OhE.. You are so right about it not being a good idea for me to do a pathetic attempt at VT at home. I have envisioned how hard it would be for me to implement these things in my home with absolutely no knowledge (even with a home program) and it's just NOT GOING TO WORK. The headaches is something I didn't think about. I was doing some convergence exercises on myself yesterday and it gave me a headache.. So I can only imagine. And you are totally right about my dh too.. He has NO IDEA what I go through on a daily basis. To add VT to the mix would just be ridiculous. His response to that will be "I'll do VT when I get there then" :lol: He's such a tightwad.. How do you suggest I respond to that? The Disney trip is non-negotiable. Dh has been gone for 5 years (with twice a year visits) and once he returns he will be home to STAY FOR GOOD. No more deployments. This is our "Daddy-is-home" celebration. And we have to do it on the exact dates that we have planned due to his leave time allowed between assignments. Okay, I had no idea you could go to VT just once or twice a month. Can you really do that? Every time we've been evaluated, they've told me that she needs to come at least once a week or twice a week for best results. Can I really be in control? She is now only having issues with mild convergence. Her tracking has improved, according to her most recent eval. So we may not need as much therapy as I think. I'm going to call around to the different VT places and see what they say. And I do have a Care Credit pamphlet that the VT gave me. I've been looking at it and pondering. I think I can make this work.. between Care Credit and going only once or twice a month.. This could totally work. I have a few VT places to choose from. Which do you think I should go with? 1) Newer place that is still learning, but very cheap - $75 a visit. 30 minute drive. 2) Established place with excellent reputation - Something like $150 a visit - Requires $300 in-depth eval (we've only done a surface eval). 1 hour drive. 3) Established place with good reputation - $120 a visit. Requires $300 in-depth eval. In the area where I shop and where we attend co-op so would be easier to fit in.

Okay, so not exactly scientific.. I wasn't going for "technically" late.. Just "on the later side of average" I guess. 18 months does seem very late to me to be walking though. Even 16 months seems very late... I seem to remember the average age of walking being between 11-13 months for most children so that's what I was going by. All of my children were walking before 12 months so I tend to think that's the norm. I probably should have given wider age ranges.:tongue_smilie:

Drat! I knew I missed something. My apologies.

Thanks OhE.. I'm starting to think I should just bite the bullet and take her to vision therapy.. It's just sooo far away and sooo expensive and sooo time consuming (the drive mostly).. But most of all, dh hasn't given me the green light yet. He just doesn't understand the significance of it all and since he has been deployed for most of the past 5 years, it's sort of hard to get that through to him. His latest "solution" is to get this program but it's nearly $1000 and we are currently saving up for his return-from-deployment Disney vacation AND we are buying for Christmas right now.. Arghhh!! Why does VT have to be soooo expensive???? :crying: Okay, I'm done whining.. My dd is getting vision therapy starting next spring come hell or high water!:D

This is to test that "never crawled" theory or at least the "early walking" theory that is so often associated with children who have any significant issues that required vision therapy. I hope I included all the possibilities. Check all that apply if you have more than one child. For us, this theory is right on. I have four kids.. My two middle girls walked early - 9 & 10 months. They are the only two of my 4 who had some visual processing issues (And the one who walked at 9 mo. also has auditory processing disorder!).

I just found this video on how to do the method and it looks like there are a lot of other ones too!! I'm totally going to try to put something together to do daily with my daughter.. Better than nothing, right?

What do you recommend we do if we don't have access to a Brain Balance Center? My 8yr old is still having learning issues. We have been doing biomed for 2 years and we have had BIG improvements from that alone. However, she has visual processing issues and a retained moro reflex that I can't seem to solve for her. Any home programs that you would recommend?

I think knowing exactly what you are dealing with is half the battle. My 2E daughter (10) had a slow processing speed that was identified by our neuropsych. That never would have crossed my mind as a possible issue. Other than that, it was not really worth our time, BUT she had already been evaluated by a psychologist who had identified her Asperger's and gifted IQ. If your son has multiple issues going on, then it would be nice to know exactly what those issues are. On the other hand, I have been able to figure out my other two daughters on my own from doing plenty of research on their issues. Neuropsych evals are free for us (we have good insurance) but I have not taken my other two girls because I am confident that I have them figured out. And they have all been evaluated by psychologists already so I have their IQ's and Asperger's diagnoses. That's all I need. Their learning issues I have figured out and accommodated all on my own. But then again, my girls have Asperger's and there are common issues that go along with Aspies.. So these weren't difficult to figure out. I would go ahead and get on the waiting list.. Likely several months long.. By the time your turn comes, you will probably have one of two things.. You will either have the money saved to pay for the eval.. Or you will have him figured out by then.. Either way, you're set!:)

Awww.. That's awesome.. Still waiting on my 8yr old to get even close to that. ETA: oops.. I see that's your 10yr old you were talking about. We still may not be there even at age 10. Did you do vision therapy?

