Adam

My name is Adam. I’m 17 years old and I go to South Elgin Highschool. I’ll be a Senior this year. I enjoy being with friends. I like to play sports; I play football specifically. I like to cook and watch movies. I like Disney movies.

Through my dad, his dad, and my brother, we’ve all had the same problem with comprehension and reading.  Then through football I’ve also had 3 concussions, so that kind of amplified the genetics a lot more. So, I was having a lot of problems just reading things. I could read a menu but I couldn’t tell you a single thing I read. I didn’t comprehend anything and I didn’t understand. I really had to focus on words for them to not go all over the place. It was frustrating. Especially when in school you’re trying to type a paper or do something so simple. Some kids read a paragraph in less than 30 seconds, and I was spending more than 10 minutes on it. So, I came here for that reason, to basically relearn how to read and comprehend things.

I didn’t believe in Vision Therapy at first. When my dad was talking about it, he said, “They’ll fix this problem in like 3 months, you’ll go back to normal.” I didn’t believe it. I’ve had this problem for so long, that I didn’t really know what reading normal was. I am seeing now that when I read something online or I’ll read a part in a magazine that it is so much easier now. I never really understood it.

The top two things that have been impacted were focusing and reading. By focusing I mean that if a ball was coming to me, I could catch it, no problem. It would be just fine. And focusing in class. Being able to sit through a physics class and be excited to learn and know what I am learning instead of being all over the place. With reading, as I said earlier how some kids would take 30 seconds on a passage and I would take over 10 minutes.  I would be up there with the 30 seconds and I would be along with everybody else. I wasn’t straggling behind. Along came with my grades. I did have to work hard for my grades, no doubt, but I didn’t have to work 2 times as hard as everybody else.

All of Vision Therapy surprised me. I didn’t believe it at first. Slowly drill by drill and process by process it all came together. I enjoyed my time. I had a great time. I made some great relationships. All of it surprised me. It was really good.

Everything is different. This means I don’t have to be nervous if I’m at a job and my boss says, “Hey I need you to read this 10-page paper. Tell me what you thing about it. Then you write a paper on it.” Or, “Let me know what you think about it.” I don’t have to be nervous and I don’t have to have a bunch of anxiety about just a double-sided paper anymore. I am at ease a lot more and I know what I am doing. I’ll be more confident in the future with reading and writing and just in myself.

Working with Dr. Lorenzana and her staff was awesome. I made some great relationships. I always looked forward to coming in with Angie especially, just to banter with her about food all of the time. In the end she got me tacos. She is super sweet and amazing and I had an amazing time.

After Alex started vision therapy, his reading levels jumped seven levels and his symptoms disappeared. Dr. Lorenzana is not only extremely knowledgeable, but very compassionate and truly rooting for your child’s success.