Any other parents of kids getting/needing Vision Therapy?

[MamaNurse]

I haven't posted to this special needs board, but I think I need to start spending some time reading here.

 

Background: I have a dh with Adult ADD (who is an extremely gifted physician and surgeon) and our oldest newly 11 yr old son is walking in his footsteps (struggling with schoolwork, behaves the same as dh did when he was a kid, etc). Just based on criteria used to diagnose ADD, he's there.

 

He is a quiet, thinker-type who can sink into his play for hours and hours (Lego building, digging in the dirt, etc). He tends towards low energy. He loves to read.

 

He has a couple sensory issues...nothing big, but has been seeing an OT for the past year for help with focusing on schoolwork (poor handwriting, poor spelling, difficulty completing tasks). We take a pretty relaxed approach and so he's not being inundated with "sit down, formal" schoolwork. We are also school using Charlotte Mason principals.

 

Last week, we went to a renowned developmental optometrist for a developmental eye exam and consultation. She found that our son has only a 25% function on focus range and flexibility (the ability to adjust from near to far and the ability to do it quickly and accurately). In other words, he's tired before he starts. :-(

In addition, his tracking is stuttered and not smooth. Can you imagine not being able to focus from near to far easily and quickly and how that might affect activities of daily living and schoolwork? :confused: Poor guy.

 

So...the recommendation is vision therapy. We have to drive an hour one way and pay out of pocket for it, which is a major bummer. She says his issues are re-trainable. I'm happy to know that and hopeful, but also wondering if anyone else has experiences with it.

 

I'm also wondering how the ADD symptoms play into this. Is it the chicken or the egg, so to speak? She says that gifted-ness is often covered up when there are vision problems. Kids that she sees with his issues tend to be strong in math and sciences. She thinks he's a visual-spatial learner, which I've also suspected, so it was nice to see my thoughts verified.

 

I don't even know where to begin on the whole visual-spacial thing. I'm sure that's another thread...or several. :)

 

Has anyone else has experiences with vision therapy? Positive? Negative?

 

FYI: These books were sent home from the doctor:

 

When Your Child Struggles: The Myths of 20/20 Vision by Cook

The Mislabeled Child: How understanding your child's unique learning style can open the door to success by Eide.

 

Thanks!

[wapiti]

My dd had a tracking problem - it was easy to see how stuttered it was (great explanation - I've always struggled with how to explain that). OT and VT (6 months) fixed it.

 

We think she may have some other, undefined vision processing issue (in the brain, not her ocular motor skills). But the tracking is definitely fixed - I can see the difference for myself.

 

IMO, the home exercises are critical to the success of the program. We happened to do OT for SPD around the start of VT, and it made a big difference in how hard/easy it was for her to do the VT exercises (long story, we stopped VT and then started again when OT finished a few months later). So I think OT can help.

 

The Mislabeled Child is a great book, though mine is getting old - I wonder if they'll make an updated edition sometime soon.

 

Good luck with the VT. It's an irritating addition to the schedule, but it's not forever!

[Beyondthe3rs]

My 9 year old has been in vision therapy for about 6 months now. I was completely stunned when we had him evaluated and he scored so poorly on tracking and visual perceptual skills! I was in on the evaluation and could see first-hand his responses to the testing. Truly, it was jaw-dropping to see what difficulties he had seeing properly!

 

He has been previously diagnosed ADHD, but I think that was an incorrect diagnosis. The vision therapy has definitely helped. We too have to pay out of pocket, but we are blessed to live very near the office.

 

I agree that the home exercises are crucial to the success of the program and can tell a big difference when I don't follow through like I should with his exercises.

 

Since we are still in the middle of it, I can't say for certain what the outcome will be, but so far, it has been a positive experience for him.

[MamaNurse]

Thanks for your input!

 

Is there anyone else out there who has dealt with Vision Therapy?

[siloam]

Thanks for your input!

 

Is there anyone else out there who has dealt with Vision Therapy?

 

It didn't help here, BUT the doctor couldn't give a direct diagnosis like you got. She gave me a basic, ya I think we can help. In the end she is dyslexia and her problems are with processing in the brain not with how the eyes see.

 

With that specific a diagnosis I would guess the doc knows what they are talking about.

