
How An Optometrist Changed My Life Essay Winner
Dec 18, 2022
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We are honored to be featured in an essay from our patient, Ryan, who wrote about how optometric vision therapy "changed his life." The best part is that Ryan took home the grand prize in the 2022 Georgia Optometric Association essay contest. Way to go, Ryan!
The announcement of Ryan's success was published online December 16, 2022. You can view a short video of Dr. Rouw sharing about Ryan's condition and Ryan explaining how vision therapy has helped him:
Full article below:
The Georgia Optometric Association is pleased to announce the winner of the 2022 "How an Optometrist Changed My Life" contest is Ryan, a 10-year-old from Suwanee, who entered the contest on his own.
This bright young student thought he was going to have to deal with double vision forever. According to his mother, the vision challenge made it difficult to complete standardized testing answer bubble sheets because he saw two rows of bubbles and had to guess the location on the page of the correct circle. This made it difficult for teachers to get an accurate assessment of what he knew, for example.
Ryan has spent the past 11 months undergoing vision therapy provided by Drs. Joe Rouw, FAAO, FCOVD, and Nadira Shadeed, OD, FCOVD, in practice together at Pediatric Vision Development Center of Gwinnett and of Forsyth. Ryan is now able to see clearly, do well in school and enjoy playing his favorite sport, cricket.
He was motivated to enter the contest by the beneficial vision therapy he experienced and the prospect of winning that brand-new Apple iPad.
Ryan was recently congratulated by Drs. Joe Rouw and Nadira Shadeed when he received the grand prize from GOA President Dr. John Titak and Bryan Markowitz, GOA executive director.