but the evidence base for most of them, in terms of improving ADHD symptoms, is still small. To try to balance those factors against one another, a group of specialists in child and adolescent psychiatry at Ohio State University in 2011 devised what they call the SECS vs. RUDE test. Looking at the scientific literature surrounding 15 different dietary or nutritional interventions, they asked: Are they Safe, Easy, Cheap, and Sensible; or Risky, Unrealistic, Difficult, and Expensive? “SECS doesn’t need as much evidence for someone to try it on an individual basis,” said Dr. L. Eugene Arnold, a physician at Ohio State’s medical center who specializes in childhood ADHD and autism and who coauthored the 2011 study. “You want more evidence before you invest a lot of money or undertake something risky.” Delaying “standard treatment” — medication and behavioral therapy — in favor of alternative approaches can be risky if it means symptoms go untreated, wrote Arnold and coauthors in their review. If a treatment doesn’t work, there is also the loss of family resources, including time and money, to consider. Some of the things their analysis found that fall under the SECS category are fatty acid supplements, specifically omega-3 supplements, which seem to improve ADHD symptoms. Arnold and coauthors looked at five randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trials (the gold standard of clinical research) that tested combinations of fatty acids on ADHD symptoms, in both children and adults. Four had a statistically significant positive effect on symptoms. Omega-3 fatty acids, said Arnold, show “small but significant benefits,” and as long as these supplements are low in mercury, it makes sense to try. Other interventions, however — like homeopathic and herbal treatments — were both uncertain and potentially risky, the analysis found. A supplement with less evidence, but which still passes the SECS test, is the one that Mark Carey takes. Called EMPowerplus, the supplement contains 36 different vitamins and minerals, and is marketed to help with psychiatric disorders, including bipolar disorder, ADHD, and depression. But only one of the studies done on the pill was placebo-controlled and double-blinded. It showed a reduction in ADHD symptoms in adults. More research is needed on EMPowerplus and similar broad-spectrum micronutrient supplements before conclusions about their effectiveness can be made, Arnold said. Eliminating Additives, Foods More difficult interventions tend to be the ones that eliminate whole classes of foods. Elimination diets involve taking foods out of the diet — one of the first iterations of which, for hyperactivity, was the Feingold Diet. Developed back in the 1970s, the Feingold Diet focused on the link between artificial colors and flavorings and ADHD. Research since then has supported a link. A 2004 meta-analysis of only the gold standard of studies — double-blind and placebo controlled — concluded that artificial food colorings increase hyperactivity in kids with ADHD. And another 2004 study found that kids even without a hyperactive disorder experience behavioral effects of colorings. Preschoolers given a drink with artificial coloring were rated as more hyperactive by their parents than those given a naturally colored placebo. (The study was blinded, so parents didn’t know which their kids received.) Lidy Pelsser, a researcher at the Netherlands ADHD research center, led a trial in 2009 in which 100 families of children with ADHD were recruited to take part in a five-week “few-foods” experiment. Half were instructed to keep their kids on a healthy diet, and half were instructed to give their children only “turkey, rice, some vegetables, and water — and that’s it,” said Pelsser. Of the 41 families who completed the few-foods diet, 32 responded positively, with 60 to 70 percent improvements on ADHD tests compared to when they’d started. Pelsser described this approach not as a cure, but as a “diagnostic tool” that is going to have different results depending on the child. If there’s no improvement in behavior after five weeks, “the child is allowed to eat everything again and medication would be appropriate,” she said. If the child improves significantly, then the parents can start adding foods back in slowly and one at a time to figure out which may be triggers. She warned that this approach is “aggravating.” It is low-risk, but also difficult for families. When it works, it seems to work really well, said Pelsser, and families are increasingly willing to try. “What I see is more awareness in parents that they do not want to give their medication and they are desperately looking for other ways to help their child.” A 2014 review estimated that a strict elimination diet may have a 10 to 30 percent chance of showing symptom improvements for ADHD. Arnold also pointed out that these approaches don’t have to replace medication. “We know that behavioral treatments tend to enhance the effects of medication, so that the patient can respond to a lower dose,” said Arnold. “There’s no reason to believe that wouldn’t work the same way with diet and nutrition.” Parents Helping Parents Although diet is widely promoted by doctors as an important lifestyle factor in managing ADHD, along with exercise, routine, and good sleep habits, the acceptance of diet and nutrition as an effective primary treatment is still very “grassroots” within the medical community, according to Dr. Anna Esparham, a Kansas-based pediatrician and member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’s integrative health unit. Carey recalls a feeling of isolation. “I was so despondent about where Mark was and despondent about the treatment options for him that I felt like I couldn’t be the only one,” she said. So in September 2016, she started a support group for other parents like her who felt like they were struggling outside the mainstream. The first meetings were held at her church — “I didn’t want it affiliated with anything, I just wanted to start it in the local community,” she said — but after six months the group had grown large enough and was taking up enough of Carey’s time that she needed help. She brought it to the medical director at St. Mary’s hospital, in Evansville, Ind., where Carey works, and now the hospital hosts the group, which draws about 30 people to its meetings. Each week a different speaker comes to talk about topics that the parents indicated they were interested in in a poll at the beginning — things like vision therapy, curbing screen time, and a behavioral therapy called the “nurtured heart” approach. Carey acknowledges that these things “might not be mainstream or have lots of randomized control trials behind them,” but she figured parents — including herself — deserved to have a place could openly discuss alternatives to the status quo. Ideally, someday, that place could also be the doctor’s office. Esparham thinks a big part of the reason parents and providers don’t discuss diet interventions for ADHD is a general ignorance of nutrition in the medical field. “A lot of doctors do not know how to give nutritional advice because they didn’t get in school, in residency, in training,” said Esparham. Pelsser, the Dutch researcher, thinks it might take more than just education — it might take a perspective shift as well. “In the Netherlands as well as the United States there is a lot of skepticism about the effect of food on ADHD, despite the research,” she said. “I think it’s difficult to accept that things could be different from what we have been thinking all the time. It takes courage to say, well, after all, we may be wrong.” This story was originally published by STAT, an online publication of Boston Globe Media that covers health, medicine, and scientific discovery. We have copied it from the KQED Science website. #brain #ADHD #nutrition #children

