Building Self Esteem

Dr. Russel Lazarus, March 17, 2021
selfesteem

Too many children are labelled as lazy learners, poor students, learning difficulty and even dyslexia and ADHD, when it could be an undiagnosed vision problem.

Many children suffer with low self esteem, which can dramatically improve after completing a program of vision therapy.

Here’s one story of how vision therapy changed a life.

*Names have been changed for privacy.

Morgan, age 14

Today Morgan is a happy and confident high school student who enjoys sleepovers with his friends, participating in school and sports activities, and hanging out skateboarding with friends.

However, less than one year ago he was afraid to try new things and his self-esteem was impacting the care-free life of a teenager.

Morgan was not enjoyable 8th grade, some days it seemed he understood a concept then the next day it was as if he was learning it all over again.

The main issue was that Morgan avoided reading, and noticed when he did read, the words were blurry or seemed to ‘float’ on the page.

Morgan’s eyes were working super hard to read, it’s no wonder he struggled with reading, comprehension and even spelling was becoming a major challenge.

Vision therapy

Morgan began a vision therapy program and within a number of weeks he had started to enjoy reading and even began to ask, “Can I read the next book?”

Morgan slowly gained more  confidence, even his body posture and eye contact improved.

Morgan’s teachers noted an increase in his reading grade level, neater handwriting, and he was happier to contribute to class discussions.  His overall enjoyment of sports improved as did his balance and eye-hand coordination.

By the end of the vision therapy program Morgan was almost reading as well as all his friends as he now has significantly improved;

  • eye teaming and tracking
  • focusing
  • visual processing skills

Morgan’s success was due to a ton of hard work as well as support from his eye doctor, vision therapists and family and friends.

The confident smile on his face and the improved self esteem that radiate from him now means his life has forever changed.

In fact, Morgan is now just a regular fun loving skateboarding teen-ager.