Seeing double

Monday was a big day for us.



I was skeptical of the idea of Vision Therapy when my son’s eye doctor mentioned it during his routine eye exam going into first grade. Not all eye doctors offer Vision Therapy, and we just happened to choose one who specializes in it.


“Hmmmm,” I thought. “Well, yes, yes, yes and yes.”

But at the time, we weren’t ready for the expense and time commitment that the therapy would require.

Almost a year later, when my son was struggling with these same issues in second grade, we took him to a reading specialist for an evaluation. The teacher said that his reading was well above his grade level. However, she did notice that he was “moving his eyes funny” when he looked at the paper. She tried several different colored overlays, but nothing seemed to help.


This speaker mentioned that many times kids with these struggles actually have an issue with their eyes. The eye muscles aren’t working properly together, which also is called eye “teaming” or “binocularity”.

Those were the same terms the eye doctor had used to describe what was happening with my son’s eyes! As I read about this problem, I found more sources that confirmed that many children have an issue with their eye muscles that might be causing all sorts of problems in school, but it is never identified.


Vision Therapy consisted of 21, one-hour sessions. (In some cases, medical insurance will pay for the therapy, but so far, we haven’t been so lucky.)




I asked the therapist if she would also like him to stand on his head and do cartwheels while reading, but she said, “no”. =]

So, did Vision Therapy help? We really don’t know at this point.


However, we are supposed to continue his eye-strengthening activities several times a week. For how long? Well, I guess it’s like lifting weights. The more he does it, the better his eyes will work.


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  1. I did vision therapy as a kid because I had a "lazy eye." Mine was due to nerve damage because of a high fever. (That's the eye that drifts to the side…) Anyway, it worked for me! As a kid I loved going to therapy because it was a bunch of games….and it successfully cured my lazy eye.When I'm on heavy drugs (like I was in the hospital on bedrest w/ the twins), my eye drifts. So apparently I must actively control it without even noticing! Very cool.So…I'm glad my parents made the effort! It sounds like a different issue for your son, but hopefully it will pay off!


  3. Hey Emily… I've just been researching Vision Therapy for my son… he has intermittent exotropia – a form of strabismus (which is basically like Jane Anne said a lazy eye)… anyway, the doc keeps suggesting surgery but I'm not convinced that it's to that point – they haven't ever recommended patching or glasses or anything else so far… so to mea surgery is a bit premature… anyway, I've been looking up info on the internet & learned all about this… very interesting stuff… I'm lucky enough to have some coverage thru my other work tho… it'll be interesting to see what the doc says later this week (and another one next month!)another good site I found is http://www.childrensvision.comLaurel

  4. HiSo nice to find another mom in the same situation.My son was diagnosed in 3rd grade. Now at age 11 we started therapy this summer. We go once a week and have daily homework. Vision Therapy is very expensive that is why we have just started him now.I knew there was something going on with his eyes as he would and still does read the first few letters of a word and then makes up the rest. He also skips over words. (tracking issue) I am hopeful that VT will help. The benefit to him now is that he realizes the different focusing ability his eyes have.Youtube has some interesting videos if you search on vision therapy.I would love to hear from some moms who have been there too.Is there some hope?

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