When Krystle’s daughter was struggling to read at a first-grade level at age 10, multiple diagnoses and years of Orton-Gillingham programs weren’t helping. Then she discovered something surprising: it wasn’t dyslexia at all – it was a treatable vision problem called convergence insufficiency. Today, her daughter reads 800 words per minute at college level.

In this eye-opening episode, learn how vision problems are often misdiagnosed as dyslexia, and discover a promising solution that’s helping students worldwide overcome reading challenges. Perfect for parents whose children are struggling with reading or have been diagnosed with dyslexia.

Visit Vision Reading Academy: https://visionreadingacademy.com

Chapters:

Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction
01:17 – Krystle’s Daughter’s Story
04:16 – What is Convergence Insufficiency?
07:53 – How to Identify Vision Problems vs. Dyslexia
11:33 – The Assessment Process
13:55 – How the Program Works
16:45 – How Screen Time Affects Vision
20:45 – When to Worry About Reading Struggles
25:35 – The Problem with Labels and Diagnoses
29:30 – Success Stories and Transformation
34:30 – How to Get Help
37:18 – Final Thoughts and Resources

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Transcript

Charlie Deist: Krystle, it’s great to have you here.

Krystle: Hi Charlie, it’s nice to be here.

Charlie: I’m conducting this interview as one of the first with a provider of what I’ll call à la carte educational services. We’re seeing in the landscape of education that parents are having their needs met from various sources, some within the traditional school system, some outside. There’s a whole new world of opportunities emerging.

Previously, parents facing challenges with their children, whether in learning to read or struggling with a particular subject, felt confined to one available system. But when I heard your story and the story behind Vision Reading Academy, I was stopped in my tracks. I thought to myself, this is something we need to get on the record as a kind of public service announcement.

I’d like to start by hearing more about your story and how you came to found Vision Reading Academy in the first place.

Krystle: Just as you were talking about how parents feel stuck, lost, and like there’s only one path for their child, I took that path with my daughter. I was stuck for four and a half years. I tried everything with her. I got the diagnosis, I did everything. I went down the path I thought I was supposed to go down, and it wasn’t helping.

Krystle’s Daughter’s Struggle [01:11]

At this point, she was almost 11 and reading at a beginning first-grade level. It was horrendous, to say the least. I had pulled her out of public school to see if I could help her more and got a little more information about her frustrations and where she was at. That was very helpful.

It was like pulling teeth to get her to read, to remember what she was reading, to sound out words from one line and then those exact same words five lines down. She couldn’t recognize them, and it was very frustrating.

Searching for Solutions [02:18]

I was at the point where I thought I needed to start making a list of trades for her that didn’t involve reading, writing, spelling, or math because she couldn’t do those things no matter how hard I tried. I was doing school with her year-round, not traditional public school where we’d do it for so many weeks out of the year and then take the summer off. I was doing school with her every single day except Sunday, and sometimes even on Saturday. And nothing. She wasn’t progressing at all.

I did all of the Orton-Gillingham programs for dyslexia, and nothing was working. So I was going to start listing trades she could learn to help her succeed in life as an adult. But then I thought, that’s not good enough. I felt like I was giving up on my daughter.

Discovery of Convergence Insufficiency [03:18]

So I started doing research. I started talking to different experts who informed me about convergence insufficiency. I discovered that convergence insufficiency was something discovered back in the 1980s. It’s been around, people have known about it, but it hasn’t been mainstream. People don’t really understand it or know about it.

Developing a Solution [03:46]

From there, the research started coming. I began doing different things with her. Being a research scientist and working with the human body, I took that knowledge into play and worked with different specialists like medical massage therapists and reading scientists. From there, I developed exercises and this reading program. My daughter was essentially my guinea pig.

I had a mentor at the time who was guiding me, saying, “Let’s try this with her.” There were things I implemented that even surprised him. He asked, “How are you getting her to progress so quickly? What are you doing?” And I explained the methods I was using.

The Birth of Vision Reading Academy [04:40]

That’s how Vision Reading Academy was born – out of the desperation of trying to help my own child. Now, she’s 13 years old, reading at college level at over 800 words per minute. She can read a 600-page book in two days, and that’s while doing her schoolwork and hanging out with friends. She’s not just sitting there with the book in front of her face the entire time. She reads tremendously fast.

Charlie: This is obviously not just an isolated case. This struggle is shared by who knows how many thousands of parents who have to question, “Is my child just a little bit behind? Will they catch up? Will they sort of grow out of their reading struggles?” In some cases, that might happen naturally. And in other cases, you mentioned the Orton-Gillingham method. Could you elaborate on that?

Krystle: Orton-Gillingham is basically the mainstream program for dyslexia. There are all sorts of curricula founded on the Orton-Gillingham-based program to help kids with true cognitive dyslexia learn to read. However, when they don’t have cognitive dyslexia, and it’s an ocular motor issue, they’re stuck at a standstill. They can only get so far, and people think, “I guess this is it. I guess this is all they can achieve.” But a lot of times, it’s more because it’s an ocular motor issue instead of a cognitive issue.

