Story

We alert you today to a Need that we have worked for several weeks. In fact, you, the Deeder Community, funded some testing for this six-year-old boy just a few weeks ago through Need Alert 18.19. (to see all past needs go to www.oneneed.org). The family is actively involved with one of our local church partners, and the issue is that the boy was doing fine in math, but struggling with reading. The mother and father have been concerned all school year and have been searching for ways to see if there is something they can do to help him. They discovered some testing that might unveil the underlying issue with the delayed development of his reading.

Through your support of Need Alert 18.19, testing was completed, and the doctor determined that the child has Convergence Insufficiency. As you can imagine, the parents were thrilled to figure out the cause of the learning struggle. Convergence Insufficiency is a vision problem treated with vision therapy, and the Ophthalmologist has prescribed a 10-month bi-weekly treatment plan for the child. The treatments are 1 hour in the office every other week and 25 minutes of at home exercises, four days a week. This plan will train his eyes to work correctly. If he can start now, he can be closer to catching up with his peers for 1st grade and hopefully avoid being placed in special education.

The treatments include:
Focusing and Eye Teaming
Perception (B’s and D’s, right/left)
Phonemic Awareness
Enhanced Visualization
Enhanced Tracking

The heartbreaking part for the parents was the realization that they could not afford the $250 testing and the original 10-month therapy price was $3,750. The parents worked with the doctor and informed them that they were working with us due to their inability to pay for the treatment. The doctor agreed to go in half with us and cut the therapy to $1,875.

We want to help the family get their son the therapy he needs to continue his education and development. This relief most likely will have a lifetime of impact on the child.

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