Grant, FB
Posted on by shannon@visiontherapyacademy.com“Our son had a 4k teacher that noticed he was having a hard time with reading and letters. He was tested by the school but was above the mark to receive extra help. This went on every year until COVID hit during his 4th and 5th grade school years. We always took the school’s word at what it was, he needed to just keep reading and having us read with him to help him improve. Well he returned at the end of 5th grade and was now far behind all of his peers, so the school tested him again and he finally qualified for extra help. We were promised that by the end of 6th grade he would be in line with his peers on reading level. Well 6th grade came and went, and he had zero improvements, and we were told that he was going to need more intensive reading intervention. This would have made a lot of sense to us if he was doing poorly in all of his classes but that was not the case. He would get A’s and B’s in all of his classes, even ELA. We also noticed in middle school that he would come home from school tired, upset, and with severe headaches.
As parents we knew we needed to take matters into our own hands as we felt the schools were failing us. So the summer of 2022 we did so. We began by reaching out on a mom’s group on Facebook, and we started to finally find out what was in our area to help us. We first took him to the Natural Learning center, to be tested and get a reading program going. Well to our surprise we were told that he could benefit from their program but they didn’t see a need for it as he passed all of the tests at grade level or above but that they did notice some indicators that he might have a physical problem with his eyes. This was when we first learned about Vision Therapy Academy and Dr. Wonderling. We had no idea what to expect but we knew we had to get to the source of the issue. So we made our appointment to have him tested. The first thing that struck me was that we received a questionnaire about our son. Never did the schools actually ask us, the parents, about our son and how he was doing. I was impressed by that and when his mother took him for the evaluation they showed her what was happening and communicated throughout the process with her. After this, we finally had answers on the cause of his issues and a plan to help correct them. It was a big commitment for us and him, but we began his program at the beginning of August 2022. We let the school know what was going on, especially his reading interventionist.
After his first 10 weeks in the program I received an email from his reading interventionist about how she just tested him that he went from 60 words a minute in reading (that was from the end of his 6th grade year at school) to now at 144 words a minute. He also went from a level T to a level W reading level. We were beyond excited for him as we were only halfway through his program, and he was already having such success. Fast forward and he will be completing his 20-week program. He no longer comes home from school tired, he has energy to go out and play with his friends. He no longer comes home with headaches or upset. He is excited to tell us about his day and what he has achieved. Better yet, we do not have to hound him to do his at home activities; they were fun, different, and challenging but all the while engaging and easy to do.
We as parents are beyond indebted to Dr. Wonderling and the Vision Therapy Academy staff. They took time to engage with us and help us provide for our child in something we otherwise could not have. Thank you.”
-parents of Grant, age 12
“When I started vision therapy I struggled with reading and writing/spelling. Then about 10 weeks in I started to get better at reading and writing. Soon I went from a level T to level W in 14 weeks. This proves vision therapy works.”
-Grant, age 12
