You’re about to read the story of a mother in Tokyo who had the opportunity to try Imvi with her two children. Her words touched us deeply, and her family’s experience reflects exactly what we hope to make possible with Imvi.
Three months later, my daughter, who didn’t like reading, started reading books.
This is the story of how my youngest daughter, who is in third grade and had always struggled to get started with reading, gradually began reading books on her own over the course of three months.
It all started when a friend who works for the Swedish company Imvi Labs told me about what they do. They have developed a method using VR glasses and an app to train visual coordination, and I was given the opportunity to let my children try it as part of an evaluation.
Reading is about more than just seeing the letters
The first thing that made me think, “Aha!” was something my friend told me about Imvi.
We often think that reading difficulties are mainly about learning letters or connecting letters with sounds. But when you actually read a text, much more is involved:
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Keeping your eyes focused on the letters
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Moving your eyes smoothly along the line
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Using both eyes together
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Keeping your attention on the right words and letters
All of these skills play a role in reading. Reading involves several aspects of visual function, including eye movements, binocular vision and visual attention. A standard school vision screening does not necessarily assess all of these skills.
Imvi combines a smartphone with VR glasses to train this type of binocular coordination and visual attention, with the aim of supporting reading speed, reading stamina and concentration.
I was told that the method is already being used in Swedish schools, and that students had shown improvements in reading speed after twelve weeks of training.
As soon as I heard that, I thought: “I want my youngest daughter to try this!”
The daughter who had always struggled with reading
We have two daughters, one in fifth grade and one in third grade.
Our eldest loves reading. If you leave her alone, she can read for hours. Our youngest, on the other hand, has always found reading difficult. She struggled to learn hiragana, and katakana took even longer. Even in third grade, she would often misread words or get stuck when reading aloud at school.
Reading is the foundation for so much learning, so I had often thought, “If only reading could be a little easier for her.”
So when I heard about Imvi, I immediately wanted to give it a try.
My husband was more cautious. He was concerned about whether it was safe and how much research there was behind the method. We talked through his questions one by one.
The program was designed to run for twelve weeks, although I had somehow misunderstood that at first and thought it would be much shorter! In the end, we decided, “Let's give it a try.”
Our eldest daughter, who loves books, wanted to participate too, so it became something the two sisters could do together.
Finally, the VR glasses arrived!
A few days later, the package from Sweden arrived.
We completed the first test, adjusted the glasses and were ready to get started.
The training involved putting a smartphone into the VR glasses and watching videos through the Imvi app. At our house, the children mostly watched YouTube.
On the first day, we chose calm videos with very little movement, such as nature films, to give their eyes time to get used to the experience.
I tried it myself and was surprised by the strange 3D effect. It felt a little like watching a movie at the cinema.
The children were thrilled.
“Wow!”
“It’s like being at the movies!”
It was a very easy and enjoyable way to get started.
“Mom, can we do Imvi today?”
From the very next day, the girls started doing their daily Imvi training while watching YouTube videos.
And they loved it. Really loved it.
“Mom, hurry up!”
“Are we doing Imvi today?”
I heard things like this almost every day.
We normally limit how much YouTube the children watch at home, so the time with the VR glasses quickly became something they looked forward to.
With regular training, it is often the parent who says, “Come on, you need to do it now,” while the child says, “I don't want to.”
With Imvi, it was the other way around.
Even when I occasionally forgot, the children didn't:
“Mom, the VR glasses!”
That made it much easier to keep up the routine.
Each session lasted 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, an alarm sounded, and the app recorded the training time, so we always knew how much they had done.
We also made reading a bigger part of everyday life
Around the same time we started using Imvi, we also made a few changes to our reading routine at home.
We bought more books that our daughter had chosen herself and was genuinely interested in. At school, she also began taking on slightly longer texts when reading aloud.
Little by little, the amount of time she spent reading increased.
I had explained to her that the glasses were designed to train how her eyes work together. Perhaps that planted a little thought in her mind:
“Maybe reading can become easier for me.”
Looking back, I think that feeling was important.
Was it the training? The books she was interested in? Continuing to practise reading aloud? Simply growing and developing? Or the confidence that came from thinking, “Maybe I can read better now.”
In everyday life, it is impossible to separate all these things and know exactly what made the difference.
But one thing was clear: her attitude towards reading had changed.
After six weeks: “Wait… has something really changed?”
After six weeks, we did an interim test.
The results showed improvement. But even more importantly, we could see a difference in everyday life. She was reading more.
She told me:
“Before, things sometimes looked blurry when I squinted at something far away. But now I feel like I can see better.”
She herself felt that something had changed.
And then came the classic comment:
“You always say watching YouTube is bad for your eyes, but now I can do vision training AT THE SAME TIME as watching YouTube. That's a great deal!”
We all laughed.
And then twelve weeks had passed
Another six weeks went by.
Of course, we didn't manage to train perfectly every day. The children got sick. I had back pain and could barely move. We went away on a trip. We came home late.
A lot can happen in twelve weeks.
When training wasn't possible, we simply skipped that day and started again the next day. That's how we kept going.
After twelve weeks, we completed the final test.
Once again, the results showed improvement.
But what made me happiest wasn't the numbers. It was seeing the change in my daughter's reading.
Before, my youngest mostly looked at the pictures in comics, and most of the books she read were picture books.
Now she picks up books filled with text and reads them on her own.
That is a huge change.
From “I can read” to “I want to read”
Of course, I can't say that every change that happened during these three months was because of Imvi.
Maybe she simply matured during this time. Maybe it was the books she became interested in. Maybe it was the reading practice at school and at home.
And above all, I think her growing confidence played a big role:
“Maybe I can read better now.”
It was probably a combination of all these things.
But one thing is certain: starting Imvi became an important part of her journey towards reading.
A child who didn't like reading suddenly started thinking:
“Maybe I can read.”
When reading feels easier, it becomes more enjoyable. And when something is enjoyable, you naturally want to do more of it.
Before we knew it, she was reading more and more.
And then it happened.
The daughter I had always thought of as someone who didn't like reading books had started reading books.
As a parent, that was the greatest joy of all.
Reading is something you benefit from throughout your life. So perhaps the most important lesson for me wasn't “I need to get her to read more.”
It was seeing my daughter discover:
“Reading is fun.”
That is probably the most beautiful thing I will take away from these twelve weeks.
Thank you for giving our family the opportunity to be part of the evaluation.
