NeuroSensory Center of Eastern Pennsylvania

Happy Nurses Week to our 3 amazing nurses here at Neurosensory Center of Eastern PA! Pictured here are our nurses, Shelley Sauers, Sheila Becker, and Patty Haydt who work hard to make sure our patients are all well taken care of. They are dedicated to the work they do at our practice and we are so grateful to have them on our team.

May is National Stroke Awareness Month! Did you know that in the United States, about 800,000 people each year suffer a stroke and approximately two-thirds of these individuals survive and require rehabilitation, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Although stroke is a disorder of the brain, it can affect the entire body. Depending on the location of the stroke, people may suffer loss of motor, neurological and perceptual function, as wel...l as experience double vision, blurring, headaches, or inability to detect obstacles. About two-thirds of stroke survivors have visual impairment that typically relates to diminished central or peripheral vision, eye movement abnormalities, or visual perceptual defects. Given the high rate of visual symptoms and known impact, it is recommended that all stroke survivors receive comprehensive screening for visual disorders in the early days following a stroke as they may warrant referral for a specialist's assessment and targeted treatment specific to their type of visual impairment. The goals of rehabilitation are to help survivors become independent as possible and to attain the best possible quality of life. Even though rehabilitation does not "cure" the effects of stroke in that it does not reverse brain damage, rehabilitation can substantially help people achieve the best possible long-term outcome. Have you or someone you know suffered from a stroke? At Neurosensory Center of Eastern PA, we have the resources to help. Contact us today for more info. 570.763.0054

With April coming to a close in just a few days, we wanted to recognize our talented Occupational Therapist, Jeanette Yatsko, as April marks National Ocupational Therapist month. Jeanette administers Vision Therapy and Interactive Metronome to our patients and works very closely with Dr Becker to help our patients in their visual/vestibular/cognitive rehabilitation. She also helps manage Web Vision Therapy for our patients who are doing home treatment. Her ultimate goal is for our patients to become more independent, reach their maximum functional goals, and to improve their quality of life. Jeanette’s sunny personality not only brightens your day, but also pushes you to do the very best you can to maximize your results in our therapy rooms. Thank you Jeanette for all you do at our practice!

Over the past few weeks we've been doing posts on Autism and your child's diet. We wanted to wrap up this series with two charts based off of studies and scientific evidence that show how improvement in diet can help your child. To learn more on this topic we encourage you to visit Julie Matthews, a well known autism nutritionist, the developer of Nourishing Hope," web site at the below link. She has published books and developed programs on this topic that can help your c...hild's autism and ADHD symptoms. https://nourishinghope.com/books-programs/ At NeuroSensory Center of Eastern PA, we believe that diet does matter and as a patient at your practice, will help to educate you on this topic. Ready to get started? Call us today at 570.763.0054

Today is National Administrative Professionals Day and we wanted to take the time to recognize two of our staff that contribute so much to our practice! Darlene Sabo is our Administrative Assistant who carries out all front desk activities and keeps our office running smoothly and efficiently. She handles appointments and scheduling, medical insurance, works with our billing company, does our ordering and so much more. You will see her smiling face upon entering our office an...d she will make sure that your experience will be pleasant from start to finish! Tricia Mohl wears many hats in our office! She is certified in our Sensory View Testing and will take our patients back to the testing room where she expertly runs computerized diagnostic tests. She is also certified in administering Interactive Metronome therapy which helps our patients with cognitive, memory, and attention issues. When she is not busy with those activities she is completing all medical records requests, filing, and assisting Darlene with various front desk tasks. You will never find either of these two valued employees idle and we are extremely fortunate to have them as part of our team here at the NeuroSensory Center!