Messy handwriting can be contributed to many factors: Decreased hand strength, visual motor difficulty, motor planning issues, visual memory difficulties, or impaired proprioception. When children have difficulties with guiding the movements that are required for drawing or writing letters in a coordinated way this then results in messy, smudged or illegible handwriting. Proprioceptive activities allow the muscles to "wake up" under heavy pressure. Moving against resistance by pushing or pulling gives the muscles and joints an opportunity to modulate pressure. Resistive activities before and during a handwriting task can be beneficial for children who press hard on their writing tools. ​​How to use the stress ball when writing When a child is pressing too hard with the pencil or pen, give him or her a stress ball in the other/supporting hand. Tell them to squeeze it while they write with the other hand. This strategy helps children to equalize the pressure between the two sides of the body. What else are stress balls useful for? There are so many fun ways to use a stress ball! Here are some suggestions Stressed? Use it to relieve stress by squeezing it. Fidgety? Keep the hands busy so you can sit still... squish and squeeze the ball (it might be a little noisy). Writing by hand? Do some warm-ups before handwriting – rub the stres ball between your hands to wake up the small muscles and get them ready to write. Foot massage? Place it under your foot and roll it back and forth to work out any small muscle cramps in the foot (alert – this is some serious sensory input!). Coordination skills! Stress balls make excellent juggling balls. Challenge your balance! Try to stand on one foot and roll the stress ball back and forth with the other foot. Then kick it to a friend and wait for the ball to be sent back. So 'stress balls' are more than a cool 'toy' to have and they are also not just for stressed or fidgety people. They bring great benefits too! This is why we encourage everyone to 'play' with them as much as possible! #ADHD #reflexes #OrthovisionCentre #sensorysystems #school #children