 

BTW I have a friend who too her ds in who had constant migraines. Turns out it was taking his eyes several sections to focus on each letter, let alone each word. VT cured his focus problems and his migraines went away, but then they discovered he was also dyslexic. Learning to read was till very hard, but not impossible. Before it was almost impossible because it couldn't focus fast enough to read anything.

 

Heather

[sbgrace]

We did vision therapy with my son. He began with no tracking ability and he couldn't converge well enough to catch a ball or steer a trike. I saw the stutter as we progressed but he literally couldn't track even with stutters initially. The dr. told us my son was the most severe he had ever seen. The therapy was one of the best things we've done for my son. What I did with him at home (the exercises they prescribed) along with the glasses were the key to his progress. It was absolutely amazing.

 

I didn't see improvement in his ADD but his ability to sustain things like cutting or drawing was much improved. So he can stay with things longer visually when he wants to though his brain attention span is still the same if that makes any sense. This child can track and converge wonderfully, read a sentence, etc. We also saw huge changes in some other developmental areas specific to him. The home program was so difficult at first. But it was the key. Make sure the home exercises huge part with whomever you plan to use for treatment.

[PeterPan]

So did you ever decide on the VT? We're doing it here, and it has been AMAZING for us. Dd can now catch a ball, is headache-free, and no longer falls for no reason (lack of depth perception). Now they're starting sports vision exercises on her to take it up a notch. We're at 1 1/2 months right now, and they're thinking it will take a total of 3. Absolutely money well-spent, and yes we've been driving an hour. We do two sessions a week, so we stack the appointments in the same day with a break between. We spend about 1/2 hour a day on the homework, which dd usually manages to whine about and make last longer. The therapy days tire her, so we usually plan a light day the following day. In other words, you might want to lighten your homeschooling plans to make room.

 

I knew my dd's reading had plateaued this year but wasn't sure WHY, given all we've done with SWR, etc., and how well she has read in the past. They did a "visagraph" test with infrared goggles to track eye motion. Her eyes were back-tracking quite a bit and skipping lines, which of course explained it! Very fast eye movement, just too much back and forth going on.

 

The next thing I'm waiting for is for her to start reading small print books. That was part of the reason she stopped moving forward, because she wouldn't read the smaller print books. And yes, we had the focusing and convergence issues.

 

Interestingly, they have us doing these exercises where you read really small font words aloud and mark each individual letter. It's EXTREMELY challenging to her, but it fascinates me even more to see how she's carrying that thought process into the writing she does, just her own personal stuff, during the day. So you might find it fixes stuff you didn't know could be fixed!

[LittleHouseHomeschool]

If you have a doctor recommend vision therapy, I would seek a second opinion from a pediatric ophthalmologist. (medical doctor)

 

Our pediatric ophthalmologist told us instead of vision therapy, we needed to give our oldest son a detailed coloring page everyday. He hated it...but it saved us a couple thousand dollars. It was also suggested that when he read books, to have him place his finger under the words being read. This helped his tracking as well. (I also heard this from a friend, whose son had vision therapy...and was not helped. He was placed into a reading program at the local university who taught him to place his finger under the words...and his reading level improved quite a bit.)

 

Pediatric ophthalmology is often covered by insurance...especially if a medical issue is found. (And muscle issues are medical) Vision therapy is not covered by insurance because it does not consistently help every child. It's controversial...just like many other LD treatments.

 

But by seeking a medical evaluation, you can at least tackle the problem with a more complete picture of what could be going on in your child.

Edited June 30, 2010 by LittleHouseHomeschool

[PeterPan]

Ok, I'm going to get angry here for a minute, and I normally try not to. My dd didn't have DEPTH PERCEPTION, and we DIDN'T realize it. Coloring was unpleasant to her, combining all her worst issues (focusing, hand pain, etc.), but it would NEVER have done ANYTHING for her depth perception or for the convergence of her eyes. Without that convergence, she was unable to catch balls properly. Do you know how fun it is to go to camp with other 10 or 11 yo's and not be able to catch a ball in the games? And without depth perception, she used to fall a lot. We didn't even understand what was happening and thought she just had a silly, on the floor kind of personality. We now realize that immaturity was trying to cover up for the unpleasant reality of falling when you didn't want to. No kid with an IQ that high should have to deal with that.