Does your child complain about headaches or fall asleep when they're reading? Have they been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder but the treatment plan doesn't seem to be working? Your child could be in need of vision therapy. Vision therapy teaches a person how to control their eyes to focus and to team and move simultaneously through print so they can work with efficiency and comfort. Vision and vision processing doesn't always come naturally and recognizing that a ch...ild needs vision therapy can be difficult. Unfortunately, many children are misdiagnosed with ADD as it does carry some of the same symptoms that are related to visual problems. At Neurosensory Center of Eastern PA, your child will be carefully assessed with a sensory motor evaluation where we determine how they align their eyes and if they are utilizing both eyes at the same time. Once we determine if vision therapy is needed, we put together a custom vision therapy plan unique to your child's needs. To learn more about vision therapy in children, check out this video done by World Health News. Call us today to learn more. 570.763.0054 https://www.youtube.com/watch

The first-ever meta-analysis looking at the use of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness-based interventions for the effective treatment of chronic concussion symptoms, has just been released and is offering hope to those still struggling with their symptoms. The study was recently published in the journal Applied Psychology: Health and Well-being. One of the main results that was found in the study was significant reductions in depression and fatigue. The meta-analysis found t...hat mind-body interventions consistently provided symptom improvement across nearly all measured outcomes. The trends were remarkable, the researchers noted, because of the variety of patients enrolled in the studies, and the known difficulty of relieving chronic concussion symptoms. There is still much more to be studied and researched on this topic but it may be worth adding this into a post concussion treatment plan. One can start small with a mediation or yoga app. Setting aside just 10 minutes of time a day to practice this and staying consistent with it could help you see results over time. Click below to read the full article. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releas/2020//201130131439.htm

Do you enjoy listening to podcasts? Looking for something interesting to listen to on your drive to work or your next road trip? Check out the latest episode of "Mother's Guide Through Autism Podcast," where Patricia Lemer is interviewed and discusses "Why Every Child with Autism Needs a Vision Exam." Lemer, is long-standing advocate for developmental optometry and author of the widely acclaimed book, "Outsmarting Autism." She is a licensed professional counselor who holds a ...Masters of Education in Counseling and Learning Disabilities from Boston College and a Masters in Business from Johns Hopkins University. The interview discusses the need for parents to find the right kind of doctor to evaluate the visual needs of their child. Someone who can differentiate between eyesight and vision on a clinical basis, and that is an optometrist, not an ophthalmologist. Patty also notes how some children on the autistic spectrum are highly peripheral, while others are highly focal. The problem in many instances is that a child gets locked into one mode or the other. In Patty’s words, Inflexible behavior is a sign of inflexible vision, and as we loosen up the vision, we loosen up the behavior. She emphasizes that this is why it is crucial that every child with an autism diagnosis should have a developmental vision exam with a developmental optometrist. This podcast is definitely worth a listen. Click the link below to hear it for yourself. https://bmvlifecoach.com/episode-43/

Virtual school has put many kids in front of their digital devices for 5-8 hours a day which translates to 35-40 hours per week, about the same amount of time spent by an adult in a full time job. Many of these children are now experiencing visual issues such as distance blur, headaches, eye strain, and difficulty with visual efficiency involving binocular vision (eye teaming). This condition is defined as Nearpoint Visual Stress and is a response of the visual system to ex...cessive near point demands resulting in a mismatch between binocular vision and accommodation. Or in other words, this condition occur when spending an excessive amount of time in front of digital devices. Additionally, with Nearpoint Visual Stress there typically are behavioral and emotional related conditions triggering anxiety, reduced self esteem and even depression. Another common behavior side-effect is a significantly reduced attention and concentration for reading related activities. There are many educational benefits to having access to digital technology for learning opportunities but at the same time, if unaddressed, there can be a host of visual consequences. If your child is participating in virtual school and has started experiencing any of the above symptoms, do not let it go. Help your child succeed in virtual school by getting the help they need for their vision. We can help. Call us today at 570.763.0054 Click below to read the whole article from The Visionhelp Blog https://visionhelp.wordpress.com//how-covid-19-related-ex/

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at NeuroSensory Center of Eastern PA!