Many of my clients know that I travel to different places quite often. Naturally, some of these travels are of personal nature, but I am 'out of town' more frequently for congresses. In the 10 years since opening Orthovision, my team of Vision Therapists and I have supported thousands of children and adults to obtain better vision. As a result, I am often invited to be a speaker at Symposiums or International Ophthalmic and Orthoptic Conferences. In last 15 months, I have been an invited faculty at the Orthoptic d.e.c.o.d.e.d. in Madurai (India), organised by the Aravind Eye Care System, that was very well attended. I would suggest seeing this video to learn more about the Aravind Eye Care System. In June 2016, I was an invited speaker at the International Council of Paediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (IPOSC) and was talking about the rare form of strabismus that was corrected non-surgically at Orthovision. In December 2016 I was again an invited faculty at the American Academy of Paediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus to present how certain Orthoptic techniques could enhance binocular vision - the use of both eyes together - and enhance learning as well as attention in children with lazy eye. After speaking at many conferences, I am thankful that Orthoptic Vision Therapy is obtaining its deserved position as a treatment modality in visual eye-care. Numerous participants of these conferences are very interested and happy to discuss what we do at Orthovision. In addition to that, new friendships are formed at these conferences that are extremely valuable for the support of our clients. This June, I will be speaking at the International Orthoptics Association Symposium in Lisbon - the topic of the symposium is '50 years of Orthoptics: Past, Present and Future Directions'. #InternationalOrthopticAssociation #OphthalmicConference

That is what a boy said during the assessment of his functional vision at Orthovision. He said that this was making him tired and he would lose focus, that he could not remember things and his working memory was poor. Educators and the parents were focused on numerous other symptoms, but then we got to the cause of all these difficulties: His focusing and eye-teaming abilities were really underdeveloped and no-one was paying attention to it. When I re-created a similar viewing condition in front of the mother's eyes, she was very confused and said that she would not be able to remember a thing if she needed to read that way. Then she looked at me and said "Now I understand why he has a poor working memory: When it takes him so much effort trying to see and to understand what he just had seen, there is no time for processing it as a whole." Have you ever asked your child how he/she sees the page while reading? #OrthovisionCentre #visiontherapy #reading #dyslexia #visionchallenges #children

A few short weeks ago I attended the 'Learning Difference Convention' in Sydney. I was drawn to the lectures by Prof John Stein, whom I have been following and admiring for a few years already. Today, I want to share with you a couple of 'take-aways' from this convention, which I find extremely important for the public (and especially people with reading/learning difficulties) to know. I am simplifying and summarizing the findings for you: The Magnocellular Neuronal System This system needs to work seamlessly in order to enable fundamental auditory, visual and motor temporal sequencing for successful communication, speech, reading, attention, coordination and social interaction. For us, two parts of this Magnocellular Neuronal System are important: Weakness in the visual magnocellular system leads to visual perceptual instability. This in turn causes confusions in letter positioning and fuzzy orthographic representations. Professor Stein uses this slide in his lecture. If someone has auditory magnocellular weakness, the breaking down of words into phenomes is impeded, resulting in lower phonological skills. Dyslexics have different brains Research has shown that people with Dyslexia have different brains due to mildly impaired development of magnocells (see above for the implications of this). Professor Stein quotes different reasons for this: either genetic vulnerability or nutritional deficiency. Which leads me to the next two, very important points on how these differences can be addressed: 1) Vision Training & Auditory Training Professor Stein stresses that by conducting Auditory and Vision Training, these brain changes can be addressed. We have been conducting our Integrated Vision Therapy with wonderful results already for over 10 years. We have just started to recommend the FORBRAIN training device for people with auditory processing weaknesses and find that this further enhances the effect of the total therapy provided at Orthovision. I am extremely pleased to have come across this device at the convention in Sydney - upon trying it out on myself it was immediately clear to me that this would be very beneficial for many of my clients. 2) Increase your Omega 3d intake! Professor Stein stressed that the modern diet plays a big part in the (poorer) development of the brains. Numerous scientific articles have shown that by ingesting too much Omega 6 (from corn and soya bean oils) and not enough Omega 3 (from fish), the ratio of Omega 6:3 which should be 1:1 is currently 7:1. This has a big impact on the brain. Prof Stein quoted a research which was done with poor readers: The reading skills of test persons who increased their Omega 3 EPA & DHA intake improved much faster than the reading skills of the placebo group! So - increase your Omega 3 dosage today - not only your brain will benefit, but it has been proven to help against: - depression & anxiety - improve eye-health - reduce symptoms of ADHD - to fight inflammation - to fight auto-immune diseases and many more. I am so glad I went to this convention - and am extremely pleased to have come back with a few new tools for our therapy sessions as well as the confirmation that our approach to the treatment of learning difficulties at Orthovision is very comprehensive and up to date.

