Since middle school, our son struggled with schoolwork and anxiety. Psychological, educational and neurological tests provided no clear diagnosis. Medications – including for ADHD – often worsened his problems.
During a routine eye check, Blacksburg Eye Associates found that our son had Visual Information Processing Disorder. This is a common but often undetected condition that has nothing to do with 20/20 vision and glasses.
Normally, when a person looks at something, each eye sees the object from a different perspective. The brain puts the two images together, creating a clear, understandable image.
For someone with Visual Information Processing Disorder, however, the brain does not do its job. As a result, reading is extremely difficult and time-consuming. Distances are hard to measure, resulting in clumsiness. Anxiety is a constant because simple tasks that others breeze through are incredibly difficult.
Luckily, Visual Information Processing Disorder is treatable. After just weeks of working with Vision+ Development and Rehab, our son was seeing – literally – tangible, measurable and enjoyable results. His grades improved and his mood became much happier.
We wish we had known about Visual Information Processing Disorder sooner. It would have saved years of stress and heartache, as well as money and time spent on testing, therapy, and medications.
Thank you to Vision+ and Blacksburg Eye Associates for having such a positive impact on our son’s life.
-Connie
It has been a pleasure working with Dr. Dovie and the staff at Blacksburg Eye Associates for the past 6 months. School was extremely challenging for my son and we were desperate for ways to help him. My husband and I decided to have him tested by an Educational Psychologist and she recommended additional testing by an eye doctor in order to rule out any problems with vision and tracking. My son went through vision testing with Dr. Dovie 6 months ago and we decided that he was a good candidate for vision therapy. He recently completed 12 sessions of vision therapy in addition to vision homework and has been very successful. His performance in school has improved significantly. We have noticed increased attention at school, improved handwriting, and a significant improvement in his grades. It is amazing how much more energy our son has after school! We are so grateful for the individual attention and care, our family received during our son’s vision testing and therapy.
– Hudson
For as long as I can remember, I had concerns about my son’s vision. As a preschooler, he frequently hesitated when stepping off curbs and steps. He always suffered from headaches, but they worsened once kindergarten started. In second grade, we began noticing that he was resistant to reading on his own and out loud (though he loved being read to). When he did read to us, he often lost his place and skipped words. We brought him in for a vision assessment with Dr. Dovie. He discovered that our son’s eyes worked well on their own but struggled to work as a team. He recommended vision therapy services. The progress made during those 12 weeks of therapy is astounding! Our son jumped 5 reading levels from the end of second grade to the start of third grade! He loves to read now and will often read 2-3 chapter books a week. He also scored 3 soccer goals this past season…. Something that has never happened. I cannot recommend Dr. Dovie and his team enough!
– Dominic
It is my great pleasure to tell you about the progress I have seen in Zion since her therapy began with Blacksburg Eye Associates/Vision Plus.
Zion is more confident in her own abilities. She reads and processes at a much quicker rate. Her grades on reading assignments average from 90-100%. Her class average for the 1st quarter of school was an 89/B. She is currently averaging a 98/A for the 2nd quarter of school.
Zion volunteers to read aloud now, and she is willing to answer questions out loud. She is an overall enthusiastic student, and I believe the strategies she has learned in her time at Blacksburg Eye Associates/Vision Plus have aided in this confidence and enthusiasm.
– 7th Grade Language Arts Teacher
Hi, my name is Chloe. I am in fifth grade and I’m ten. I have done eye therapy for a while and you and me know it might be hard, and you don’t want to do it, but it turns out it really helps your eyes. I found this out when the eye doctor said that my eyesight went down a lot that it was because I didn’t do a lot of my eye therapy. After a couple of days, I did it and when the time came to go back, Ashley said that my eyes were in much better shape. After a few months we went back and found out that my eyes were doing great! Then Ashley said one more month, and before you knew it the time came, I went back and now I don’t do eye therapy! So, if you have bad vision Blacksburg Eye Associates is the best place you should go!
-Chloe