I understand firsthand the struggle that working parents feel when it comes to Vision Therapy compliance. My son used to complain of headaches, have terrible outbursts and hate reading. He was prescribed glasses and Vision Therapy at his four-year eye exam because he suffered from binocular abnormalities.

My wife and I felt like failures as parents when we found out that he was stereoblind. We began VT, and like many other parents, struggled to have our child engage with the activities. The few hours we had with him after school and on the weekends were spent fighting about VT or feeling guilty about not doing the exercises. However, we did it with some regularity, and his reading and spatial awareness have improved. At his most recent visit with the optometrist, they said he was beginning to see some things in 3d, that he could not see at his previous visit. After we started modifying some activities to make them more fun, adding more games and started doing them together, his perception of VT changed. We call the activities Eye Games.

With so little time left in the day, being able to have fun bonding while completing VT exercises has been very rewarding.

Apart from being a father, I am currently completing my Master of Business Experience and Technology to complement my BA in Psychology, Arts and Business from the University of Waterloo. This education gives me a solid foundation of motivation, visual processing, and business. In my current role at the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business, I teach design applications, focused on enhancing the user experience, and oversee their online presence and digital team. My network of colleagues ranges from marketers to leading game design researchers, to the Vision Therapists at the University of Waterloo School of Optometry, where they conduct cutting edge research on binocular vision and its treatments and prognoses, to the faculty of the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship to guide me through this process. It’s not only my skill set but also my life experience and connections that make me a great person to help make Vision Therapy fun for parents!