Workin' the Vestibular System

Today's blog is about balance. As you might expect, our visual system play a big role. And when we work our visual systems, our balance/coordination gets better. For more information on that, check out this blog, and this blog.

How can we speed up the process (per se) and incorporate balance either in everyday things or with our Vision Therapy exercises? Lucky you, I am going to give you some fun ideas:

• Put a letter (or shape, picture, number, arrow) chart at eye level and walk heel toe, heel toe forward, and then backward. Basically, walk a straight line while reading a letter chart.

• Walk a straight line while tossing a bean bag (or ball or scarf) from right to left hand.  Take it to the next level and add a letter chart while doing all that!  
• Reading a letter (or shape, picture, number, arrow) chart while bouncing (not too high) on a mini-trampoline.
• While jumping on a mini-trampoline catch bean bags, and different sizes/types of balls. 

• Jump on the mini-trampoline to a beat. Metronomes work great! Crank it up a notch and add a letter chart. Read letters and jump to the beat. Whoa!
• When reading or doing homework, sit on an exercise ball. You will find, that (No. 1) it is very comfortable, (No. 2) helps your attention and (No. 3) works that vestibular system.
• Go to the play ground and use the balance beams. 
• Stand on one foot and read the letter chart. Alternate feet between every 5-10 lines. 
• Balance boards are a great tool: catch bean bags, catch/bounce balls, read the letter chart while balancing!
• Balance boards with an arrow chart: shift your weight on the balance board  in the direction the arrow tells you. Just like the video above! 

 

• Stand on the Balance board while hitting a balloon in the air. Don't let that balloon hit the ground! 
• Wii Fit balance board games!

How is that for fun, fun, fun!!! Give these a try and crank up that home therapy. Make it interactive, and be creative. Have any questions? Email me: VT@rdeyes.com

Skydiving

My fellow teammate has helped me get more organized with my blogs. When looking at the blog scheduled for this week, the subject is "Personal Connection Blog." I wanted to blog about something fun or exciting that I have done and relate it to what I do... Vision Therapy!

Over Memorial Day weekend, I headed south to Mississippi to visit my niece and then couple days later I met up with my in-laws. Don't worry it gets more exciting. I went skydiving. Yes, you heard right, I jumped out of a perfectly functioning airplane.

But don't worry, I did it for a good cause - I jumped out of an airplane to support and to celebrate my mother in-law's 60th birthday. Not only that, I helped her cross out an item off her bucket list. After we safely landed and we calmed our nerves, we talked about the jump. She mentioned that months leading up to the jump, all she visualized (great VT word!) floating in the air and seeing what the birds saw. What she didn't visualize was the process of jumping out of an airplane. As much as my mother-law enjoyed it, she said she would never do it again (case in point with picture down below).

You are probably thinking, how is this going to relate to Vision Therapy? Here's a good quote I found (bold text is my emphasis):



-Any process of personal growth and healing requires us periodically to let go of what we have or of what we know and sit with the anxiety that comes with being in uncharted territory. We come to points where we recognize that what we are doing or clinging to no longer serves us. 

We must let go of what we have that no longer works for us in order to make room for the better and healthier. We can’t wait until the newer and better are here to let go of the old—we must let go and hang out in the space in-between.

It’s like jumping out of an airplane and being in free fall, waiting for the parachute to open. With time and experience, it becomes not so much terrifying as it is exhilarating, and we let go more readily of the old and are more comfortable in the space between, as we wait to discover what comes next.-

When embarking into our Vision Therapy program (uncharted territory), the experience can be terrifying (especially for a child). You have to let go of your normal to-do's and open up room for new to-do's (like home therapy and weekly visits). But with time and experience in the program, you begin to discover a whole new world.