We just received a lovely feedback from one of our clients today and are delighted to share it with you. It always makes us very proud (and happy of course) when we see that the therapy has yet again shown wonderful results. It amazes us again and again how many of our clients had had their eyes checked before coming to us and 'everything was ok'. One more time a reminder that an eye-check (for acuity / eye-sight) is not the same as a proper assessment for functional vision. We first visited Orthovision slightly panicked by our daughter falling behind her peers in reading. Her teacher suggested we did a comprehensive eye test to see if there were any sight related issues. Ella's eye-sight had been tested before so we were taken aback by the revelation that she suffered from poor coordination of the eye balls. At that time we were not aware that this condition had such an immense impact on learning. Zoran patiently explained and put our minds at ease, that with therapy, Ella's vision can improve. He was there to answer any queries or concerns we came up with. He was very honest in saying that the therapy required dedication but that it would pay off. We are now a year into the treatment. Ella has worked very hard over the last twelve months with in house and at home therapy. However, as Zoran promised, her vision improved dramatically. Her reading improved greatly and her ability to focus is also much better. I think what's most important is that, thanks to Zoran, we identified the problem early on and managed to save Ella from any self esteem issues that older children may suffer from as a result of falling behind at school. And for that we will be forever grateful. Thank you, Ms JB for your feedback - we wish you and Ella all the very best! #OrthovisionCentre #visiontherapy #reading #children #visionchallenges #eyeexercises #feedback

This is an amazing study on near work and myopia. In this study, many publications from 1989 to 2014 on the relationship between myopia and prolonged near work were analysed and the results are astonishing… "We found that more time spent on near work activities was associated with higher odds of myopia (odds ratio [OR] = 1.14; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.08–1.20) and that the odds of myopia increased by 2% (OR:1.02; 95% CI = 1.01–1.03) for every one diopter-hour (hr) more of near work per week. Therefore, the development of a strategy to reduce the impact of near work on myopia would be important for preventing myopia in children." So what does this mean? In summary, it means that if you have a child who loves to read or does other near-point work over a prolonged period of time, he or she will end up myoptic eventually. And every additional hour per week spent doing near point work, the chances rise by 2%. Is there anything you can do to change these odds? Unless, that is, you teach your child some 'keep your eyes safe' lessons... and with this, we would strongly suggest you to go and read through our 12 blogs lessons on visual hygiene. Discuss them with your child and set an example by following these 'guidelines' as well. Your eyes (and your child) will be grateful! In addition, Integrated Vision Therapy can help to reduce myopia once it has already been diagnosed. . #myopia #reading #screens #eyeexercises

