COVD's this week - any BTDT experience?

[rafiki]

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[Dobela]

My son's began with a regular eye exam. From there they moved to a series of exams that lasted a couple of hours. We actually had to split the appointment into 2 days. It really sent him into sensory overload so beware if your kids have sensory issues as well. The other portions my son found fun over all though. Lots of short activities. I didn't really prepare my son for anything, mostly because I didn't know how it would be different. Some of the activities seem to have very little to do with vision and looked more like OT or PT skills so don't be surprised if they are hitting balls or walking on lines, and so on.

 

I received a written report, but not until the next visit.

 

Take paper with you to take notes as you go so you can ask questions.

 

Don't be suprised if your child has normal, or nearly normal vision and yet glasses are prescribed anyway. My son wears the smallest RX possible just to remind his eyes to work together and to help block other stimulous input.

[peacefully]

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[PeterPan]

Haha, y'all are assuming our eval was more thorough because we spent so long. Maybe I just talked the lady's leg off. :)

 

Seriously, it sounds like Yllek's place crammed a lot in a short period of time,not necessarily a bad thing. Ours was 2 1/2 hours, and dd was TOTALLY worn out by the end. They're not trying to see what they *can* do but what they *can't* so it's not exactly an easy process. Spend two hours doing the hardest things for you visually, and see how you feel.

 

Michele, you're going to want some serious entertainment options for the others. Our place is pretty swanky, so they have a tv and popcorn machine in the lobby, no joke, and a sony playstation thing (not sure what it's called) in the 2nd lobby. So take something to keep them busy. Portable dvd player with a huge bag of snacks. Sack lunches. Bribery. Zoo trip afterwards. Anything.

 

It does no good to compare yours to mine in the sense that you can't do anything about it. The practice is what it is. They may be uber-organized and terrific or they may not be. And as you're seeing, a lot of people are having good experiences even where the place doesn't have a separate VT manager and full-time staff and organized this and that. So you just have to see what you get. They'll tell you. What I would say is don't leave till you have *your* questions answered that *their* assertions raise. Don't take anything at face value or leave unconvinced. You're paying them to convince you a problem does or does not exist, and they should do it. Ask lots of why, what happens if I don't, could I do something at home and get to the same place, what caused this, what role does (low tone or whatever) play, etc. Just be pesky.

 

Personally, while they were actually working with dd I tried to shut up. The room was small, and dd sat at a small table opposite the optometrist. There was no room for extra kids btw, ask me how I know. ;) So I sat in the parent chair on the wall and tried to be quiet while they worked. See the child/doc or child/therapist relationship is starting to form here, and it's actually really important. It's very important that your *dc* talk with them and express what is going on and start to take ownership of the process. VT works as the CHILD steps up to the plate and starts to control how he sees, what he is doing with his eyes, etc. You can't get in the middle of that. You ahve to watch enough to learn and facilitate when you get home, but really it has to be about them. At least it was at our place. And I felt confident enough in them that I trusted them to talk with her like that. and as they talked like that, stuff started to come out.

 

They know what they're looking for and how to get it out, if you just let them. It's not like I had to TELL them. They could already guess what was going on, and the instruments and the things the child told them as they attempted tasks just confirmed it. It's not like a doctor where you go in claiming to be sick and the guy just says he can't see it, clearly nothing is wrong, blah blah. They read my dd like a BOOK. We got in there and she started telling them things and having these ah-ha moments of understanding. It's very gratifying to the child to finally talk with someone who GETS what they've been feeling, kwim?

 

In contrast to the others, we didn't get our written findings for a few weeks after the evaluation. No biggee, as we had been told everything pretty much orally and already started.

 

Leave convinced. Doesn't even matter of what (that the guy was a kook, that your kid has a problem, whatever), but leave convinced. Make them justify and explain till you're sure.