DrSamBerne

While I was attending The Gesell Institute to study how to treat children with learning difficulties, we invited John Streff, OD, an expert in the area of child development and vision therapy to give us a lecture on his wonderful approach.

During his presentation, he did the most amazing demonstration for us. He called up one of my classmates, and he took out this device called a Retinoscope and began shining it in my classmate’s eyes to observe them. Dr. Streff instructed this man to imagine that he was playing tennis and then Dr. Streff proceeded to tell my classmate every single time he hit the ball in this imaginary game. After the third time my classmate started laughing, and asked Dr. Streff what it is he was doing. Dr. Streff said that he was just watching my friend’s eyes.

Then Dr. Streff said he wanted to do this demonstration again. This time, as the classmate imagined his tennis game, Dr. Streff again watched his eyes using the Retinoscope. Streff predicted every time the man hit an imaginary forehand, backhand, or lob. Dr. Streff’s predictions were so precise, we were all speechless. It was a profound demonstration for our class.

I realized from this demonstration that light not only enters the eye but it also exits the eye. It is how the light exits our eye that reflects our creativity and self-expression. Next time you have the chance, look at an infant playing and you will see the glimmer in his eyes.

Another aspect I realized back then was that, in the vision care field, we are led to believe that the eye is meant “to look” at something. But the eye looks at nothing until the light grabs it. The eye is not looking for the light, but the light is actually looking for the eye. That is why we say “it caught my eye.” The “it” causes the eye to reflexively move toward the light, then the body follows to re-orient itself and align with the eye, and we begin to be guided along our journey in life.

The light creates a oneness between the eyes and body, and we experience a clarity. But I am not talking about an optical clarity, rather the clarity is an insight where we may say: “I see”! The moral of the story is that instead of looking at life, what if life is looking for us! When life looks at us, our awareness helps us be in the flow, and we can experience effortlessness.

I have just completed a new 2011 update of my book Creating Your Personal Vision: A Mind-Body Guide For Better Eyesight, now available in electronic form.

Please join me for one of my upcoming workshops.

During a recent radio interview, the host asked me to briefly define Behavioral Optometry.  My response was: “Behavioral Optometry is a wonderful, drug-free approach that treats the causative factors of vision problems and not just symptoms.  Vision therapy helps the eyes, brain, and body communicate in a more integrated fashion.  This eye-brain connection is possible, because the retina is the only tissue in the body that originates from the brain during the embryonic stage of development.  When we work with vision, we are really improving brain function.”

Many callers to the show asked about the relationship between vision problems and the autism to A.D.D. spectrum of disorders.  One parent, whose son had undergone strabismus surgery (eye muscle surgery to fix a crossed eye) and been also diagnosed with ADHD, reported that she had been thrilled to discover vision therapy to help her child learn to use the two eyes together.

Strabismus surgery had offered a somewhat cosmetic cure, but it was vision therapy that created a functional cure.  After the surgery, she was told her son had “stereo blindness.”  With vision therapy, his attention was much improved and his impulsivity was reduced about 90%.  His stereo blindness was gone, and he was using both of his eyes together.

Next month, at the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine (ISSSEEM) Conference in Colorado, the theme is “Light, Vision and Consciousness.”  One question I am asked often is whether light is good for the eyes.  Since the retina is like a satellite dish and is comprised of photoreceptors whose function is to capture the light, I would answer, “Yes!” And, different colors can improve the retinal function.  Generally, red acts as a stimulant, green is balancing, and blue is relaxing.  Different protocols are used to help improve vision based on the problems that are presented.  Here is a bit of homework for you:  Next time you are aware of yourself “seeing,” let the light catch your eye and notice how effortless that feels.

I have just completed a new edition of my book:  Creating Your Personal Vision:  A Mind – Body Guide for Better Eyesight.  You can order both a hard copy or download it from my website.

The average American reads at an 8^th grade level.  As a culture, we are reading less and watching more TV and videos.  I am concerned about our reduced reading proficiency.  Over many years of helping children and adults improve their reading, I have found there are three main factors in reading efficiency: being able to recognize words, being able to break down words, and being able to understand what we read. One of the effective strategies I have employed is teaching people how to visualize when they read, i.e. seeing with the brain to process language and thought.  Excellent visual imagery skills have a direct correlation to how we think critically, comprehend and express ourselves through the language channel.

