A Mother�s Story About the Combined Success of Vision Therapy and Infinity Walk

My daughter had early medical problems that did not allow her to develop the physical coordination that she needed to participate in regular physical education classes.  She also had fine motor delays as well. I first suspected that my daughter had problems with her vision when she was about 4 years old. She would be running around and crash into door jambs. She was not able to catch a ball even though she was very interested in learning how to do so. When she was five years old, she was diagnosed with convergence insufficiency and below average binocularity.

I had also taught her the alphabet and read to her every night. She also wanted to follow along while I read to her. When we went from the basic picture books to the early readers, she seemed to lose interest though she continued to enjoy listening to the stories. She tried very hard to read along but made many mistakes along the way. She would omit many words and skip from one sentence to another even when she followed the story and read along using her finger to keep her place.

Because of her other medical problems, I found skepticism from professionals who thought my daughter had received all the help that was possible, I found a developmental optometrist who was able to help her vision. Her eye muscle imbalance was corrected in less than a year of vision therapy, something that other specialists had discounted as not being possible.

(Note by Dr. Sunbeck: After vision therapy EM apparently had enough motivation and visual comfort to learn to read with the continued help of using her finger. This was an enormous accomplishment that would not have been possible without vision therapy. However, years later when I met EM, her balance, gait, sensory integration, expressive speech, attention, and reading comprehension still needed to be addressed.)

By the time my daughter was fourteen years old, I was struggling daily with keeping her motivated to learn. A lot of emotional damage had been done. My daughter gave up much of her earlier enthusiasm for learning. Her medical problems continued to escalate to an overwhelming degree. It was very discouraging for me as a parent to watch this once enthusiastic child become withdrawn.

It was quite by accident that I came across the book The Infinity Walk (in a library). I called Dr. Sunbeck and asked her if she would see my daughter for a session or two. I explained the situation to her and she agreed. After a few weeks of the Infinity Walk, it became apparent that this was exactly what she needed. 

Though I was glad to have finally a possible solution to her problems, I couldn't help but to wonder what a difference it would have made if we had known about it sooner. Also in my thoughts were the many children I had met along the way whose educational experiences, especially in phys ed where a lot of life skills such as teamwork are learned, could have been greatly enhanced by doing the Infinity Walk. Sitting on the sidelines and being unable to participate in sports is devastating to any child...It is also devastating emotionally to them because they are unable to develop confidence in themselves and their abilities.

My daughter has benefited from having the opportunity of doing the Infinity Walk and working with Dr. Sunbeck. Though it has been (now more than) seven years since the sessions, the effects are visible today. My daughter is very coordinated now and has beautiful handwriting. She works out at the gym and does better than I did at her age.