Vision therapy

[mamamoose]

Anyone here done it and felt it wasn't helpful?

 

And if you found it helpful, when were you able to observe that it was helpful?

[kbutton]

Both of my kids had VT for convergence or tracking/visual development, etc. Both had "light" problems in the sense that they compensated really well until fatigued. We were considered borderline for needing it, and our optometrist tried little bits of home intervention before recommending VT. 

 

My first kiddo had straight issues with convergence, and we noticed results very quickly. His entire course of therapy was nine weeks (with homework). We were super faithful with homework. He would do the first day or two, and then the third day get super resistant. We'd push through the third day, and then the fourth day, it will like he'd always been able to do the task. It was kind of crazy! He need a little midline work, and that was hugely helpful. His swimming instructor noticed and asked what we were doing because he went from struggling with a lot of swimming tasks to "have you thought about swim team."

 

My younger kiddo has more retained reflex issues (really bad Moro, for instance). VT made him able to accommodate a lot better, track better, etc. He did a lot of retained reflex work, and it was really hard for him. He was stepped through a set of exercises in a serial fashion with overlaps in activities. A lot of the exercises are available online, but they are not given in a sequence. Anyway, he would do bear crawls or whatever, then when he moved onto the next activity, we would add a metronome to the bear crawl (or whatever he had just gotten competent with). We would add distractors to previous levels as well--having him sing or something. His course of VT was maybe 12 weeks? It made a huge difference with writing tasks, copying tasks of any kind (he couldn't copy at all--would totally lose his place), and with attitude.

 

Both of my kids were a lot less irritable and moody after VT. Both my kids have other issues though, not just ocular motor issues.

 

HTH

[mamamoose]

Our VT only ever does 36 weeks! 12 weeks seems way more doable. There aren't a lot of options where we live to find someone else, unfortunately!

 

He has convergence and tracking issues. Tracking issues are quite severe.

Edited August 8, 2017 by mamamoose

[kbutton]

Ours did what the kid needed. It was very tailored. There are kids that need all 36. I am sorry that you can't get a more customized experience!

[mamamoose]

I just feel like in saying they only do 36 weeks they are taking advantage to some degree.

[Lecka]

We did OT instead of VT for my son's tracking issues. I went to eval with both and the feedback I got from the VT was it was fine to try OT. He thought either would be good for my son.

 

He started to read chapter books. We had already done lots of reading remediation and he could do things like read captions and read in books with little blurbs. He couldn't read a chapter book format without losing his place to the point he just couldn't do it.

 

We also saw him increase his coordination with swimming and running, anything where he needed to alternate using the left and right side of his body.

 

His tracking problems were related to bilateral coordination and crossing the midline... that is what everyone (3-4 different people, 2-3 OTs and the VT) all saw when watching his eyes while he read.

 

He then had a phase where he would skip a line that had a paragraph indentation. It was very frustrating for him.

Edited August 9, 2017 by Lecka

[kbutton]

I just feel like in saying they only do 36 weeks they are taking advantage to some degree.

 

That is entirely possible. It's also possible that they will work on a lot of OT/PT stuff, and you are getting VT plus. It's really about each individual practice. My kids had VT, then OT. I think they would not have been able to do OT without the VT because the OT didn't do reflex work. If you have an OT or even PT place that would be sure reflexes will get work, it might be that you could get the same needs met as Lecka said.

 

It's hard to get to the bottom of where each practice draws a line, what they "require," etc. 

[Lecka]

Yeah, the VT we saw didn't do any of the OT-type stuff.

[MerryAtHope]

Very helpful for my son, and it was about 8-9 months before we could see that it was helping (took about 13 months all together). We did VT appointments once a month because of the distance, and did all of the exercises at home. DS had to spend a LOT of time working on integrating primitive reflexes and it was very intense (I remember calling the office in tears at the 5 month mark--I was pretty close to giving up). He did some vision work alongside those, but we did not see any improvement until he had worked through all of the reflexes. Then it was a dramatic improvement during the final 4 months. Reading became a lot easier and faster for him (in 7th grade, before we started, I got the audio book for Apologia General Science. He sometimes tried to read along with it, but couldn't keep up at first. Around the 10 month point he was able to read along with the audio. He started Physical science midway through his 8th grade year, during the last month or two of VT. After a couple of weeks, he asked me if he could drop the audio since he could now read faster than the audio.)

[mamamoose]

That is entirely possible. It's also possible that they will work on a lot of OT/PT stuff, and you are getting VT plus. It's really about each individual practice. My kids had VT, then OT. I think they would not have been able to do OT without the VT because the OT didn't do reflex work. If you have an OT or even PT place that would be sure reflexes will get work, it might be that you could get the same needs met as Lecka said.

 

It's hard to get to the bottom of where each practice draws a line, what they "require," etc.

I asked about reflex work and he would need rondo reflex work with an OT prior to VT if he has reflex issues. And both are 200 miles away.

[mamamoose]

Very helpful for my son, and it was about 8-9 months before we could see that it was helping (took about 13 months all together). We did VT appointments once a month because of the distance, and did all of the exercises at home. DS had to spend a LOT of time working on integrating primitive reflexes and it was very intense (I remember calling the office in tears at the 5 month mark--I was pretty close to giving up). He did some vision work alongside those, but we did not see any improvement until he had worked through all of the reflexes. Then it was a dramatic improvement during the final 4 months. Reading became a lot easier and faster for him (in 7th grade, before we started, I got the audio book for Apologia General Science. He sometimes tried to read along with it, but couldn't keep up at first. Around the 10 month point he was able to read along with the audio. He started Physical science midway through his 8th grade year, during the last month or two of VT. After a couple of weeks, he asked me if he could drop the audio since he could now read fraster than the audio.)

That is awesome! And comforting that he was older than my dad, because we really want to wait another year to start because we just finished neuro-feedback.

[kbutton]

I asked about reflex work and he would need rondo reflex work with an OT prior to VT if he has reflex issues. And both are 200 miles away.

 

Well, at least you know the sequence of how it works "near" you--I would not pursue VT until doing OT and/or PT with someone that can integrate reflexes. They can eval to give you a thumbs up or down on reflex work, and then you go from there. Maybe you will have things work out as Lecka said, and you won't have to do VT.

 

Our VT said that some practices integrate all kinds of physical work to change the brain--some places work on auditory processing tasks early in VT of all things! But reflexes are underneath all of that. If they don't work, nothing works very well.