Zachary working on a visual exercise with blocks of different shapes and sizes

Dr. Carter was always so upbeat, caring and really worked hard to connect with Zachary and incorporate ideas that would work well with his sensory issues.  She had to be creative and figure out how to motivate him when this was not a pleasant task for him.

Zachary's Parents Sensory Processing Disorder March 24, 2021

Generic Testimonial Avatar: Star

Balance Restored!  Dear Dr. Carter, I just have to let you know how very grateful I am to you for your help. You have changed my life! My vision is improving daily and I am now able to drive and do so many things I couldn’t do just a few weeks ago. Thanks also for communicating with my doctors and rehab therapist. They’ve mentioned how much they appreciated your notes. You are awesome, and I can’t thank you enough.

Vertigo March 24, 2021

Johnny with his graduation cap and certificate

She carefully planned out eye therapies and exercises for our son enabling him to improve his challenging eye disability tremendously. When we started with Dr. Carter our son’s eye tracking was among the lowest percentile in the population, but when we finished his ability to track correctly was among the highest percentiles! Dr. Carter personally crafted a regime and homework schedule that helped our son overcome his visual challenges and truly make a lifelong improvement with his vision. Moreover, she made the entire experience enjoyable for our 7 year old so he could enjoy the process and personally revel in his weekly improvements. We wish all doctors were this balanced: effective in their craft, personalized in their plans, fully committed to improving the lives of their patients.

John & Shiho B Vision Therapy Sessions March 25, 2021

Older woman holding her head sitting down

I have noticed that I am a little bit more aware of the periphery, mostly when outside in the garden, which is a lovely way to start. I am not running my hand on the wall in the hallway, right side like I was doing more than I realized.  I was aware of doing that or having my hand out to right in public places. or getting clipped to the right.  this is so encouraging.  I am 3 years post-MVA so even though I am worlds better, I am aware of what is still problematic.  I am encouraged about the possibilities in vision therapy to help with other sensory issues.

Traumatic Brain Injury March 25, 2021

Testimonial from VT Grad, D.G., holding her graduation certificate.

Three cheers for our latest VT graduate!! After a concussion, she was having difficulty focusing and remembering sequences of numbers. Now she says, “my visual memory has increased and I am able to trust my memory more. I have more control over my vision.” Horray!!

DG Vision therapy graduate 2020 April 13, 2021

Testimonial from VT Grad, E.H., through a hand-written letter

“Dr. Carter, Thank you so much for all the help you have given to my eyes. I know I would still be struggling with math and reading if not for your aid. I wasn’t sure that my problems could be solved, but your exercises worked wonders. Reading, spelling and reading sheet music has become so much easier. And gone are my headaches and tired eyes. Your help has been invaluable to me.”

EH Vision therapy graduate 2020 April 13, 2021

Testimonial from VT Grad, J.B., while holding her graduation certificate

Can we be honest? Vision Therapy is sometimes hard work. And we understand that! Here is a patient who was making improvements in VT, but after a while, she was burning out. She returned after a 4-month break, and since then we’ve seen HUGE changes in confidence and memory!! Her mom says she “can follow directions better, read better, has an easier time with a lot of things.” Congrats to this hard-working graduate!!

JB Vision therapy graduate 2020 April 13, 2021

Testimonial from VT Grad, R.T., with friends

So much cuteness! This patient graduated from vision therapy last year, and today his eyes are doing even better than when he finished therapy! Dr. Carter will be presenting his case study at AMFECCO in México next month. Before surgery, his eyes turned in. After surgery, they turned out. Now they are straight all the time!!

RT Vision therapy graduate 2020 April 13, 2021

Testimonial from VT Grad, C.W., with his handprint on our graduation board

“My child finally feels comfortable and confident, and we will forever be grateful!” Our latest vision therapy graduate came to us with sore eyes, eye fatigue, light sensitivity, headaches, overstimulation and poor body coordination. Reading was an uncomfortable chore. Now, he’s starting to read chapter books for fun!! His coordination has improved: he can ride a bike and use a pogo stick! He can copy from one place to another with greater ease, do homework more quickly and with less fatigue.

CW Vision therapy graduate 2020 April 13, 2021

Testimonial from VT Grad, M.W., posing next to our graduation handprint canvas

This graduate had 20/20 vision yet still struggled to read. Like many children, his reading challenges involved both visual and auditory components. His visual system showed great improvements (he can catch a ball now!) and now he’s working on the auditory piece.

MW Vision therapy graduate 2020 April 13, 2021

Testimonial from VT Grad, T.F.

