Barry had been affected by alternating esotropia since early age, and had undergone corrective operations to her eye muscles at two, three and seven years of age.[8] At the age of forty, she became aware of difficulties in correctly perceiving objects at a distance, such as road signs and faces. The ophthalmologist whom she consulted told her that her eyesight of both eyes had only small flaws which were already corrected by her eyeglasses.[9] Years later, after a colleague drew her attention to her tendency to disregard raised hands at the back of the large classroom, she consulted an optometrist who referred her to Ruggiero. With her, Barry embarked on vision therapy to stabilize her gaze.[10] using the approach developed by Frederick W. Brock, including for example exercises to aim the two eyes at the same point in space using the Brock string.