A DEVELOPMENTAL OPTOMETRIST SHARES HIS INSIGHTS AND SUCCESS WITH INFINITY WALK

Dr. Stan Appelbaum, a developmental optometrist, and Barbara Bassin, an occupational therapist and his wife, share a unique clinical practice that combine sensory integration occupational therapy and vision therapy in the Washington D.C./Maryland area (for over 20 years).

 Compiled from a phone correspondence with Dr. Sunbeck:

 I use your Infinity Walk all the time in my practice working with children and adults who have learning, motor, and behavior problems that affect their vision. I recommend it all the time. Infinity Walk is a very effective way to get the whole body involved with the visual system.

Developmental optometrists need to know about Infinity Walk. I might not have recognized that it is such a powerful technique, except that I married an occupational therapist! So when I teach workshops that include Infinity Walk and other sensory integration techniques I know how to speak the language to vision therapists. Unless a person is moving in a sensory integrated way the vision isn’t connected to the vestibular system, and that’s our self-to-earth orientation. It makes a huge difference in quality of life. People need to move, and in bilaterally integrated ways, in life, and as part of vision therapy.

In the office, we don’t have a lot of time to convince people that they have a visual problem that could be helped through vision therapy. When the visual system is unstable people get dizzy, they get nauseous in the car, and they feel like falling asleep after having to read or do paperwork. Glasses, surgery, an eye patch - these are the only kind of solutions that people are expecting. So, I can use Infinity Walk to prove a point. I teach them how to do Infinity Walk at home while looking at a visual target. When they come back all their symptoms are better. The nausea in the car is gone; they’re not so tired after reading. This tells them that they are part of the solution. Now they are motivated. So, they continue the Infinity Walk at home with a visual target and we can start the part of vision therapy that includes procedures that can’t be done at home and will take them even further.

Infinity Walk makes a huge difference very quickly with visual problems. We have two eyes and that means bilateral integration has to be part of the treatment. Why should we expect the eyes to work together if the rest of the body isn’t?  Those two eyes are part of a whole body that has to be bilaterally integrated. I’m impressed, obviously. I hope that this (phone interview) will help spread the word to developmental optometrists who haven't started using Infinity Walk yet. 

 Stan’s top picks for Infinity Walk research topics based on his clinical experiences:

• Compare patching a lazy eye vs. early intervention Infinity Walk vision therapy approach

• Infinity Walk pre-school intervention before visual and attention problems affect learning

Stan co-teaches "From Eyesight to Insight: Visual/Vestibular Assessment & Treatment" with Mary Kawar, MS, OTR. Infinity Walk is taught as part of this clinical course for occupational therapists, physical therapists and vision therapists. For information about Stan’s private practice or the CEU course: www.visionhelp.com