Evolution in Reading Methods [06:29]

Charlie: It’s beautiful that we’ve had an evolution in recent years where people are waking up to the idea that there’s not a one-size-fits-all reading method. If you have cognitive dyslexia, there are methods, and maybe schools are getting better at identifying who might fit into that category. Some people might find that the Orton-Gillingham method is exactly what they need to get their child unstuck.

But there is a fraction who will go into those programs and still won’t have success. You were in that category. It was only because of your background as a detective and a researcher, your persistence, that led you to uncover this. You mentioned convergence insufficiency, which I think is really what your whole program is based around, helping students overcome. Could you talk a little more about that as an ocular motor issue as opposed to a cognitive one like traditional dyslexia?

Understanding Convergence Insufficiency [07:45]

Krystle: Absolutely. Let’s talk about why it’s missed so often and why it gets diagnosed as dyslexia. Unless you have a neurological dyslexia test done, you’re having it tested through a reading test. There’s no differentiation between it being an ocular issue versus a cognitive issue because you’re using your eyes for the test.

Many schools don’t know the difference. They don’t know that there is a difference. I’m actually having different school districts reach out to me asking how they can get us into their schools to assess students and understand exactly what’s happening.

The Mechanics of Convergence Insufficiency [08:30]

When I explain the difference between convergence insufficiency and cognitive dyslexia, we talk about how the eyes have to work together. There are 14 different muscles that control the eyes. If even one of those muscles isn’t functioning properly, it affects how that eye works.

We need to make sure that the eyes are converging at one singular gaze point. If they’re not, the eyes have to work harder together, which often leads to comprehension issues. Kids will work so hard to try and read something, but they’ve expended so much energy to read that one word or phrase that they forget completely about what they read. All their energy went to their eyes trying to read the letters and words on the page.

The Vision Reading Academy Approach [09:30]

That’s where the difference comes in. We want to make sure we’re working with the eyes and looking at the eyes. From there, we work with brain integration. We ensure that the brain is integrated properly, both with the right and left hemispheres, as well as integrated with the entire body and the eyes. It’s a well-rounded process, but we start with convergence insufficiency.

That’s why we do free assessments. We want to make sure that we’re not just having kids sign up for reading tutoring. We’re a more complex program than that. We want to ensure that what they truly have going on is something with their eyes.

Charlie: Is there any data on the prevalence of this in the general population compared to cognitive dyslexia? Do you have an estimate of how many children as a percentage might be struggling with this without knowing it?

Krystle: I think it’s very high. Right now, the statistic for dyslexia is about one in four, so 25% of children have dyslexia according to the most recent statistics. However, of the hundreds of students who have come into our program previously diagnosed with dyslexia, 100% of the time, they have not truly had dyslexia. They’ve had an ocular motor issue.

Charlie: That’s an astounding rate. Can you give an overview of how you conduct the assessment to identify that this is, in fact, the problem?

The Assessment Process [11:55]

Krystle: Absolutely. It’s super easy. The assessment sometimes takes no longer than five minutes. It’s all over Zoom, not in person. I have the mom move a pencil or pen in certain directions because I’m looking at each of those different muscles and watching how they’re controlling the eyes together and separately.

Once a student has this issue, you can see it very quickly. It’s not something where you think, “Well, maybe.” It’s very black and white. It’s either there or it’s not. It’s almost stupidly easy to see this, but because it’s not something that has been widely known, nobody knows to look for it.

There are only a select few people out there who recognize this as an issue that needs to be fixed. People are seeking help with vision therapy, but beyond that, they don’t want to use glasses or other interventions. That’s where we come into play, helping with essentially physical therapy exercises for the eyes. We’re helping with reading exercises to train the eyes at that singular gaze point and working with that convergence to make sure the eyes are converging together.

Charlie: So the solution is like a workout regimen for your eyes. Are parents equipped to take these lessons and work with their children, or do the children typically come in and work with a coach for the duration of the exercises? How does it break down in terms of what they’re doing with you and your team versus what they take away as homework?

The Vision Reading Academy Program [14:14]

Krystle: When they come and onboard onto the program, we assign them to a one-on-one coach because we want to make sure that coach is watching them and ensuring they’re progressing properly throughout the program. We start with base exercises. Just like you’re not going to go to the gym and pick up a 110-pound weight and try to curl it right off the bat, we start with base exercises to get the eyes used to working properly.

As we continue to awaken those muscles and help them grow, we start adding more exercises. The program is set up so that students meet with a certified coach twice a week for 30 minutes. We don’t want to tire out their eyes or get them overstimulated or frustrated. We want to make sure we’re growing them but not pushing them to the level of frustration every single time.

Every three weeks for the first 12 weeks, an assessor will evaluate their eyes to see how that growth is happening with those muscles. It’s very clear when students are doing their eye exercises because there are monumental changes in how their eyes move. You’ll also see the difference in the reading program side of it, where their ability to read and their frustration level with reading completely changes.

