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How to determine if son has visual processing issue? (x-post)


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My ds, 8, is an avid reader and is reading several grade levels beyond his own. So I can't imagine he has a visual processing issue...but he REALLY struggles with tasks that involve ordering individual letters.

 

For instance, he CAN'T do word searches...can't find the words, gets very frustrated if he has to try as part of his spelling. Certain spelling tasks frustrate him to tears...this morning, he spent 40 minutes trying to select and order 20 list words by consonant digraph ("list the words where the two consonants form the 'n' sound"...and the words are all on the left side of the page). I finally had him stop because he was crying so hard (he completed 15 of them). Scrabble is easy for him, as long an the number of letters he has does not exceed 8 or so. He also can NOT do puzzles...even the border pieces confuse him.

 

He spells fairly well, but it is easier for him to spell words verbally than in writing.

 

This is not a huge issue, since it impacts so few of our daily tasks and he is reading so well, but I'm really starting to wonder if something more is going on. I don't even know how to go about finding out if he does have an issue.

 

What says the hive?

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There is a specific type of visual processing that involves finding things in a busy background environment. I can't remember what it's called, but it sounds like your son has a weakness in that area. Our OT had use the I Spy books to help dd with this. Your library might have some of them.

 

With spelling words, could you either reduce the number of words your son has to sort or else help him find the words that belong in each category and point out the digraph to him?

 

My dd is 9 1/2 yo, and I've noticed just recently that she is doing better with word searches and puzzles.

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There is a specific type of visual processing that involves finding things in a busy background environment. I can't remember what it's called, but it sounds like your son has a weakness in that area. Our OT had use the I Spy books to help dd with this. Your library might have some of them.

 

 

 

LizzyBee, I wonder if you've solved a puzzle for me. One dd was evaluated with the WISC-IV and did very poorly on the picture concepts subtest. No one has been able to explain why because she did well on other subtests which are supposed to measure similar abilities. The one difference in this subtest is that the subject has to find a unifying characteristic in pictures that are grouped with different pictures, not just one picture or even one group of pictures.

 

I've gotta get a move on with that VT eval.:auto:

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There is a specific type of visual processing that involves finding things in a busy background environment. I can't remember what it's called, but it sounds like your son has a weakness in that area.

 

:iagree:

 

Dd had terrible trouble for years with figure-ground discrimination and with something having to do with completing a partially-drawn or partially-seen object or pattern. To this day she does not enjoy word searches, but at least she can now do them. Once we went to a huge art museum day where giant canvases were spread out the ground with patterns on them, the kind you used to be able to get with the paint by numbers kits. Dd laid down on it sobbing; she couldn't tell what was inside and what was outside and what patterns the lines made.

 

I'm sorry your son seems to be having similar issues. It's so hard for them, and hard for us as parents seeing this and not really knowing how to handle it.

 

We ended up doing vision therapy for a number of issues, this one among them. I have to say that it still troubles dd somewhat and will probably always be a weak spot; but at least there are no meltdowns! And other vision issues were helped SO MUCH.

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Happy, given what you've said, I can almost GUARANTEE you he has a vision problem. And out of sheer kindness to him, I would beg you not to do any alphabetizing exercises with him until you get his eyes evaluated. He may not be seeing individual letters correctly (due to focusing and convergence problems), and when you force him to do work alphabetizing, it's going to aggravate it. When you have a visual PROCESSING problem, you have to go up the chain one step and ask if they're even SEEING things correctly. The developmental optometrist will evaluate that. There are lots of aspects to it, as Lizzy said. Indeed, my dd hated and had extreme difficulty with word searches. Now she does them with ease. But this isn't something you just teach out. It's not like you go to the end product (word searches, alphabetizing, etc.) and teach them that. It wasn't a problem of instruction. If the eyes don't even SEE the information correctly, the can't process it.

 

You don't realize how well he is or is not seeing, because he doesn't know how to put it into words. For instance my dd could pass a 20/20 vision test. What she never told us was that she had to CHOSE what to focus on, everything was blurry until she picked something to see. LOL Oh, but she had 20/20 vision!!! LOL My dd has always read very well. Their strengths are covering up for their weaknesses, and there comes a point they can't cover anymore. That's when you start getting this incongruity, where their spelling scores or holes just don't fit with the rest of their scores.

 

So personally, I wouldn't try to teach it out. I'd just go get the eye exam and see what you're dealing with. A lot of the stuff I noticed and sweated over the years dropped away like flies with VT. Once the eyes work correctly, some of these problems correct themselves.

