Vision Development Center

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By Kathy Caruso (parent)

My oldest daughter, Anya was adopted from Russia when she was almost 6 years old. She is a great kid who came with a few challenges. She had been diagnosed with a language delay in Russia, and although, she learned to speak English very quickly, she often mixed up words and couldn’t learn to read at all.

By age 9 she still could not read. I believed that she had a vision problem because sometimes her eyes didn’t look straight. Since, I had a vision problem as a child, which was fixed by vision therapy (VT), I tried to find someone to provide Anya with Vision Therapy.

Finally we discovered the Vision Development Center. Anya began Vision Therapy and within the first month to 6 weeks jumped from a kindergarten level to the first grade reading level. Anya was finally able to read!

By the time she finished the treatment regimen, she was reading on the 2^nd grade level. She went from hating school to loving it. Her teachers said she could now focus better.

Anya’s sister Zoya, who was also adopted from Russia, has also benefited from Vision Therapy at the Vision Development Center. At age 3 ½ her eyes crossed and she held everything upside down. She even watched TV upside down.

We wasted no time and started Vision Therapy when she turned 4. Today she has just turned 6 and is one of the best readers in her Kindergarten class. She is reading on the first grade level.

Anya, in addition, had learning disabilities. Her memory was very poor and she could not remember any math facts. She processed information so slowly, that at age10, her performance was that of a 4-year-old.

So, we began PACE (an intense 12-week, one-on-one processing and cognitive enhancement program) which was perfect for the summer months. She loved this program and we could see results immediately. Her reading improved even more, and she could now memorize math facts.

By the end of the PACE program, Anya was in a new school, which placed her according to her tested ability. She tested at the high 4^th grade level in math, 3^rd grade in reading and at the 5^th grade level on every other subject. She had started the previous year at the kindergarten level!

Anya’s IQ was also tested before and after PACE. She gained about 20 IQ points after completing the PACE program.

I believe that the lives of both of my children have been changed for the better as a result of vision therapy. In addition, my oldest daughter benefited from the PACE program, which is also available at the Vision Development Center in King of Prussia.

I don’t know what would have happened to my two girls without Vision Therapy. We had tried everything else to help Anya, but Vision Therapy and PACE worked the best. As a teacher and a psychotherapist, I do not hesitate to recommend Vision Therapy or PACE for children who are having learning difficulties.

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For more information, or to make an appointment, phone 610-783-1331.

 

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Executive function and attention. The ability to make effective decisions requires integrative and sustained attention. The ability to search memory, to link current sensation to immediate context and connect this experience to past memories, is the quintessential attentional task.^[3] Planning and working memory are essential components of executive function.^[1,2] The capacity to do what we intend requires sustain attention, even in an environment of distractions and through phases of weakening interest or mounting fatigue.^[29]

The cognitive aspects of executive function are primarily located in the anterior frontal cortex, whereas spatial organization occurs more dorsally; verbal memory and organization are localized more internally. Anticipatory, or expectant waiting, aspects of executive function are managed in the cingulate gyrus. The ability to interpret visual experience — an important component in executive learning — is processed in the posterior visual cortex.

For information about how our PACE program is specifically designed to increase attention and executive function visit out PACE site here.

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