Reading becomes easier for them, their confidence level increases, and they get this glow about them. They get this brightness in their eyes because they’re finally able to accomplish something they thought they would never be able to do.

Historical Context and Modern Challenges [18:06]

Charlie: It’s interesting to think about how, for most of human history, the average person wasn’t required to read for their job. Farmers in the 18th century pretty much didn’t have to read, certainly not the volume that’s demanded of a typical knowledge worker in today’s economy. Do you think there could be any sense in which screens or the prevalence of the written word is creating the insufficiency in the first place? Or do you think it’s just something that has always been there, and now we’re starting to discover it?

Krystle: This is my theory, though I haven’t found any actual published research on it yet. As a research scientist, I want to gather enough data to publish my own research eventually. But my theory is that it is more prevalent now, and I think the reason is that we have screens right in front of us, close up.

We have kids watching TV or things on their parents’ phones, maybe five inches away from their face. Even when watching a TV screen across the room, you can observe someone’s eyes making slight movements. There isn’t a lot of movement happening with the eyes when looking at close-up screens.

Because of this, I believe it’s essentially paralyzing these muscles. They’re atrophying because there isn’t that workout, that movement of the eyes like there has been in the past. In the past, the majority of entertainment for children was being outside and playing. They were running around, watching balls flying, catching balls, and having to utilize their eyes essentially all day long, every day.

Now we’ve got screens in our school systems, screens at home, kids doing their homework on screens, playing video games like Minecraft. While these games might help with coding and other skills, I believe they’re a huge detriment to the actual function of their eyes as a whole.

Again, that’s my belief. I don’t have enough research yet to prove it. But from what I’ve seen, I believe it is much more common than it was even years ago. I have parents who were diagnosed with dyslexia as children and still struggle with reading. They’ll look at a menu and only look for the pictures because it’s too difficult to actually read the words.

It was still an issue years ago, but it wasn’t as prominent as it is now because there wasn’t that access to screens and all the mainstream technology we have now.

The Value of Diagnosis vs. Labeling [28:28]

Charlie: What would you say is the value of a diagnosis, and how do you distinguish that from a label in the case of a special needs student?

Krystle: As far as the value of a diagnosis in what we do in our program, I don’t think it’s beneficial at all. I don’t believe it’s helpful. I think it hinders the child more than it helps them because they go through the rest of their life thinking, “I’m this way. I’m not good enough because Bobby doesn’t have that same label.”

This is something that can very much be fixed and completely reversed. We take these kids and we change their lives. We change their futures completely. They go from being a broken shell of a child to a child that can achieve and do anything they want to.

We have students who would come to us and say, “No, I don’t want to go to college. Why would I want to go to college and pay somebody to torture me?” Now she’s in college. It was simply because all she needed was for her eyes to work properly for things to be easy for her. Her junior and senior years of high school were a complete breeze for her, so different compared to anything she had ever done before.

Success Stories and Medical Recognition [00:06]

We actually just had a student last week reach out to me. She went to her eye doctor just to see if her prescription had changed. The eye doctor asked the mom, “What are you doing? Her eyes have changed so much. She needs a new prescription. It’s a very, very low prescription now.”

The mom explained about our reading program and eye therapy program. The doctor was impressed and asked for our contact information to start sending patients our way. They recognized that this is something everybody needs to know about – that there is help to strengthen their eyes.

It’s a side note that while we’re supposed to be helping kids with their vision, reading, math, spelling, and other school subjects, we’re actually helping their eyesight as well with the exercises we’ve developed. We don’t guarantee that there’s going to be a drop in prescription strength, but it is something that we’re seeing results with as a happy coincidence.

Charlie: Credit to that optometrist for wanting to send people your way. I feel like the industry or the medical guild has created a whole industry for themselves around selling glasses and prescriptions where you’re always going back and getting the stronger prescription. I wonder how widely known it is that myopia is a reversible condition. The problem is that there’s not as much money in sometimes healing the disorder as there is in treating it in perpetuity.

Krystle: I agree with you. Follow the money, Charlie. You’ll find it. But that’s why we don’t want to create revolving doors and revolving customers with us. It’s a one-and-done deal. We want them to come back to us to tell us their successes, that they’re in college, that they have amazing careers now, that they’re doing amazing things with their life. That’s what we want to have them come back for, not because they need more help.

The Impact of Labels and Diagnoses [00:08]

Krystle: Yes, her junior and senior years were a breeze, and now she’s in college following her dreams – dreams she never knew were possible. It all was because she just needed help with her eyes. As simple as that. But what changed the trajectory of her mind and her schooling, and thinking that she wasn’t good enough, was because she was diagnosed with dyslexia. She just said, “I’m not good enough. I can’t do it.”

That’s why I don’t believe in diagnosis as far as our programs go. I do believe that diagnosis can be helpful to get the help that a child needs. So I’m not completely against diagnoses. However, I think they need to be dialed back a little bit and given with caution because that label will be carried with that child for the rest of their life.

You want to be 100% certain.