Next time you go to your barber’s or beautician’s office, listen up.

Glenview, Ill. resident Betty Collins did. In fact, her tale of two daughters may have ended much differently had it not been for an overheard conversation between her beautician and another customer.  The beautician was talking about Chicago-area optometrist Deborah Zelinsky and the work Dr. Zelinsky is doing on behalf of children with learning problems.

Dr. Zelinsky is founder and research director of the Mind-Eye Institute (http://mindeyeinstitute.com), based in Northbrook, Ill., and is recognized globally for revolutionizing scientific understanding of how light affects brain function.

At the time, Betty’s oldest daughter – then in second grade – was struggling in school.  Not only was she diagnosed as having dyslexia, a learning disorder, but teachers said she seemed unable to listen and watch at the same time, even though both her eyes and ears tested as normal. She also “missed” information printed or written at the bottom of a page.

School experts and doctors told Betty “not to worry.” Her daughter would eventually “compensate” for her deficiencies. 

“But I don’t like the word ‘compensate,’” Betty says.  “I wanted to give my daughter every possible opportunity, and, if there were any possibility to help her, I wanted to find it.”

That’s when she overheard her beautician discussing Dr. Zelinsky.  She asked the beautician for Dr. Zelinsky’s contact information.

Dr. Zelinsky did a complete evaluation of Betty’s daughter and then prescribed a set of “brain” eyeglasses that synchronized the young girl’s hearing and eyesight.

“The way light disperses across the retina impacts brain function, the nervous system and body chemistry,” says Dr. Zelinsky. 

Using remedial eyeglasses, with combinations of lenses and/or other optometric interventions such as prisms and filters to selectively stimulate light on the retina, Dr. Zelinsky helps patients redevelop visual skills during recovery from debilitating, life-altering symptoms of brain injuries. She also works to develop skills in patients with learning and behavioral problems.

“The glasses from Dr. Zelinsky balanced my child’s dissonance between the left and right circuitries of her brain,” Betty says.  “She now was able to listen, watch and take notes – all at the same time.  Her dyslexia began to resolve, and she could look at – and ‘see’ — an entire page.  It was simply amazing.”

Later, when teachers began telling Betty about some “odd” behavioral quirks in her second daughter – also about the time of second grade – including her daughter’s tendency to turn completely to one side just to write on a piece of paper, Betty knew where to take her – the Mind-Eye Institute.

“Dr. Zelinsky determined that my second daughter was using her right side almost exclusively,” Betty says. “On a swivel board, she could easily spin to the right but could not even budge the board to the left.”

Thanks to directional learning activities prescribed by Dr. Zelinsky, as well as some recommended physical and occupational therapy, the Collins’ second daughter’s problem was gradually alleviated.

“Had it not been for the Mind-Eye Institute and Dr. Zelinsky, I am not sure my daughters would have achieved what they already have in both their education and careers,” Betty says. 

“My oldest daughter graduated from Harvard Business School and now has a successful career in business.  Had she simply ‘compensated’ for her dyslexia, I am not sure she would have had that same opportunities in business and finance.

“My second daughter went on to become an ICU (intensive care unit) nurse, devoted to helping very sick patients,” Betty says.

But the Collins family’s relationship with the Mind-Eye Institute does not end there simply because the children are grown. 

“One of my grandchildren seems to be a bit slow in his learning development at school.  I told my daughter to have him evaluated,” says Betty.

Where?  At the Mind-Eye Institute with Dr. Zelinsky, of course.