Vision vs. Dyslexia

[sixpence1978]

Is there a definite way to tell whether you are dealing with a vision problem or true dyslexia?

 

From everything I've read, it seems like no.

 

You read in some places that some cases of dyslexia are actually vision problems. But then you read in other places that they are rarely related.

So confusing!

[wapiti]

Yes, I'd say there is a definite way - with good professional help.

 

You can start by getting an evaluation for vision issues with an experienced optometrist. www.covd.org That's fairly quick and relatively inexpensive.

 

As for the dyslexia, I'd seek a neuropsych evaluation (that's expensive). I'd probably get the vision evaluation done prior to the neuropsych evaluation, since vision issues can affect the neuropsych testing generally. But ultimately I'd want to do both. The neuropsych may end up spotting issues that point to other kinds of evaluations by other kinds of professionals (auditory, language, sensory processing, etc.).

 

I do not think this is something you can figure out on your own. However, with professional help, I don't doubt that you can get to the root of the problem, or at least pretty darn close. Now whether you can fix it is another matter. Good luck!!

 

ETA: it might be that some cases of dyslexia are actually vision problems - as in the eyes working together and whatnot - but that seems to me to be an issue of misdiagnosis - I'd have to wonder who was doing the diagnosing and whether the time was taken to rule out vision issues. "Dyslexia" unfortunately has become almost too vague, in that some people and some professionals use it in a narrow sense, while others may use the term with an extremely broad meaning in mind. (e.g., one of my kids could be considered dyslexic under a broad meaning of reading trouble, and some of her troubles have seemed similar to dyslexia, but no professional we've been to has ever diagnosed her as such, and she's been through VT, language therapy, neuropsych eval, etc. etc. We do not consider her to be dyslexic.)

 

More importantly, it seems not uncommon to have vision problems and dyslexia present in the same individual. Thus the need for professionals to tease apart the issues.

 

And then there's the issue of visual perception, in the brain. Is it a vision problem or is it dyslexia? I don't know the answer but someone else here might. I lean toward vision, but I can imagine that it could be involved with dyslexia.

 

that's my two cents :)

Edited October 2, 2010 by wapiti

[EKS]

We dealt with a vision problem *and* true dyslexia. The VT helped, but it didn't cure him. According to my son's neurologist (a specialist in dyslexia and other learning problems in general) both vision and auditory problems are very common in dyslexics. My son has both.

[AngieW in Texas]

My dd had visual efficiency delays (corrected with vision therapy), visual processing delays (partially corrected), and dyseidetic dyslexia (the visual type). Her visual efficiency issues were so bad that it wasn't until after vision therapy that it was clear there was more going on.

[ElizabethB]

You can try to isolate it by contrasting oral and written spelling, but sometimes there are processing problems as well as vision problems, so that would be a confounding factor.

 

I try to work with 1 to 2 inch high letters one at a time on a white board in all uppercase with my remedial students until I am sure they can cope with smaller letters and lowercase.

 

A way to be sure would be to teach the whole family Braille and contrast the ability to read Braille with regular print once Braille letters had been learned to automaticity. It would most likely be easier just to get a good vision exam, though!!

 

The MWIA measures the speed of reading holistic words vs. phonetic words, which can help screen out true dyslexia from dyslexia symptoms caused by sight words and whole language (balanced literacy) teaching.

[siloam]

Is there a definite way to tell whether you are dealing with a vision problem or true dyslexia?

 

From everything I've read, it seems like no.

 

You read in some places that some cases of dyslexia are actually vision problems. But then you read in other places that they are rarely related.

So confusing!

It is good to try the vision route if you can afford it, but in our case, despite using a COVD specialist they still diagnosed my 2nd dd with vision problems when it was dyslexia and we did lots of VT and driving (and hour away one way) and paid a bunch of money with no improvement. It really depends on the individual person. I know other people who have taken their kids into COVD specialists and had them tell them it was a dyslexia problem not vision. I think the red flag in our case, is she couldn't give me any specifics about what the problem was, just a, "We can fix this." (Not)

 

I do think there are some things that can demonstrate if you have dyslexia, but it won't tell you if there both vision problems and dyslexia. The biggie would be recall problems, remembering names, recalling words when talking, forgetting math facts or mixing them up, and flipping directions and especially for places they have been to multiple times. These are not vision issues. They generally come and go, and show up more with stress and being put on the spot.

 

I personally am diagnosed a visual dyslexic through Irlen, also referred to as visual perception. The basic idea is that most people see all colors at the same speed, but some people don't. They see some colors faster than others, which distorts what they see. I do best with blue and red tones and the very best with purple tones. My worst colors are white and yellow.

 

About 6 months ago I was checking out Latin programs and a computer program was recommended to me. When I went in to view the sample it came up with a black background with white letters. Let be back up and say that normally when reading your average page the white will seem glaring to me, and the letters on the edges have a sense of movement. It is called a halo effect. On really bad days (tired, stressed, ect...) I see it also like a bad photo copy with multiple shadows. This time I couldn't even read the writing. I was having both the normal halo and bad day multiple print effects, but I was also having the letters wash out anywhere they were thin. What was even more significant was there was one word I could read perfectly. At the bottom was the word continue in red lettering, one of my good colors. With vision problems it doesn't change based on the color of the text, that is a processing problem.

