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Nearing the end of vision therapy..does this sound right?


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My ds has been going to weekly in-office therapy sessions for 30 weeks and doing exercises at home as instructed. We were told to expect remediation to take between 24 and 36 weeks.

 

Two weeks ago he had a checkup and I was told that his eyes are now working well together - we just need to work on stamina. OK, I agree that stamina is good. But we were given some pretty lame exercises, one of which was definitely in the OT field. I asked the VT about it and she admitted that my ds's OT had called them and asked them to give me some gross motor exercises to do.

 

So we had our appointment and were sent home with more exercises which she explained only briefly as puzzle mazes...just read and follow instructions. Well, I just read them over and they are impossibly hard. I had trouble understanding the directions because they are written in British English and referred to previous instructions which were not in the packet given me. The other exercise was some balance work which again I suspect is from the OT.

 

So, here's my question. Is it typical to extend VT in order to build up stamina? How is one supposed to build up stamina? Are puzzle mazes the only way to do it, or can one just, um, read for 15 minutes? Am I right to suspect that my VT is extending the vision therapy in order to accomocate the OT? Please tell me what the final few weeks of VT were like for you.

 

Karen

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My ds had VT for over a year and a half twice a week, so his endurance was pretty well built up before quiting VT. But his VT was longer because it included visual cognitive training (plus he fought VT). One thing my ds remembers which would build stamina was looking for Waldo in those elaborate picture books. He doesn't remember much else about the final few weeks.

 

There were several sports recommended for practicing tracking and binocular vision. These included tennis, ping pong, baseball and bowling. However your optometrist may recommend a different set for your ds if his needs are different.

 

It's good that your optometrist is working with your OT. There is a lot of overlap between the two fields, and by consulting the doctor/therapist can suggest excercises that do double duty.

 

Do call your opt and ask for help with the instructions. Mistakes happen and a vital sheet could be left out. And a puzzle maze would work the eyes differently than reading. Reading consists of moving the eyes from right to left on a horizontal line, then jerking them back one line below and moving them again left to right. Mazes require a lot of coordinated eye movement in all directions. And if they can't explain them over the phone, maybe they can suggest another substitute.

 

HTH

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Thanks. You make sense when you say puzzle mazes would work the eyes differently than just reading. I don't get the feeling that the OT and VT are 'working together'. It's more like the OT is telling the VT what to do when the VT knows the given exercises are below my ds's ability. Guess I'll have to work this one out.

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