Mosaab Dourou is a twelve-year-old boy whose sight is currently in our care. According to the family, just over five years ago, Mosaab started to complain of frequent headaches and blurred vision. At school he tried never to sit too close to the blackboard and avoided having to focus on books. He had problems with reading and writing and, in general, had not been doing too well at school. All told, his problems caused him to be unduly restless and unable to attend school as he should have done.
After numerous visits to the Etnia Barcelona Foundation, we found he had low hypermetropia, which we were able to correct immediately with our glasses and other measures designed to restore his eyesight to normal health. The hypermetropia had also led him to develop other issues and we found, for example, his visual perception to be immature. This made it hard for him to overcome academic challenges and caused him frustration.
To date he has had a total of 6 therapeutic sessions with us and considerable progress has been made. So how does Mosaab feel about his treatment:
How did you realise you had an issue with your sight? My eyes and head hurt a lot.
Had you ever worn glasses before? No, this is the first time I’ve ever worn glasses and, really, I see much better, everything is clearer.
What do you expect from the treatment you’re having? I hope things will get a lot better than they are now.
Do you feel things are different now when you go to school? Yes, they certainly are: I feel more relaxed, read much faster and see far better.
It’s clear that things have got much better at school for Mosaab and now his levels of school attendance are the same as everyone else. He is far more at ease. He says he only gets occasional headaches now and can focus much better on the blackboard and his books.
Even though we are really happy with how well he has done already, we hope that by the end of the treatment all of Mosaab’s symptoms will have disappeared and his school work and behaviour will have improved still further.
Any kind of visual therapy results in improvement of all sorts, not only physically, but also children’s behaviour and learning abilities are enhanced. In general, boys and girls will feel better able to meet the mark at school and will experience behavioural changes. Children who previously seemed really introverted find it easier to socialise while over-active children become more relaxed and better organised.
The family also has a vital role to play. For their therapy, children have to perform a series of exercises and progress can be slow and at times difficult. However, successful treatment depends totally on doing them properly. The more the families help, the better the results.
The foundation wants to thank the visual therapist Myriam Velasco Gallarda and the Badalona Optometria Visió 3 Centre for their help, as well as the Badalona Sant Jaume -Fundació Carles Blanch Open Centre for their ongoing help and support with the case of Mosaab Dourou.