Client Case Study: “Misjudging Distance / Depth”
Lucy was referred to Emma for a long term rehabilitation programme to help her move from her parents house into a flat of her own. Lucy explained to Emma that she was terrified of the move and had a fear of going out of the house on her own. Further discussion revealed that Lucy felt disorientated and clumsy and was anxious about knocking things over and making a scene.
Emma competed the DTVP-A with Lucy and review of
the scores showed that Lucy was scoring below
average on motor-reduced
visual perception skills.
Emma bought Lucy a large Tote bag which she
stuffed with a light weight pillow. She then
encouraged Lucy to visit the local shops wearing
the bag over her right shoulder in order to
increase her perception of her personal space
and encourage increased awareness of her
right side. Lucy and Emma then worked on a
carefully graded programme gradually
increasing the time Lucy spent on her own and
the distance she was able to go which enabled
her to build up her confidence and learn to
reorganise her sense of space.
Because the test indicated that Lucy’s
perceptual ability was impaired she was able,
over time to understand how her brain wrongly
interpreted certain visual stimuli and to retrain herself to compensate for this, meaning that the impact of her visual perceptual deficit, on her day to day life, lessened over time.