That's a good indicator that he probably needs some evaluations. I remember my breaking point when I finally decided my now 8yr old daughter needed evaluated. It was when she was 4 and we were trying to have family portraits made. The photographer gave up on her and said that we couldn't have our picture done. The baby was easier than she was! She wouldn't look at the camera, wouldn't keep still, wouldn't keep her hands away from her face, and *couldn't* make a proper facial expression even if we did get the first three accomplished. It was like trying to photograph a baby. A few months later she was diagnosed with severe ADHD, Asperger's, and OCD.

My 14yr old daughter has dysgraphia (but not dyslexia) and borderline dyscalculia.. She has working memory issues and visual-spatial issues. She has always had a difficult time with math facts and with writing math problems, lining them up properly, etc.. The two programs that worked best with her are RightStart Math (in elementary) and Teaching Textbooks (for junior high and up).

So maybe this isn't the right program for her? I guess I'll stick with the PQ4R and see if that helps.

He may need an eval at a speech & hearing clinic. My daughter was diagnosed with figure-ground auditory processing disorder, which is the inability to filter out background noise. She hears EVERYTHING and can't hone in the one voice she is supposed to be listening to.. even if it's much louder. She went through 8 weeks of therapy at the same clinic that diagnosed her. They also recommended to me to use Earobics at home.

Exact same experience here at my house. Once we removed gluten, the issues improved greatly.

I finally got the time to watch this just this morning.. Thanks for passing this on. It was very helpful to me as I try to understand my Aspies.

Are you sure these aren't tics? My daughter's more complex motor tics started at age 7 or 8. She was diagnosed with Tourette's. Does he make any vocal noises such as throat clearing, squeaking, sniffing, humming, etc.? Could also be what the psychs call "repetitive motor movements" or "repetitive or stereotypical behaviors", which is similar to tics, but more voluntary and often falls in the category of "stimming" (as in Autism). But this would be unlikely if you don't feel your son has other signs of an Autism Spectrum Disorder.

I would really like to remediate my 9th grader.. She has excellent decoding, phonemic awareness, spelling, etc.. But her comprehension is not great. She struggles with the meatier non-fiction that I've been giving her.. like Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography.. Or even anything that she has no interest in. She flies through fiction like it's candy.. She can actually read about a novel plus half a novel in one day. And she has always enjoyed quite a lot of non-fiction as well.. She is a "fact collector" and I have often referred to her as my own personal walking encyclopedia. But as we move into high school, I can see she is really going to struggle with college-level assignments in the future.. I know one of her problems is she needs to SLOW DOWN. She reads way too fast. But I would love to also go through Visualizing and Verbalizing (or something similar) with her.. However, the books only go up to 6th grade (that I have found on the Gander Publishing site). She hates it when I get lower grade levels of anything for her. She feels insulted. What can I do for her at this age? I printed out the PQ4R guide for her to refer to. But still interested in the V&V program as well. ETA: Concerning books like Ben Franklin's Autobiography.. She can't answer a single comprehension question correctly after reading about 10 pages.. She can answer one or two factual questions, like "how many siblings did Ben have?". But a question such as "Which best describes Ben's relationship with his brother?".. She has no idea (even with 4 multiple choice answers from which to choose!). She says she can't understand these books and can't visualize anything. She normally has good visualization with fiction, on the other hand. She "makes movies" in her mind as she reads fictional books. But she has trouble grasping the abstract concepts such as complex feelings (beyond happy, sad, angry), intentions, personal agendas, or passages that require the student to draw their own conclusions or impressions.. such as Ben's relationship with his brother. If the book had simply stated.. "Ben's relationship with his brother was horrible (or great)" then she would have known the answer.. But because the book described the relationship and then left the reader to decide.. She has no clue. She also is able to write fiction with little effort, leaving out much of the abstract.. Her fiction writing is phenomenal and extremely creative though despite the missing abstract. She is an extremely creative person.. Always has been.. probably gifted in this area. When it comes to writing essays, she bombs it. What's going on here? Sometimes I think it's almost as if she has "memorized" how to write fiction because she has read so much of it over the years. does that make sense? And I must also mention she has been reading since age 3, always reading at least 5 grade levels ahead. I know she is somewhat hyperlexic.. I just need to know how to help her with this comprehension issue. Oh, to help complete the picture of how she learns and what she struggles with (if this helps at all).. She also has issues with math.. She has working memory issues and nonverbal problem solving issues as well as visual-spatial issues.. Her penmanship is also dreadful.