This is the story about a girl who came to me with a very bad out-drift (divergent strabismus) of her left eye. At the first visit she was wearing prescription glasses that were making her eye drift out even more. She was not seeing well and she was facing really serious learning difficulties. She was already visiting an occupational and speech and language therapist. Now, six month into therapy, when I look at her she is the same girl but yet she seems so different, beyond recognition. Her eyes are straight most of the time, she has no glasses and her visual acuity/eye-sight is close to perfect. The mother was thrilled to share the feedback from the speech and language therapist: “The girl progressed tremendously, there is no need for further sessions”. After hearing the story I look at her and see so much confidence and self esteem - traits that just 6 months ago were only there in traces. How was that possible, the mother asked? Well, if we look at the entire sensory system, it is a part of a larger receptive-expressive system. We can’t look at the 'outcome' without knowing what has been 'put in'. In other words, how do we perceive information and process it? Is it orderly and in sequence? Because how it 'goes in' impacts greatly our way to express ourselves: Think of yourself at times when you were stressed or very excited. Were you capable of expressing yourself clearly during those times? Having your thoughts in order is a precondition for being able to express them clearly. With the Integrated Vision Therapy at Orthovision we place a huge importance on synchronizing all elements of the sensory system - which in turn positively influences receptive language and therefore creates favourable preconditions for the expressive language. So for this girl, all the 'input' before the Integrated Vision Therapy was not well structured. The therapy helped her to process information differently and hence she can now produce 'output' easier, more structured and comprehensible. What a gift! "The real voyage of discovery consists of not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust #squint #sensorysystems #visiontherapy #visionchallenges

We just read this article on CBS News. It was originally published in August 2015 but hast not lost any of its relevance - in the contrary... we believe that screen time has even increased since then. This is why we share it with you here, cross-referencing the article to some of our own articles on the blog to give you more insight. And we want to start with the words with which the article closes: "[The computers] are very useful, obviously.... We're not saying don't use them, we're saying when you do use them, use them wisely and smartly." ! What too much screen time does to your eyes - by Bianca Seidman, CBS News As people of all ages are spending more hours focused on digital screens, their eyes are getting an exhausting endurance workout. Eye strain from hours of screen time can result in eye irritation, dryness, fatigue or blurred vision, and such problems are increasingly common, according to a new report. "Some of us are using these things for up to nine hours a day. Your eye muscles have to focus at that near range and that can be fatiguing," Dr. Christopher Starr, an associate professor of ophthalmology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, told CBS "This Morning." "You can imagine if you were at the gym and you held a dumbbell, your bicep would be extremely sore nine hours later.... Same thing for your eyes, you have to take breaks to relieve those muscles," he said. A vast majority of American adults surveyed -- 93 percent -- spends two hours or more per day in front of some sort of screen, from televisions to computers to smartphones to e-readers, according to the report by The Vision Council, an advocacy group for optical manufacturers and distributors. Sixty-one percent said they spend five or more hours and 30 percent said they look at screens more than nine hours per day. The group surveyed more than 9,700 U.S. adults. The range of media devices the respondents were using was broad. Sixty-nine percent of people reported used smartphones, 58 percent used laptops, 52 percent used a desktop computer and 43 percent used a tablet or e-reader. Seventy-seven percent said they watched television. Most digital screens are backlit and emit blue light, or high-energy visible (HEV) light wavelengths, which the group said can cause irritation and possibly long-term damage to the retina. Blue light is also known to suppress the sleep hormone melatonin, causing an artificial feeling of wakefulness and disrupting sleep patterns, which can add to eye strain. Dryness, caused by reduced blinking while staring at screens, is also a common factor in digital eye strain. A person's blink rate -- normally about 15-20 times per minute -- can decrease by up to half when people are fixated on what they're viewing on a screen. "When you're not blinking, and you're staring and your eyes are wide open, tears evaporate very quickly," Starr said. "You get dry spots, blurred vision, it can cause redness, pain, and over the course of the day it just worsens and worsens." Just like other muscles in the body, the eyes need a varied "workout" and some respite from prolonged strain. "What we recommend to reduce this -- what's called computer vision syndrome -- is to follow something called the 20-20-20 rule," said Starr. "Every 20 minutes that you're on a computer or a mobile device, look away from the computer at an object at 20 feet away or further for 20 seconds or more. And that will let those eye muscles relax." Anti-reflective lenses on eyeglasses or filters for screens can also help absorb some of the blue light and limit how much reaches the retina and into the central nerve of the eye. People with myopia, or nearsightedness, and other vision issues like hyperopia, astigmatism and presbyopia, may be at increased risk for digital eye strain. The National Eye Institute says that myopia has become much more common in recent generations. More than 34 million Americans have myopia, projected to reach 40 million by 2030. In addition to taking breaks from focus on digital screens and using eyewear, doctors recommend adjusting light exposure to help with eye strain, both indoors and outdoors. Contrary to popular opinion, more indoor light may actually be worse for reading, when it's on a screen. Too much light competing with the device's light creates glare. And a bright, white background is also worse than a cooler, gray tone. Getting enough outdoor light is also critical to helping eye muscles develop and stay healthy. Though the highest reports of eye strain are from the groups who likely use the screens for work the most -- Millennials and Generation X -- children are also a concern. The report says more than 23 percent of kids use digital screens more than three hours a day. "One of the newest studies I've seen actually shows that the kids -- when you're doing all this reading and using computers, you're indoors," said Starr. "There's some evidence that you need some natural light, for the eye's maturity and if you don't have that natural light, the eyes might get longer and more near-sighted." "The computers aren't going anywhere, mobile devices aren't going anywhere, " he added. "They're very useful, obviously.... We're not saying don't use them, we're saying when you do use them, use them wisely and smartly." #myopia #circadianrhythm #melatonin #Tablets #screens #computervisionsyndrome #IPads #computer #sleep

