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EXCELerated Vision
Our mission is to help each patient reach their own personal goals through an improved visual system.
Recent Activity
In this short video you will see 6 year old Aloise overcoming her constant right esotropia (crossed eye). Take a look at Aloise show off her emerging ability to consciously straighten her eyes. This important "motor fusion" ( eye muscle... Continue reading
Take a look at AJ's story and you will see how a child with developmental delays can also have vision-related delays that interfere with many areas of life. AJ is not alone as children with delayed vision development will typically... Continue reading
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"Developmental delays" is a common diagnosis for many children in our care at Wow Vision Therapy. In addition to office-based optometric vision therapy, helping children with developmental delays often requires a multidisciplinary approach, including occupational therapy, speech therapy and physical... Continue reading
Nathan is a child who had a history of significant developmental delays. Before vision therapy he struggled with hyperactivity, lack of focus, poor balance and difficulty with gross and fine motor ability. But, now thanks to early intervention and a... Continue reading
Thank you Amber for your thoughtful comment and question. Actually, there is a plethora of good research that proves that vision therapy is effective. For a good article that addresses this question that also includes links to authoritative sites, The VisionHelp Group posted on their website, The Snake Oil Myth: http://www.visionfactsandfallacies.com/ The "gold standard" you mentioned, is when the research is double blind, prospective, multicenter and randomized. And yes, the CITT Study on Convergence Insufficiency met that "gold standard". It also was the culmination of 10 years of preliminary research that set the stage for the major study, funded by NIH and the National Eye Institute for over $6.1 million. The study, published in the American Medical Associations journal, Archives of Ophthalmology in October 2008 proved that office-based vision therapy was effective in the treatment of Convergence Insufficiency and that home-based computer programs done alone and/or pencil pushup activities are not effective. So, why is there not more examples of the model used for the CITT Study on Convergence Insufficiency? A project of the CITT magnitude take years and since they are not funded by drug companies, it takes private and public funding to bring to fruition. But, even though the "gold standard" is the example of the highest level of scientific validation, it is not to suggest that good research does not exist to show efficacy of vision, when in fact it does. One good source on the efficacy of office-based vision therapy is at the College of Optometrists in Vision Development: http://covd.org/Home/ResearchWhitePapers/ResearchonVisionTherapy/tabid/189/Default.aspx
Most educational meetings for doctors involve presentations on the latest research and clinical insights by other doctors. But, at this year’s Annual Michigan Vision Therapy Study Group Meeting on February 8, 2013, the audience of doctors and vision therapists had... Continue reading
The VisionHelp Group just produced and launched this 2 minute video to help the public understand how 3-D movies can be difficult to watch for individuals with binocular vision problems. Wonderfully done...take a look and enjoy Bobby's story! Continue reading
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Drs. Fortenbacher, Stull and Tran presented a lecture to the Annual Michigan Vision Therapy Study Group on February 8, 2013 outlining the latest research in visual neuroscience and techniques to treat ambyopia regardless of age and without an emphasis on... Continue reading
How does vision therapy help a patient who has suffered a visual field loss due to a stroke? Take a look at our patient Darlene who just complete her vision rehabilitation. She tells her story best... Continue reading
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One of the major obstacles in public awareness of Convergence Insufficiency is that this condition is clearly not a household word. Parents whose school-age child is newly diagnosed with CI frequently will ask, “Why did no one recognize this in... Continue reading
This video shows how our patients are applying their vision to help teachers and kids in classrooms obtain special tools for better learning opportunities. For the past several weeks we have been organizing a competition involving some of ...our patients... Continue reading
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This week kicks off the start of the Wow Vision Therapy Challenge to support children's education. Our goal is to help children's education projects through DonorsChoose.org in our region. We are pleased to announce that our first selected project is... Continue reading
When a child has trouble with binocular vision they will often experience headaches associated with reading and doing homework. But, who to say it better than the patient? In this 1.5 minute short video you will hear 6 of our... Continue reading
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At age 6.3 Hendrick was referred by his occupational therapist in South Bend, IN with a diagnosis of PDD NOS and high functioning autism. At his first examination with Dr. Fortenbacher, his mother reported that Hendrick would "melt down" when... Continue reading
In our effort to continue to improve the patient and public awareness of what vision therapy can do to help those with a need, we offer this, our latest video which answers many of the questions that, over the years,... Continue reading
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By: Allyse Donarski When youths struggle academically or avoid sports, vision problems are likely to be the last thing parents consider. Though vision therapy has been around for over 70 years, it still seems to be a little known answer... Continue reading
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Ryan is a child with Autism. Like many children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) they can also experience delays in vision development which significantly exaggerates the severity of the spectrum of behaviors associated with their autism. Take a look and... Continue reading
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Binocular vision problems, like convergence insufficiency, can slowly and insidiously rob children of their confidence and self-esteem. The impact of years of near-centered visual stress causing headaches, double vision and loss of productivity in reading and homework took a toll... Continue reading
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Yesterday Dr. Fortenbacher, along with Wow Vision Therapy's Clinic Director, Dr. Lindsey Stull, and resident, Dr. Tuan Tran presented to the staff at the Children's Therapy Center at Memorial Children's Hospital in South Bend. The program was part of the... Continue reading
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Binocular vision problems like Convergence Insufficiency (CI) or more severe forms such as strabismus is not just "kid stuff". It affects adults equally as well. The result of a binocular vision problem can have a serious impact on an adult's... Continue reading
Parents speak out about their children’s stuggle with undetected vision problems http://covdblog.wordpress.com/2012/07/25/parents-speak-out-about-their-childrens-stuggle-with-undetected-vision-problems/ Continue reading
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We would like to recognize and commend the American Optometric Association for this groundbreaking program at the AOA Annual Meeting in Chicago last week. This historic program shows how 3-D technology is providing a mechanism to advocate and find help... Continue reading
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All athletes want a competitive advantage. After all, the goal in most sports is to win! To the serious competitor, that competitive advantage is a result of hard work, body conditioning and practice at developing the fundamental skills that are... Continue reading
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On Saturday, May 12, 2012, I had the pleasure of being a keynote speaker for the 4th Annual Pediatric Symposium sponsored by Memorial Children's Hospital - Children's Therapy Center in South Bend and the Logan Center. My topic 2.5 hour... Continue reading
Thanks to his primary care optometrist who identified, diagnosed and referred for proper treatment, this young boy was able to find the help he needed. Ian presented to Wow Vision Therapy with a severe form of Convergence Insufficiency (CI). This... Continue reading