There are many effective educational reading programs offered in today’s school systems.  My intention is to educate parents to find a reading program that matches a child’s learning style. For example, are we primarily a visual, auditory, or proprioceptive (feeling) learner? No matter what our learning style is, a well functioning visual system (tracking, focusing, and visual coordination) is a pre-requisite for becoming a proficient reader.

One great way to improve visual imagery with your child is to read to her and then ask specific questions about the story.  Thus, she begins to “make her own movie” about what you have read.  For example, some questions like: “Can you tell me what the people look like in your story.  Can you describe the place where they are? What do you feel hearing this story?”

Reading is an essential skill in learning, and our visual system is a key component in that process. Vision is much more than being able to read the 20/20 measurement on an eye chart.  Vision is how we process information with our brains and bodies.  Movement, balance, posture, and memory are components of vision.  Vision is a learned and developed skill.  To learn more about vision and learning, visit my website.

The November, 2010 Hawaii Dolphin Wellness & Vision Retreat was a “swimming” success!

Read on!

Introduction

Swimming with Manta Rays

Encounters with Dolphins & Babies – Bottlenose & Spinners

I am responding to the article on Autism in this month’s Los Angeles Magazine.

I was so thrilled to see your obvious commitment to educating readers about the necessary holistic approaches for the treatment of this epidemic.

As a holistic health practitioner and author, I have been recognized as a leading expert in the field of Behavioral/Neurodevelopment Optometry and Vision Therapy for than twenty-five years.  I have developed an innovative method called Developmental Learning Program (DLP), a revolutionary approach that offers alternatives to families and children who suffer from all types of learning and behavioral disabilities including children and adults diagnosed in the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

My intention has been to offer holistic therapies and help people understand them and use them to make their lives better. I have helped over 5,000 families using a combination of holistic therapies that have been very supportive and have helped patients function in a more neurotypical way.  Understanding each child is like solving a puzzle.  It requires a combination of science, intuition and spirit while working with the child and the family as a unit.   Together we look at levels of health that involve the interweaving of physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological aspects.

I have utilized a Neuro-Developmental philosophy, which means that I assess and compare the child’s chronological age to the developmental performance age and enter with interventions at the child’s developmental age.  For example, if a 7 year old has not extinguished his primitive survival reflex patterns and the school is pushing for tutoring math and reading, the child is not going to progress.  It is far better to meet the child where he is developmentally than to try to force him to function at the “expected chronological” age level.

If heavy metals are found in the patient’s system in a lab test, chelation therapy may create more stress if a child’s immune and detoxification systems are depleted.  Instead, using other forms of detoxification processes that are gentler can not only help release toxins from the body but also boost one’s immune system at the same time.  We must quit giving shot gun approaches and really assess the variety of risk factors and treat each child on an individual basis.

As discussed in your powerful article, the current dogma  that says “the window”  for sensory motor processing has to be acquired in the first three or four years of a child’s life or it will never be acquired is not true.  I am so glad that the writer persevered!  The brain has enough plasticity (even in adults) so that sensory motor processing can be acquired.

We must recognize that any type of birth trauma such as inducing birth, C-Section, Forceps Delivery, or Fetal Distress affects neurological development.  Manual therapies like Craniosacral Therapy can help release birth traumas that can stimulate a child’s motor and cognitive processes.

One may posit that long-term molecular approaches like drug therapies disconnect the child from mind-body integration.  Subtle Energy Therapies like light/color/sound/homeopathy, essential oils, flower essences, herbs  can have a supportive and positive effect on children with ASD.  I use Electrophotonic Imaging, a Science and  Mathematical Russian technology that monitors the biofields where we can see many imbalances before physical symptoms occur.  I can monitor what subtle energies are working and fine tune what is the best treatment modality based on the biofield measurements.

And finally on vaccinations, we are in the beginning stages of all the biological mechanisms and genetic factors involved in vaccine-induced, Neuro-immune dysfunction that can cause autism in some children.  We all must make a commitment to explore how exposure or lack of exposure to viral and bacterial infections and environmental toxins interact with vaccines and genetic factors to increase chronic disease and disability risks for children.

The key to prevention and successful treatment of autism lies with the scientists and doctors with vision and integrity who will conduct research that will answer questions that remain about the disorders on a patient-by-patient basis.