 

So if someone else's kids' problems were all solved by coloring some pages, great for them. But I'm here to tell you a lot of kids' problems WON'T be. If someone's kid didn't get helped by VT, that DOESN'T mean the VT wouldn't help anyone. Many people are doing VT without first assessing for sensory integration, retained primitive reflexes, etc., etc., ie. the neurological foundation necessary for the VT to stick. Some VT aren't worth their salt. And frankly it sounds like some OT people assess kids and don't test everything. But that DOESN'T mean no VT or OT person anywhere is helping people. It just means, as with about every other medical thing out there, there are a lot of unhelpful practitioners. But the problem is NOT the VT. It has been AMAZING what they have done for my dd, and I'd pay it again in a heartbeat. No amount of coloring pages would have gotten us there. If it would have, I would have done it.

[Twinmom]

So if someone else's kids' problems were all solved by coloring some pages, great for them. But I'm here to tell you a lot of kids' problems WON'T be. If someone's kid didn't get helped by VT, that DOESN'T mean the VT wouldn't help anyone. Many people are doing VT without first assessing for sensory integration, retained primitive reflexes, etc., etc., ie. the neurological foundation necessary for the VT to stick. Some VT aren't worth their salt. And frankly it sounds like some OT people assess kids and don't test everything. But that DOESN'T mean no VT or OT person anywhere is helping people. It just means, as with about every other medical thing out there, there are a lot of unhelpful practitioners. But the problem is NOT the VT. It has been AMAZING what they have done for my dd, and I'd pay it again in a heartbeat. No amount of coloring pages would have gotten us there. If it would have, I would have done it.

 

:iagree:

 

I'm with Elizabeth on this one! I've got a DD who, with VT alone, gained 2 1/2 grade levels in reading with one summer's intensive work. Her issues absolutely could not have been solved by coloring pages or other simplistic home txs...VT with a great therapist was the ticket for her. It isn't for everyone, but for those who need it, it is crucial.

[Tiramisu]

Where can you find out if there is VT locally?

[Guest]

My daughter had two rounds of VT. The first was paper-based, that is, it was run by a program that catered to students referred from schools for reading problems, and that's what it focused on. It didn't help my daughter one bit. The second round, when she had recurring problems, was with a sports vision therapist in a way that combined OT-type exercises with vision activities. The change was dramatic. Like OhElizabeth, I had a child who could not catch or throw a ball, who tripped over things and bumped into people and furniture, who had no reading stamina and no depth perception. After therapy, she can throw and catch balls -- and dodge them -- she doesn't fall over in the house (although she's still somewhat klutzy), and she went from big print children's books to small-print adult novels in a matter of months. She now jumps horses and can canter in a ring with up to twenty other riders, where before just one or two other horses nearby would spook her because she couldn't use her peripheral vision to track their course, so couldn't tell where they were if they weren't right in front of her.

 

So, there are different kinds of therapies. Ideally you will find one that is set up to specifically match your child's problems and is not single-faceted, does not use ONLY one format like paper exercises or computers, but blends different types of things and involves connections with the whole body.

 

Anyone wanting to begin research could start by looking at the PACE website. I agree that The Mislabeled Child is a wonderfully informative book, too.

 

Edit: There's PACE, which is vision-related, and also PAVE, which is a parents' information site for vision problems in kids.

Edited June 30, 2010 by Guest

[PeterPan]

search COVD's website. They have a doctor locator. But you really, really, really want to call around and be willing to drive. I passed by about 10 other docs to go to the place we're using. Some of the people about sound like hacks, treating glaucoma and everything else and then, oh, on the side whipping out a therapy workbook. The place we're at is totally different. They have 3 full-time therapists who do nothing but this at this place. They have secretaries who back up the therapists, giving them their schedules and doing what secretaries do. When I go in, that therapist has her ducks in a row, with 60 minutes (2 sessions) of INTENSE driven work, zoom zoom, and homework. You'll hear about places that are much more lackadaisical. All I'm saying is that with our twice a week, zoom zoom, work hard approach we are getting results. And they knew the red flags to look for with sensory integration, retained primitive reflexes, etc.

 

When I called around to each office, I asked if the doctor was a behavioral optometrist. If the secretary didn't know, game over. I'm telling you there are places hanging out their shingle for therapy that AREN'T. And then when you hear about people not making good progress with these places, it's heartbreaking. But I'll shut up now.