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...on the general board, I was advised to have him evaluated by an OT.

 

OhElizabeth, you mentioned a developmental optometrist (did I get that right)? Should I start with that person, or the OT?

 

He has had an eye exam, and he did need glasses, but they didn't do any other type of eval on him.

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visit www.covd.org to find a developmental optometrist. While you are there check out the signs and symptoms page. You may be surprised to find more there that fit your child. The exams that a developmental optometrist do are very different from a regular eye exam. It is a much longer and precise exam. I was told by more than 1 'eye doctor' that my son's vision was just fine - but it wasn't. He had significant tracking, convergence, depth, and other issues that seriously effected his reading and other skills. Anything we tried to complete on paper was a disaster. Vision therapy and a well qualified VT absolutely changed his life for the best. An occupational therapist (OT) can work on some issues but will not specifically correct vision. My son had been seeing an occupational therapist for 2 years with little progress when we started vision therapy. One characteristic of vision problems is not being able to complete tasks on paper thta one can complete orally.

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...on the general board, I was advised to have him evaluated by an OT.

 

OhElizabeth, you mentioned a developmental optometrist (did I get that right)? Should I start with that person, or the OT?

 

He has had an eye exam, and he did need glasses, but they didn't do any other type of eval on him.

 

You could start with an OT and see what his scores are. For certain types of or mild VP issues, an OT can give you some suggestions and worksheets. If any of the scores are very low, you could then go to a COVD doc.

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OhElizabeth, his glasses are not bifocal - just "regular" glasses...I don't remember if he is near- or far-sighted. I do remember that they had to dilate his eyes because he was doing some kind of "manual override" (apparently kids can do something like that) that interfered with their ability to test his vision.

 

Thanks, Dobela, for the web site. We're in a pretty rural area - it will be interesting to see if we have one in our area.

 

OhElizabeth, it sounds like I can go to either OT or dev OP. I think I definitely will have him checked.

 

Thanks everyone!

Edited by Happy2BaMom
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The OT and developmental optometrist are not interchangeable. They shake two ends of the same stick. Some people need both, and some people get by with one or the other. Personally, given what you've said, I would get the dev. opt. evaluation. What was it people were seeing to suggest OT? I didn't see your other thread. Are you have sensory, ADD, muscle tone, or other such issues? I mean seriously, you can get a dev. opt. evaluation for 1/2 the price of an OT eval. If there are no other indications of an OT problem, I don't see the point. There ARE things the OT can do for vision. But around here at least the OT's methods are the least sophisticated (read effective). They'll be paper, nothing more. The VT does all kinds of hands-on stuff and is much more thorough. Where the OT shines is when the vestibular system is not working right and needs help. To oversimplify, the vestibular system is the stabilizer for the eyes, like the stabilizer in your digital camera. So the OT will look at things like how the eyes remain focused and move when the body is in motion or the head tilts. These are important issues, but they're connected to the vestibular. When you have actually PROCESSING issues, you need to go to a developmental optometrist. Vision therapy is much more sophisticated. The dev. optometrist will evaluate MANY more aspects of vision than what an OT will look at, and they'll approach it with more detail. Ha, maybe you'll find someone who breaks the rule, lol. But that's the general pattern, at least around here.

 

I would work first on the problems that are most pressing. If his vision is the big bugaboo, I would go straight to the deve. optom. But that's just me. A few months with VT changed our lives. Several months into OT we're still wondering what we're accomplishing, lol.

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The OT and developmental optometrist are not interchangeable. They shake two ends of the same stick. Some people need both, and some people get by with one or the other. Personally, given what you've said, I would get the dev. opt. evaluation. What was it people were seeing to suggest OT? I didn't see your other thread. Are you have sensory, ADD, muscle tone, or other such issues? I mean seriously, you can get a dev. opt. evaluation for 1/2 the price of an OT eval. If there are no other indications of an OT problem, I don't see the point. There ARE things the OT can do for vision. But around here at least the OT's methods are the least sophisticated (read effective). They'll be paper, nothing more. The VT does all kinds of hands-on stuff and is much more thorough. Where the OT shines is when the vestibular system is not working right and needs help. To oversimplify, the vestibular system is the stabilizer for the eyes, like the stabilizer in your digital camera. So the OT will look at things like how the eyes remain focused and move when the body is in motion or the head tilts. These are important issues, but they're connected to the vestibular. When you have actually PROCESSING issues, you need to go to a developmental optometrist. Vision therapy is much more sophisticated. The dev. optometrist will evaluate MANY more aspects of vision than what an OT will look at, and they'll approach it with more detail. Ha, maybe you'll find someone who breaks the rule, lol. But that's the general pattern, at least around here.