I do! My 8yr old is at least two years behind across the board (academically, socially, emotionally). She has a lot of learning issues and she really needs that vision therapy that I've been dreaming of for the past year or so.

Your son is still VERY young and can be fully recovered from Autism. I recovered my son starting at age 3. He is 5 now and completely neurotypical. His sisters were older when we started so they are not fully recovered, but very much improved. An Autism diagnosis is NOT the end. Especially at his age. Start with Healing the New Childhood Epidemics by Kenneth Bock.

This has been on my radar for a while, but this is BIG that mainstream is finally doing these studies. Mental Health Tied to Immune System Defect And what causes immune system "defects"? Autoimmune diseases (Celiac, PANDAS, etc.) And what causes autoimmune diseases? Poor gut health usually. This is why you hear so much about probiotics/yeast and going gluten free. When treated, the gut gets better, which calms the autoimmunity, which improves mental health. A healthy immune system starts with a healthy gut!! There are several studies that tie the immune system to a healthy gut. Just google "probiotic + immune system" and you'll get a lot of legit studies.

:hurray::hurray::hurray::hurray: Bravo to you, Mama, for taking your dd's health into your own hands and not "following the herd". Doctors love to prescribe those antibiotics, don't they? :glare: My dd's cystic acne cleared up when we removed gluten, dairy, and treated for yeast. She had cystic acne BAD.. Today, at age 14.. NONE. I tried to tell people this on the general board, but most people have that "herd" mindset and only want to do what mainstream insists upon.. antibiotics, etc. This only makes the problem worse. Sad.

This is Wii Fit Plus so Wii Fit isn't going to have these games. When you play the games, it tells you what it helps with (coordination, balance, etc.).. However, as far as auditory processing, working memory, processing speed, etc.. These things are obvious (to me anyway) when you play the games.. You really get a work-out in these areas. You'll know what I mean when you play the games. Additionally, my kids have been doing different therapies on and off for the past 3 years and I've sat in on so many of them.. These games really mimic a lot of these therapies that were targeting these issues. But even if I'm wrong about one or two of them, no harm done, right? :) I don't recommend going out and buying Wii Fit Plus just for this reason. But if you have it, definitely put it to work!

Oh my! Thanks for the heads up! I just heard of it the other day and just ordered it blindly without looking into it. I have not looked at it yet as I have not received it yet. I did look at some YouTube vidoes just now and saw that they do a lot of "button" pushing, etc. that seems sort of strange. But I also saw some crossing-the-midline exercises, which are VERY worthwhile according to my research. And Diane Craft's Brain Integration Therapy Manual has some crossing-the-midline exercises and our psychologist used to have my girls do some along with Interactive Metronome. So, at first glance, it looks to be somewhat of a mixture of some good and some bad.. I'll look through the book when I get it.. I might end up sending it back! Thanks again for the info.

I think this is going to depend on the kid.. But after I first read about this, I decided to do some "experimenting".. My daughter with severe ADHD-combined type was going to school at the time. She would float around the classroom doing her own thing all day, couldn't do seatwork at all, etc. She would even get up and walk around during spelling tests and such. So we put her on Concerta and she started doing great. After I read about P-5-P, I decided to try it out without telling the teacher. So I skipped the Concerta and gave her P-5-P instead.. (she was also taking other supplements AND on a GFCF diet at the same time). I wouldn't say it worked AS WELL AS Concerta, but she was able to do most of her work and got through the day with minimal disruptions. I got BAD reports on the days when she took NOTHING. I got some good and some "iffy" reports on the P-5-P days, and I got ALL GOOD reports on the Concerta days. I think it's definitely something to consider especially if you are implementing other things like diet and other supplements (fish oil, etc.) and especially if you are not wanting to use meds. ETA: I just remembered that our P-5-P has magnesium in it as well. It's a combo of B6 & magnesium. So I guess the magnesium helps to calm. FYI to anyone who doesn't know.. Concerta is Ritalin in time release.

I don't really remember.. I know they didn't want to taste some of the stuff I was giving them a couple of years ago.. so they learned to swallow for that reason alone.. My youngest does not swallow yet, but he has no issues and doesn't need to. He just takes gummy vitamins and fish oil (sometimes).