 

But you can see how the symptoms I have mimic vision problems: tracking, focus, teaming. Only the most informed vision therapist is going to know the difference. Many still think they can cure any dyslexia that it has always been a vision problem. You won't get to the bottom of your issues that way, so I would ask for the therapist's take on dyslexia before you go in. Those that will at least acknowledge that a child can have both issues has a better chance of admitting that the issues they are seeing don't seem to be vision related. BTW the guy who diagnosed me through Irlen said it would cure my dyslexia. He was also wrong. :D It solves one problem, the vision issues by using filters, it doesn't solve the flipping directions in my mind or the recall issues any more than VT.

 

Heather

[PeterPan]

I'm with Wapati. It's not either/or. On the COVD docs and therapists, you really MUST check around, talk with people using them, etc. In other discussions with Siloam, it has become clear what her vision therapist did was NOTHING up to the standard of what we did. I don't know how to be more blunt than that. There ARE docs doing a 1/2 job of it. There are docs doing it on the side, just whipping out a notebook. But if you can find one that does a lot of this, does it successfully, and does it with more than just paper therapy, you might find a gem. Our therapist is one of only two certified by COVD in the state. She does a variety of things, not just a notebook. The kids have two sessions a week, covering lots of skills and tasks, and significant daily homework.

 

And yes, our OT told us the next step would be a neuropsych if we actually want to figure out how her brain is working, what her exact labels are, etc. The OT and VT do screening tests/profiles for things (dyslexia, ADD, etc.), but they can't diagnose. They just then tell you to go to the neuropsych for the next step. I will say that just the bit the OT has clued me into has been very enlightening on how these things apply practically to our teaching. That's always the rub. I don't care about the label, but I DO care about how in the world I teach her high school science or writing and keep the process pleasant. Apparently there's a neuropsych in town who does CogMed, so that's what I thought I'd research next, using that as a screener to find someone who has actually done a lot of this and knows how kids think.

 

BTW, we're in the middle of the visual processing portion of our VT. (Did the focusing and convergence stuff, now processing.) I'm waiting to see what improves and what doesn't with that. At that point it will be a neuropsych evaluation or PACE or both or neither, don't know.

Edited October 3, 2010 by OhElizabeth

[Dobela]

Yes, I'd say there is a definite way - with good professional help.

 

You can start by getting an evaluation for vision issues with an experienced optometrist. www.covd.org That's fairly quick and relatively inexpensive.

 

As for the dyslexia, I'd seek a neuropsych evaluation (that's expensive). I'd probably get the vision evaluation done prior to the neuropsych evaluation, since vision issues can affect the neuropsych testing generally. But ultimately I'd want to do both. The neuropsych may end up spotting issues that point to other kinds of evaluations by other kinds of professionals (auditory, language, sensory processing, etc.).

 

I do not think this is something you can figure out on your own. However, with professional help, I don't doubt that you can get to the root of the problem, or at least pretty darn close. Now whether you can fix it is another matter. Good luck!!

 

ETA: it might be that some cases of dyslexia are actually vision problems - as in the eyes working together and whatnot - but that seems to me to be an issue of misdiagnosis - I'd have to wonder who was doing the diagnosing and whether the time was taken to rule out vision issues. "Dyslexia" unfortunately has become almost too vague, in that some people and some professionals use it in a narrow sense, while others may use the term with an extremely broad meaning in mind. (e.g., one of my kids could be considered dyslexic under a broad meaning of reading trouble, and some of her troubles have seemed similar to dyslexia, but no professional we've been to has ever diagnosed her as such, and she's been through VT, language therapy, neuropsych eval, etc. etc. We do not consider her to be dyslexic.)

 

More importantly, it seems not uncommon to have vision problems and dyslexia present in the same individual. Thus the need for professionals to tease apart the issues.

 

And then there's the issue of visual perception, in the brain. Is it a vision problem or is it dyslexia? I don't know the answer but someone else here might. I lean toward vision, but I can imagine that it could be involved with dyslexia.

 

that's my two cents :)

:iagree::iagree:

 

So much wisdom in this post! Whether or not VT will work is so individual and depends on too many variables to give a blanket answer. We were told our son was dyslexic by a professional. We also learned that he had serious vision problems about the same time by a Behavioral optometrist found at covd.org. We were fortunate - our optometrist was fabulous and in our town. The next nearest was over 3 hours away. Ours trained for VT after having a child diagnosed with special needs.I think that made her honest, dedicated, and very motivated. After 16 months of VT my son graduated and had gone up 3+ grade levels in reading ability - but know that we also hired a specialized reading tutor that used the Scottish Rite program for Dyslexia.

 

Now we are told that our son is not dyslexic (unless it is very mild) and we know that without the hard work we did in vision therapy he would not be able to track and focus like he is now. For my son it has taken a combination of VT and a specialized reading program to make a difference. Without the VT he would have never been successful at reading. For others though that may not be true.

[Liza Lee]

We dealt with a vision problem *and* true dyslexia. The VT helped, but it didn't cure him. According to my son's neurologist (a specialist in dyslexia and other learning problems in general) both vision and auditory problems are very common in dyslexics. My son has both.

 

My boys have both, too.

 

They did vision therapy and it helped. They are currently going to a tutor who uses Barton.

 

They learned to read at around 2nd/3rd grade. The younger one has auditory problems and they both have dysgraphia as well.

[peacefully]

.