Vision Development of WNY

This experience was truly life-changing for our son. We began this process when he was in kindergarten. At school, he was struggling to complete his work, pay attention, and often guessed on his class work. His overall performance was poor. He avoided tasks that required sustained mental effort, gave up, and became frustrated easily. It was heartbreaking and frustrating to see this happening at school because we knew he was capable of so much more and felt his abilities were being greatly underestimated. There was a clear disconnect between what we saw at home and what they saw at school, and we knew something was missing. After countless hours searching online for answers, we met with a physical therapist that specializes in primitive reflexes who promptly referred us to Vision Development of WNY. The evaluation revealed several visual weaknesses, and we learned that many of his struggles at school were rooted in these vision issues. Dr. O'Connor was incredibly kind and thorough, and the staff took the time to walk us through his vision therapy plan and answer all of our questions. We immediately felt at ease and had no hesitation committing to vision therapy. From the very beginning, they made our son feel comfortable, so attending therapy was never a struggle. In fact, he looked forward to going because the sessions were fun and personalized to his needs. His therapist, Ms. Katie, was incredible--always kind, energetic, and encouraging. She knew how to push him forward while building his confidence, and she was truly a crucial part of his success. Dr. Alyssa was there for progress evaluations and she was always supportive and truly an advocate for our son when it came to communicating with the school. Vision therapy is a commitment, and the home exercises are an important part of seeing results. We got into a routine, and for the most part, the activities were fun and not a battle to complete. Consistency and commitment to the program are key. The in-office sessions are amazing, but you do need to be willing to do the homework too. Now that we have completed the program, our son has grown beyond our expectations. He is confident, happy to be at school, keeping up with his classmates, and completing his work without issues. I am so grateful we found Vision Development of WNY at this early stage in his schooling. It broke our hearts to see him struggle for one year--I can't imagine if it had gone on any longer. I truly hope more people become aware of vision therapy. There is hope, and your child does not need to struggle. We can't thank you all enough for what you have done for our son and our family.

I found this place after suffering Binocular Vision Disorder after a bout with covid! My vision was completely off but with the help of this team I have recovered immensely! I don't know what I would have done had they not been an option for me! After light therapy, vision therapy and prism lenses I am much better! I am grateful for every one that has helped me at this place Dr. Alyssa, Dr. Oconnor and of course Kathy my vision therapist whom I've grown to consider to be like family! They are all wonderful caring people! The support staff is fabulous also and everyone truly cares about you!

We had an amazing experience with Vision Therapy of WNY! Our 10-year-old son was struggling with reading and focus, and after working with the team here, we've seen such a remarkable improvement. The therapists were so patient and made each session fun, engaging, and tailored to his needs. Not only has his reading improved, but his confidence and concentration have as well. We couldn't be more grateful for the dedicated and compassionate staff at Vision Therapy of WNY who supported him every step of the way. Highly recommend to any parent considering vision therapy for their child!

Our daughter was a patient at WNY Vision Development. I cannot recommend the program more! The therapies in the program greatly helped and made a huge difference in her ability to read and overall quality of life. She also loved each of the staff members there and both Doctors. The whole team there was more like family than healthcare providers. Everyone was trying to get to the root of our daughter's vision issues instead of a surface diagnosis. We felt completely disregarded by other doctors and institutions. We were blessed to have the services of WNY Vision Dev - Highly recommend. You can visit and learn more too before the full program.

Our daughter Violet initially started vision therapy after undergoing surgery to correct the alignment of her eyes. We continued to notice her struggle to navigate around safely and started seeing her eyes cross again. Vision therapy with Miss Kathy at Vision Development of WNY helped her avoid the need for another corrective surgery and she has drastically improved her balance, coordination, and navigating her surroundings. We are thrilled with her progress! Violet says, "I love all the fun activities. My eyes are focused, straight, doing well and ready for the day!"

Optometrist Vision Therapy-- The entire staff there are caring, kind, fun, sweet, knowledgeable and amazing. They all helped my daughter with her vision difficulties that has greatly improved her grades in school, her confidence and her dancing abilities. I highly recommend them.

Part 1 of 2 I had been told my whole life that I had perfect sight. I had consistently tested 20/20 at every doctor appointment and school eye test. So surely as a high school graduate and now a college graduate it couldn't be my eyes that were the problem. I spent months studying and trying to retain information that I had already learned to pass my national license exam. I didn't pass the first two attempts and I was becoming increasingly worried as I am only allowed three attempts. A recommendation was made to me and an appointment for an evaluation was scheduled. Optometric vision therapy wasn't something I had ever heard of and realistically I wasn't expecting it to be something I needed. I had convinced myself that there was no way that my struggles with studying and exam taking could be an issue stemming from my eyes. On the day of my evaluation i was greeted at the front desk to sign in and then met with Dr. O'Connor. Dr. O'Connor is truly amazing, he walked me through each exercise and made jokes and small talk while he preformed my evaluation. The final exercise was the functional field test, which in my head I was obviously acing. When the test was over and Dr. O showed me the two circles in the middle of the paper I knew in that moment that he was clearly going to be impressed with my work. As it turned out two circles in the middle of the page showed an issue with my visual field. Dr. O explained that my eyes were struggling and all of the issues I had been dealing with actually had a real cause. I was told that my eyes had to work so much harder to relay information to my brain that when I had been spending hours studying I would only have been retaining the first fifteen to thirty minutes. Shocked would be an understatement, I couldn't believe that I had spent the last year studying and feeling as though I hadn't been "smart enough" to pass when all along my brain and eyes were just doing the best they could. Dr. O started me on light therapy and an infinity walk, all of which I was able to do from the comfort of my home. The changes weren't immediate, and for the first few weeks I wasn't sure the light therapy was doing anything for me. Don't get me wrong staring into a colored light for thirty minutes a day was fun, but I had wanted to feel real change in myself. I can vividly remember the moment I realized that the light therapy was working. I was on my way home from work a few weeks after starting my light therapy and I was stopped at a red light. This was an intersection that I went through hundreds of times in my life, I knew when the light would change and when the arrows would show up. But what I had never seen was the car in the next lane pulling up next to me in my peripheral vision. I turned my head to the side to see the car fully then looked back at the light and focused on what I could see around me. Clear as day there was the car next to me, a sight up until then I had never seen or even knew that that's how everyone else was seeing the world. As to be expected at my follow up appointment my retake of the functional field test was better than my original. For the next few months I continued with the light therapy, infinity walks and my studies. Each follow up appointment I continued to see improvement with all of my numbers and Dr.O even changed my glasses prescription to give myself a little boost when using my IPad to study or reading materials for an extended time. Part 2 found in the photo

Vision Development of WNY made my hopes of resuming daily activities after a serious medical event a reality. Optometric Vision Therapy was all new to me, but Dr. O'Connor, Miss Kathy, and the entire staff were encouraging, supportive, patient, and professional throughout the entire program. The process was challenging and interesting. They also provided activities for home support, keeping my family involved. The entire team demonstrated a committed and caring approach to improving the patient's quality of life. Their help and expertise made a huge difference for me.