We began noticing our oldest daughter, Mackenzie, struggling in preschool. She could figure out how anything worked, put together puzzles with no difficulty, tie knots and other thought-provoking activities. She struggled to learn her letters and numbers bysight. The letters ‘d’, ‘b’, ‘p’, ‘q’, and ‘g’ were a challenge for her to tell apart. Believing that she was intelligent, just having trouble with a few things, we enrolled her in kindergarten. Her being able to identify letters and numbers did not improve. Now, she also struggled with reading and writing both letters and numbers. She advanced to 1st grade and from the beginning, she was behind. Every night completing homework was a challenge. She didn’t want to read and no matter how much we practiced with her shecould not master her letters and numbers. At the beginning of 1st grade, we began meeting with her teacher trying to understand why she was having so much difficulty with reading, writing and number identification.
We took her to an eye doctor who prescribed glasses. We were hopeful that would be the answer, it wasn’t. The school completed testing with mixed results. Her intelligence tested fine, yet she struggled to read, write and recognize numbers. At the beginning of the second semester, we had her taking ½ day of kindergarten and ½ day of first grade. She was getting extra assistance in classes and was part of ‘diebels’. The school team tested Mackenzie for autism and thought she might have ‘Asperger Syndrome.’ After much research and discussion with our family physician, we didn’t agree with the diagnosis. She stayed in 1st grade the next year and did well enough to advance to 2nd grade although she continued to have the same struggles.
During the summer, we changed physicians. When explaining what we had been going through with Mackenzie, the new physician recommended we see the Gunderson’s to see if Mackenzie might have a vision development issue. Dr. Kim and her assistant both believed Mackenzie had a vision development problem and recommended we meet with Dr. Bauernfiend. Dr. Bauernfiend’s testing resulted in the identification of vision development issues and 6 months of therapy.
As soon as Mackenzie began the therapy, we began to see a difference. Mackenzie even commented one time, that she used to see ‘white’ when she tried to read, now she could see the words. Mackenzie does not need to wear glasses for her vision and she has no difficulty with writing, ‘d’, ‘b’, ‘g’, ‘q’, and ‘p’. She reads well and makes A’s in spelling, reading and math. At the beginning of 2nd grade, we met with her teacher to discuss her vision development and the therapy. Her teacher had read her file and knew how much Mackenzie had struggled in school work. By our parent/teacher conference, her teacher was excited by the change she saw in Mackenzie’s abilities. No more crying because she ‘has’ to read. Now she reads and enjoys it! Thank you Dr. Bauernfiend!