I have been following Sumiko Tan's features for a long time as I find them very entertaining and as I can relate to them very well. They simply resonate with me. And very often I think to myself 'yup, been there, done that'. Yesterday's article 'Coping with middle-aged eyes' made me chuckle yet again. I remember my times, when I could hardly see anything and how thrilled I was after having done Lasik surgery. And just like her, I am now starting to feel the eyes getting older (of course, just the eyes, not me! ;-)). However, contrary to her, I got help from Orthovision. And although I did once purchase those reading glasses, I have now opted to do regular eye exercises and my vision has improved again. It is a pain sometimes, and you need to do it regularly, but it does help! Dear Sumiko and 'middle-aged eyes friends', give it a try! Do your eye exercises daily, limit the time spent on the small mobile devices, practice the 20-20-20 rule (when reading or spending time at the computer, look up every 20 minutes and focus on something 20 feet away for 20 seconds). You will be amazed by the results! #readingglasses #age #visiontherapy

Spring Break is upon us and I will be away from 28 March to 8 April, attending a course on neural development. I look forward to coming back to Singapore with a lot of new ideas and tools to implement in my daily practice at work. See you soon - and if you get some time off, too, I wish you: Happy Spring Break!

We just read this article in the Straits Times. How encouraging that more and more children (and adults) are now getting help for Dyslexia. Kudos to the Dyslexia Association for reaching out to more people and raising awareness! ST PHOTO: LAU FOOK KONG It is interesting that the numbers of the students enrolled in the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS) programme have risen so much... is it because there are more people with Dyslexia? Is it because tests are more accessible? Or could it be that there is a correlation between spending too much time looking at screens and thus losing some of the main visual perception skills? When we look at the individuals with dyslexia the fact is that many dyslexics became very successful in life. How is that possible? In some instances it is due to a very strong will and good coping strategies while in others it is simply the intuitive approach to the learning process in general. It is difficult to see two dyslexic individuals alike, as generally in life we all react differently to the challenges that we are exposed to. By removing an obstacle (in this case the problem with visual sensory perception and visual processing) most individuals with dyslexia are able to process visual information presented. We could go back to the subjective approach of the educators and other specialists assisting the individuals with dyslexia; tests are given to them and results are taken as a law. However, how many parents or educators ask themselves how the child perceives the information presented before labeling the child? As we see a child before and after the integrated vision therapy, the difference in perception and therefore the child’s performance is enormous. Most of the parents are interested in their child’s academic performance, forgetting the bigger picture of what life is. Facing visual perceptual challenges affects individuals in many aspects, not just in terms of education, most of the time affecting self-esteem, confidence and their positive outlook on life. Remediating the visual perceptual challenges and working with educators or other specialists in the area of learning support, if necessary, gives very rewarding and long-lasting results. Lots of those children will successfully transform the challenge into the advantage; the creative resourcefulness in building the coping strategies and lateral thinking will remain as their strength. #school #learning #visiontherapy #dyslexia

Today, we want to share this very interesting article in the telegraph with you. Web addiction is becoming a very big problem across the world. Children, adolescents and adults alike find it increasingly difficult to put aside the electronic devices. There is a very fine line between over-use and addiction! It is far more difficult for children and teenagers to avoid the gaming virus: they exchange their 'gaming stories' at school and thus face peer pressure. In addition, by having to do more and more homework on their computers, they need to have access to the computer - and thus to the games. Sometimes, kids set the alarm in the middle of the night to get some undetected gaming time. This trend is troubling on so many levels: the influence on social skills, motor skills, overall health, emotional well-being, sleep (just think of the blog we wrote last week about blue light and sleep), school participation and grades, etc. And of course we are not even going into what effect this will have on the eyes and vision processing. What to do? Talk to the children, be a good role-model, implement parental controls and/or set timers to make sure you and your children don't fall into this trap. #addiction #computer #sleep #screens #gaming

Why are you not able to sleep immediately and well after the use of screens, particularly a computer? What happens to your child after hours of playing a computer game? How many times you go to bed after shutting down the computer or checking your messages on the phone? Children often play games before sleep to “calm down”… that is what some of the parents think, however, this is a big misconception. The circadian rhythm rules the interplay between the cortisol and melatonin. We need melatonin to fall asleep while cortisol stimulates our attention and keeps us awake. Now, try to imagine how much cortisol is produced when we play a computer game to “calm down” before bed-time! The effect is that we will be wide awake and excited - and when we finally do fall asleep, it will not be a deep sleep, and thus we will not rest well.​ ​ Consequently, the next day an adult person will have a problem focusing at work, will get easily agitated or frustrated. In case of a child the situation might get even more complicated as few other children would be at a similar state: frustrated, angry, unfocused, forgetful…. In order to make oneself feel good, both, the adult and the child will go on the computer to forget about the awful day and to ‘relax” a bit, and then, here we go again. The vicious cycle starts again. We have seen many children or adults having issues with spending too much time in front of screens. Once this habit (or in less serious cases this tendency) is changed it is much easier to work on the visual issues of that child or adult. However, in cases when the habit is deeply rooted nothing much can be done to help such an individual. Cases of adults losing their job or children being taken from their schools are not that rare anymore. We all should pause before switching on the computer before going to bed or looking at the phone, attending the message that just arrived via WhatsApp or Facebook, as the chain of communication could take us much further than imagined. Pause and rethink: do you really want to jeopardize the next day, the next month or year(s) of your life? http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/blue-light-has-a-dark-side #computervisionsyndrome #sleep #computer #circadianrhythm #IPads #Tablets #screens #melatonin #cortisol

As the Year of the Ram comes to an end, we are excitedly looking into the future. And we hope you do, too!

We are thrilled to have our new facebook page up. Connect to us via Liking Orthovision Centre. Thank you for your support! #Facebook #OrthovisionCentre

We are starting off 2016 with lots of plans. In addition to getting our clients' vision improved, we are also working on improving the way you can see us. Yes, our new website is just about ready. Here is a little sneak peek at the look and feel... Happy New Year to you - may 2016 bring you health, love and happiness!