"She was trying to read one day and came to me and said, 'the letters are jumping off the page, mom,' and then I knew that she was really unable to read."
Now 12 years old, Samantha is reading, thanks to Dr. William Padula, a vision specialist and founder of the Padula Institute in Guilford.
Four years ago, special education programs and school eye exams weren't making the grade.
"Her eyes were fine," Christine said. "But she wasn't even showing signs of being able to read. She could get the letters, but she couldn't get the words."
The passkey to Samantha's disability was not in her eyes, Padula discovered, but in a brain dysfunction that created crippling learning, behavioral and academic problems.
"Basically she was a child who didn't want to do a lot of (physical) movement," Christine said. "She had a hard time with reading and writing, and it seemed like her whole world was in disarray."
Padula fitted Samantha with eyeglasses and began vision therapy. By visually tracking letters, or trailing a ball on a string, Samantha slowly learned to make order out of visual chaos.
Samantha also received a neuro-developmental evaluation to establish how her brain dysfunction was affecting her ability to walk, her posture, her sense of space and time, and her self-esteem.
Imagine walking down a supermarket aisle, and as you move along, cans, bags and boxes are flying off the shelves. This, Christine said, is what her daughter experienced visually each day.
"What we learned was that her eyes were the cameras, and they were working fine, but it was how her mind was perceiving the information that was making her visual world a disaster," said Christine.
Today, Samantha, who is in the sixth grade, sees Dr. Padula as often as Christine can drive her in from their Woodbury home.
"She's doing very good," Christine said. "She's not reading precisely at grade level yet. You don't just put on glasses and it's better. It doesn't get fixed overnight. But (Dr. Padula) was so wonderful about helping us."
Educated at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, Padula is a fellow of the Gesell Institute in New Haven and has been practicing optometry in Guilford for 24 years.
What he has learned, he said, is that the combined processing systems of vision - brain and eye - work in tandem. Looking at the visual system not as an eyeball model, but as the brain processing information through the eyes and into the world, Padula and his associates work to treat their patients as more than eye-care cases.
"Eighty percent of learning happens through the visual process," said Padula. A brain dysfunction, for example, can result in double vision. Spatial difficulty, acuity problems and memory lapses can snowball into an agitating world of tottering images for a child struggling to make sense of reality.
From there, Padula said, emerge behavior and academic problems that are sometimes incorrectly diagnosed as Attention Deficit Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
Padula's Visual Development Program examines eye health, but studies more closely the analogue of eye and brain.
Developmental assessment specialist Jacqueline Haines, and family counselor and licensed marriage and family therapist Nancy Martin, are part of the VDP treatment crew. Language arts teacher Bob Halapin steps in with a series of learning systems he has been refining for decades.
"We have a one-of-a-kind team," Padula said.
The model is the first of its kind in the country. And according to Padula, it has cracked the code of reading and other learning problems that few suspected could be traced to brain dysfunction.
"It goes back to understanding how (children) are processing information," Padula said. "And how the process affects their higher functions."
Martin said her role in the program is to create a successful experience for the family.
"I help the families by facilitating discussion that identify areas of stress for the child at home and school," said Martin. "I identify the family's and child's strength and go from there."
Martin may administer stress resiliency techniques, self-care skills and relaxation training.
"The child's disability will impact the family, the schools and the community," Martin said. "The relaxation training has been proven in medical studies to reduce stress-related medical symptoms. The family feels less reactive to stress and better able to problem solve. The result is a boost in self esteem and calmness." This holistic approach is the key to success, Martin said.
"Our work really focuses on wellness," Martin said. "I think it's a win-win for everyone."
Haines is director emeritus of the Gesell Institute. With a background in early childhood education, she enters the picture with developmental assessments of the child and a look at his or her overall maturity level.
"Then we take Dr. Padula's information and my information and see where there is a pattern to help the parents and school understand the basic maturity level of the child," she said.
Social, physical, emotional and cognitive motor skills come under scrutiny. Visual and auditory stability is evaluated.
"I apply drawings, questions, memory tests and more," Haines said. "Ultimately, we are bringing ourselves together as specialists to put the pieces of the puzzle together."
The
Padula Institute of Vision is located at
37 Soundview
Road in Guilford. For more information, call 453-2222.