“Of all the providers he’s seen, I feel you’ve had the greatest impact on his recovery. I have my son back!” This young man suffered a concussion last fall, followed by debilitating headaches. It took three appointments to complete his initial evaluation because his headaches came on so hard & fast. His parents wondered if he would ever recover. Over time, he was able to read for 20 minutes. Now, he can do 4 hours of school & computer without a headache! His mom and I both struggled to hold back tears at his graduation today.

TF Vision therapy graduate 2020 April 13, 2021

Testimonial from VT Grad, T.E., with his handprint on our graduation canvas

Our latest graduate has noticed a big improvement in reading and comprehension. About his experience here, he said, “I liked that it was helping me get better after my concussion and I walked away better than I thought I’d be.” His advice to others: “Do the homework they give you. It might suck now but it’s worth it in the long run.”

TE Vision therapy graduate 2020 April 13, 2021

Testimonial from VT Grad, E.B., posing with her graduation certificate

Here’s our first Vision Therapy Graduate of 2020! This sweet girl brightens the room wherever she goes. She’s seen improvement in reading, tracking, and spelling. Oh, the places she will go!!

EB Vision therapy graduate 2020 April 13, 2021

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“Dear Amanda and Dr. Carter, Thank you for helping me with my vision. I now spend many hours a day reading and writing for school and I now love reading just for fun. I know this would not have been possible without your help.”

SL Vision therapy graduate 2020 April 13, 2021

DDC & NC handprints on the canvas

We had two vision therapy graduates today: a mother and daughter who worked hard to recover from their visual issues following a car accident last year. So sweet that their fingers intertwine on our graduation board!

DDC and NC Vision therapy graduate 2020 April 13, 2021

Happy young lady

I love that InSight VT was welcoming & friendly to our whole family… I also love that the approach here was so whole body and fun-focused. Exercises were scaled just right in difficulty to keep my daughter progressing without frustration

May 4, 2021

Generic Testimonial Avatar: Male with glassesI tell everyone I can think of that would benefit from vision therapy as I have seen firsthand how effective it can be.

My son, Zachary, has Sensory Processing Disorder and his Occupational Therapist alerted us that he needed to be seen by a developmental optometrist. I had no clue at the time that there was a difference between an optometrist and a developmental optometrist. So, we took Zachary to a regular optometrist and he did the routine tests and it showed Zach had 20/20 vision. I reported this back to the OT and she explained the difference. We didn’t live close to any OD’s so we ended up traveling to Bend since I happened to know Dr. Gabby Marshall. I trusted her and she helped educate us in why VT is valuable and what it could help with. We signed Zach up. I learned a lot during this process and it explained a lot of the struggles that Zachary had with his coordination, writing, and reading.

I knew Zachary had problems with his senses, but I never thought he had vision issues; it just wasn’t obvious. Zachary did not know how to skip, for example, and he was in first grade. The simple explanation is that his rights and lefts were confused which caused a whole host of problems and affected all sorts of issues and he had also not outgrown basic reflexes. He never could jump rope and in Tae Kwon Do, he would literally fall on his face every time he jumped. No matter what the instructor did, he couldn’t teach Zach to jump rope and we were all stumped by this. He couldn’t catch a ball, because he had tracking issues. The list goes on. I was concerned about his reading, writing and behavior. He loved being read too, but did not like to read and would not look at books in the car although he never got car sick. He would move letters from the end of the word to the front of the word and if there were a few sentences on the page, he would shut down.

We did go to several appointments in Bend over the course of a few months, but then we had an upcoming move which put everything on hold. We moved to Southern Oregon and I asked Gabby for a referral and she recommended Dr. Joanna Carter who she had mentored. We finally did restart vision therapy when Zachary was in second grade and he finished while in third grade. It was a process, it required a lot of hard work and home work, which we had trouble with, but although we took longer than was ideal to get through the program it still worked wonders for him.

Dr. Carter was always so upbeat, caring and really worked hard to connect with Zachary and incorporate ideas that would work well with his sensory issues. She had to be creative and figure out how to motivate him when this was not a pleasant task for him. Eventually, Nate also helped out and he was also really great with Zachary.

I didn’t see the changes overnight, usually, except with skipping, but I could tell he was making gains. When Zachary finally graduated it was such a huge relief, but it also showed me how far he had come. He was given Minecraft books as a graduation gift and Zachary went home and read the whole book. I was so excited that he could read a whole book by himself and that he had the desire to do so. This would not have happened without VT. His writing improved and he can tell his right from left now. He can skip, catch a ball, read books and will look at them in the car now. It improved his hand eye coordination and school skills. It was a success in my book. I tell everyone I can think of that would benefit from vision therapy as I have seen firsthand how effective it can be.

Zachary’s parents
Sensory Processing Disorder