 

It's expensive, so get the best place you can get. It's going to eat your day anyway, so it doesn't matter if the drive is 30 minutes or 2 hours. I'd HAPPILY drive two hours each way to get the progress we're getting. Get client referrals to talk with. Ask what OT they recommend. If they don't know what OT they recommend, then how are they sending out kids for OT? Ask lots of questions.

[PeterPan]

Our place isn't quite as integrated at the doctor KarenAnne went to, but honestly he's a gem. I just literally couldn't find anyone like him. Our place does VT using a variety of methods and integrating sports vision activities once they get to a certain point. I was rereading some of Karen's earlier posts from a couple months ago where we had talked about this, and I now realize we are DOING (or are about to do) much of what she had described. Like I said, I think there are some docs who don't do this much and just whip out a notebook or something. Then there are therapists who do this all day long and have done a good job integrating and customizing things. The experience of the person lets them bring a lot to the table. With my dd they would narrow in on all sorts of little things (how she was sitting, how she was breathing, how she held her pencil, her facial use in the morning, blah blah). An experienced therapist brings so much to the table.

[LittleHouseHomeschool]

Ok, I'm going to get angry here for a minute, and I normally try not to.

 

I hope you weren't angry with me. I hope you read all the way through my note because I indicated that I thought this person should consult with a medical doctor for more information. Perhaps a different perspective as well.

Edited June 30, 2010 by LittleHouseHomeschool

[PeterPan]

Well I told my dd about your ds's progress using a patch and coloring pages. She was very happy for him but horrified at the thought that it would take years like that to do something we have accomplished in a matter of months with VT. They use patches in VT too, but they use them for short bursts of intense therapy. It's really quite fascinating.

[LittleHouseHomeschool]

Have a wonderful afternoon everyone!

Edited June 30, 2010 by LittleHouseHomeschool

[Lovedtodeath]

I will have a wonderful afternoon, thanks!:D

 

I am pretty sure that my DD needs vision therapy. Unfortunately the therapist is booked up until August 19th. We are doing Visual Perception exercises in the meantime.

 

Thank you for the thread. I will be reading through it all with interest. I really appreciate having the Special Needs Board here.

[PeterPan]

Hey Lovedtodeath, just for your fascination, I think my dd is starting to process differently now that we've been working on her eyes. There are so many things we did for years and years with SWR that never really gelled, that were just superficial and memorized. Now it's like her brain is going back to square one and thinking it out. Today she was trying to remember phonogram sounds and rules to sound out a word, this the girl who NEVER sounds out words. And her math is somehow different too. (I only know on the math because we did standardized testing and I watched how she worked.) Honestly, we aren't even doing schoolwork right now, because this takes so much out of us. But I think it would be perfectly reasonable to do NO schoolwork, do the VT, do OT, and then go back and pick up schoolwork afresh. I'm starting to see that it might take totally differently.

 

I don't know, just food for thought. You might also read at http://www.pacetutoring.com and see if you can find a place that does that. Our VT does it, and the order she suggested (for us) is VT, OT, *then* evaluate for PACE when OT is done or about done. PACE is really fascinating because it is basically therapy for their weak processing parts, evening out how they learn. They also do loading exercises to increase their working memory and ability to handle multiple things at once, things we take for granted like the thought plus how to form the letter plus where the comma goes plus how to hold their pencil plus the bird in the background. :)

 

Oh, and while you're waiting for your appointments (the awful part of all this!), you might stock up on your bribery supply. You're gonna need it. I've done lego sets, sculpey, and now 8 more books in a series she wanted the sequels to. Might as well find 'em now. It's a lot of work, the VT homework, and the bribery sort of distracts them for a moment.

[Lovedtodeath]

Thanks Elizabeth. I know that the vision therapy is going to help so many things.

[tenoraddict]

VT was invaluable to my son. I know it's a hike for you to get to a therapist, but it is soooo worth it. My son was diagnosed in 1st grade with dyslexia and about 6 different visual processing issues (focus, tracking, teaming, etc). After a year of VT, his reading ability and comprehension jumped from below grade level to several grades above level. As his eyes learned to focus, his body learned to focus and he dropped a lot of the ADD/ADHD "symptoms" he'd been displaying. I can't recommend VT highly enough. It really saved my son from years of heartache.