Suggestions for 5yo visual perception issues

[Karen in CO]

I took the kids to the eye doctor last week. He declared that they all have perfect vision, but...... Don't you just love those buts? The 5 year old is having perfectly normal letter reversals and perfectly normal letter flipping (so they appear upside down to her sometimes) AND she is having perfectly normal midline reset issues so that once she gets to the middle of a line of text where her brain is supposed to switch to the other side for the reading, she is losing her place on the line and has to find its place again. He said that these are all perfectly fine and perfectly normal for her age, and they completely explain the problems that she has been having learning to read - she reads, but I frequently tell her what a letter is and she is always losing her place and restarting the line or whole page.

 

Now, for my question. He said she would outgrow it, and to make sure she uses a finger or an index card to help with her reading until she outgrows it. Is there something else I can be doing? Is there a certain type of reading teaching that will help her progress in her reading while her eyes and brain develop these connections? I've been very, very loose in her reading practice until now because she has been struggling so much that I thought she might need glasses. Do you think more practice would help her more? What would do you? or better yet What have you done that worked?

 

Thanks

[MeAndTheBoys]

I dont' know if this helps with specific problems, but the Rod and Staff A-B-C Kindergarten series and the Developing the Early Learner series are ones I have used with K-aged children--and they have a lot of pre-reading skills like right to left, matching same word/letter/shape--things that I didn't really "get" until we started learning to read, and I recognized what a brilliant idea it was to drill those exercises.

 

Both boys enjoyed doing these sets of workbooks--the Rod and staff are only about $3 each (there are 5 of them that we used--the A, C, D, E, and F ones--B is a Bible story coloring book and G is a new book that we didnt' enjoy as much--so I recommend ACDEF) and are available at rodandstaffbooks.com.

 

The DEL books are quite pricey--there are 4 of them--but if you get them from amazon, they're usually buy-3-get-1-free, so you can get all 4 for about $30. They cover a range of pre-reading and auditory type skills.

 

Betsy

[Dobela]

You need to see a behavioral optometrist. A good place to begin your search is covd.org . I took my son to 3 different opthamologists and optometrists - all told me he has 20/20 vision but he was describing tracking problems and had all the symptoms of a child with vision problems. He had reversals and more. He had been receiving OT for 2 years but they also could not address the vision problems. Come to find out his eyes were not tracking together, he had poor convergence, and he had poor depth. He has now been in VT for almost a year and the difference is just amazing! It has been worth every penny and my only regret is that we didn't find it sooner.

[stripe]

 

Developing Ocular Motor and Visual Perceptual Skills: An Activity Workbook by Kenneth Lane has specific exercises for reversals. He is a behavioral optometrist. (You may be able to find this book used.)

[brownie]

Play catch and use a wipe board for writing on so the hand crosses the midline. I also think anything that involves scanning is helpful...card games, word searches, mazes. Just be careful you and your dc are not avoiding these things because they are frustrating.

 

DS9 has issues identified by a vision therapist, but it is expensive to treat and he wasn't convincing that the issues warranted the money and commitment. DS's issues seemed to be borderline. We do have a friend who had larger issues and for whom therapy brought great improvement. He started around 6 yrs old I believe.

 

Brownie

[OrganicAnn]

I had tracking problems when I was young. I did eye exercises. Went to a special optomologist (not sure what her exact specialty was).

 

I think it is good to get some vision therapy if possible. When I was young I was very stressed any time I had to read something out loud. It took me years to get over that stress/fear.

 

There are lots of simple exercises.

[Karen in CO]

Thanks for your suggestions. I've been concerned that I was overreacting - or under-reacting. I'll check out the resources recommended so far and then see what my insurance says about another vision screening and vision therapy.

 

I've known she has been having trouble, but I was looking for vision trouble since we have lots astigmatism in our family or signs of dyslexia since we have some of that too. I'm glad that she's not the first child I tried to teach to read. She is starting to avoid reading although she can sound out and read amazingly big words - sometimes.

 

It is hard to know if I should wait for normal developmental milestones or be more proactive. I guess its time for me to be more informed about visual development.

[aready]

You should see a developmental optometrist! My dd (8) has a similar issue and they told us we have to do some teaming exercises to get her eyes to work together. I didn't even know that developmental optometrists existed, but the lady we have is AMAZING! She said not many people go into the field because it takes a while to get results. The good news is that it can be fixed without surgery. The bad news, is that if you don't get it fixed they will have a hard time reading. We noticed a HUGE difference in our reader loving dd in 2nd grade. She is now wearing bifocals (which her vision is perfect) and they are trying to adjust her eyes so that she can start the exercises.

 

If you have other questions feel free to contact me on PM.

[Matryoshka]

I'll chime in to agree and say get thee to a developmental (also called behavioral) optometrist who does vision therapy. There are definitely things you can do proactively to correct this kind of problem, and it's not just "outgrown". Many opthamologists (and even regular optometrists) pooh-pooh this, but I know too many people it's worked wonders for (including two of my dds). She may or may not need the full-blown therapy - one of my dds did, another was just given some exercises to do at home, and the third hasn't needed any interventions at all.

 

The younger you catch this, the easier it is to correct.

[FO4UR]

My 6yo has 20/20 vision and I took him to a doc who specializes in VT, and she did a full exam on him. His visual discrimination was in the 8th percentile for his age:001_huh:...and he had a few other issues that were right on the line of normal. She said he has convergence issues too, but that the therapy for that needed to wait until he was a little older...and he might outgrow the need for it by then. Basically, take him back and have him checked again if he's still having trouble reading.

 

I am doing VT at home with him....stuff the VT doc gave us.

 

As far as reading currics....sigh! I have been using SWR (which I love/hate). The good thing about it is that ds6 has been progressing in his phonics and spelling inspite of his vision issues....the reading complex words *sometimes* rung a bell for me;)....the day I decided to take him to the VT doc was the day he sounded out "children" in isolated big letters, but then could not read "The cat sat." in a book.

[kathkath]

have her point to the words.

that's very normal. I would just put a piece of paper under the line to help her track and have her point to each word as she reads it. It is developmental.