 

I would work first on the problems that are most pressing. If his vision is the big bugaboo, I would go straight to the deve. optom. But that's just me. A few months with VT changed our lives. Several months into OT we're still wondering what we're accomplishing, lol.

 

I was one of the people who suggested an OT eval, because the OT did some things to work on vp with my dd. The reports we got from the OT and COVD doc were actually quite similar. I was thinking that an OT eval might be more likely to be covered by insurance, so it'd be a good place to start.

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The OT and developmental optometrist are not interchangeable. They shake two ends of the same stick. Some people need both, and some people get by with one or the other. Personally, given what you've said, I would get the dev. opt. evaluation. What was it people were seeing to suggest OT? I didn't see your other thread. Are you have sensory, ADD, muscle tone, or other such issues? I mean seriously, you can get a dev. opt. evaluation for 1/2 the price of an OT eval. If there are no other indications of an OT problem, I don't see the point. There ARE things the OT can do for vision. But around here at least the OT's methods are the least sophisticated (read effective). They'll be paper, nothing more. The VT does all kinds of hands-on stuff and is much more thorough. Where the OT shines is when the vestibular system is not working right and needs help. To oversimplify, the vestibular system is the stabilizer for the eyes, like the stabilizer in your digital camera. So the OT will look at things like how the eyes remain focused and move when the body is in motion or the head tilts. These are important issues, but they're connected to the vestibular. When you have actually PROCESSING issues, you need to go to a developmental optometrist. Vision therapy is much more sophisticated. The dev. optometrist will evaluate MANY more aspects of vision than what an OT will look at, and they'll approach it with more detail. Ha, maybe you'll find someone who breaks the rule, lol. But that's the general pattern, at least around here.

 

I would work first on the problems that are most pressing. If his vision is the big bugaboo, I would go straight to the deve. optom. But that's just me. A few months with VT changed our lives. Several months into OT we're still wondering what we're accomplishing, lol.

:iagree:

 

In our case, OT helped VT, but that was kind of a coincidence - dd was seeing the OT for SPD and getting VT for eye tracking issues (dd's ocular motor issues were a subset of her SPD). The OT made it easier for dd to do the VT exercises, but my dd could not have gotten by without VT.

 

There's also the chance the OT may refer to the optometrist anyway. It would make sense to go to OT first, or do both at the same time, if the child also has other symptoms of SPD, especially motor sorts of things, or vestibular as mentioned above (sorry I haven't read the whole thread). But just for vision? I'd go straight to the optometrist. Good luck!!! :)

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Lizzy, that makes good sense! Did the op have any other indications of needing an OT eval? That was my whole point. I wasn't a cash cow at the VT, but I sure feel like that with OT. In fact, I'm not convinced that they couldn't find symptoms on anyone, mercy. If only eye issues, I'd go with the eye doc.

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Lizzy, that makes good sense! Did the op have any other indications of needing an OT eval? That was my whole point. I wasn't a cash cow at the VT, but I sure feel like that with OT. In fact, I'm not convinced that they couldn't find symptoms on anyone, mercy. If only eye issues, I'd go with the eye doc.

 

The OP hasn't mentioned any other SPD or motor issues in this thread. Hopefully, reading all our different opinions and experiences will help her figure out the best course for her son. :001_smile:

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This board moves too fast for me to stay on top of all the new posts! I love it! The information I've learned from this post has really helped me. So, a big :grouphug: to all those who took the time to respond.

 

Your posts have helped me settle on going straight to Dev. OT (or whatever they're called - the developmental eye people, which PTL, we do have two in town who comes highly recommended....been doing some research over the past day). I didn't even realize such people existed before I posted!

 

Just so you know, my son shows no signs of any other issues or disabilities, which is partly why it's taken me this long (he's 8) to finally say "hmmm, I think something might be wrong with the vision processing".

 

Unfortunately, we can't get into the "eye people" until February! I will let you know what I finally find out, however.

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Well good! I'm glad you sorted out what to do and found someone to help you. Honestly, have a GOOD someone is more important than the label. So having them come well-recommended is terrific!

 

Definitely let us know what you find out! The time will go by quickly. :)

 

PS. Do you know how to use the control panel to keep up with your threads? Took me a while to figure that out, but it's very handy. Then you don't have to search for things. The key is to make the WTM boards your homepage and visit frequently. LOL :)

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