Some parents find it cute when their child closes one eye. Very often that is not as cute as parents think, as it could be a symptom of strabismus or a lazy eye. By shutting one eye, a child overcomes difficulties to use both eyes together. Frequently parents ask for help only after a few years when the squint gets much worse. Just recently I had such a 'case' at Orthovision. After having done all the tests on the boy, I talked to the mother. As I wanted her to understand how the boy sees, I created the same viewing conditions for her - and immediately she closed one eye as well. When I asked her why, she said: "because it was too confusing to look at the page with both eyes open". There is no better way to understand how someone feels than by going through the same or at least a similar process or situation. I am always very happy when I can show the parents how their children are challenged by how they see. Orthovision is being recognized locally and internationally as the center for the remediation of lazy eye, strabismus and other issues with binocular vision-eye teaming. When after vision therapy a child has lost his/her squint - this is what I find cute! Original picture by David Goehring on flickr #visionchallenges #OrthovisionCentre #visiontherapy #squint

Welcome to the last lesson of this short course. Today, we discuss the benefit of a routine. Do you have a regular schedule for doing sports? Attend a weekly Yoga class? Jog or go to the gym regularly? Then you already realize how important it is to keep to a certain routine. Furthermore, it is much easier to maintain a certain level of fitness than to get into shape. You can do the same for your eyes. Lesson 12: Set a definite time of the day to do your home vision therapy - between 15 to 20 minutes daily. Keep up a regular routine - set your timer and get it over with (with joy!). You will notice the changes just like you do when you do sports regularly. And remember - it is not just about the eyes - it goes much beyond. As you have noticed in all these lessons, a lot of it is about discipline. Keeping a routine, resisting the urge to just look at the sports news first thing in the morning, making time to go outdoors, engaging with the environment - following the 'rules' we posted in the last 12 lessons are literally life-changing and we would say in the positive direction. We wish you best of luck, stamina and enjoyment as you implement all these into your daily lives. Let us know how you are doing! We are curious to find out! #readingglasses #school #computer

Lesson 11: Do not read or study when overly tired or just before falling asleep. Also, do not read or study just after you get up in the morning - if possible wait at least one hour (so leave that tablet/phone off until you have finished your shower and breakfast). Oh my, that was another life-changing lesson for me! I should not read my messages when I get up? Something in me pushed the 'stubborn' button. But guess what - when I stick to this lesson, my eyes are so much better ... So change your habits around yet again. Get up an hour earlier and do some sports or a meditation so that the eyes can wake up. Enjoy breakfast with the family, get to work while looking out the window and then you are ready to go. The same thing in the evening - make sure you put those screens away before starting your bedtime routine. Your sleep will be so much more restful. All in all, your life will change for the better! #readingglasses #school #computer