rafiki Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngieW in Texas Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 (edited) How many sessions of VT did your dc have? 24 plus an evaluation after every 8th session and a followup session one month after she finished How frequent was each session? weekly How long was each session? 30 minutes How many weeks or months was your dc in VT? 6 months How many days per week did you do VT homework? 6, we only skipped vt homework on the day she had her session Did you do VT homework on a VT in office day? no, the vt said not to How long did their VT homework take each time? 20-30 minutes What were their reasons for needing VT? double vision, eye suppression, difficulties with tracking and sweeping, eyes jerking back&forth (nystragmus), difficulty switching focus from near to far or far to near, lots of reversals What results did they get from VT? Eye jerking stopped, focus normal, tracking/sweeping problem fixed, finally had depth perception, eye suppression stopped, double vision stopped. Did results continue after the VT ended? yes Does your dc think the VT helped? yes Do you have to periodically review VT exercises after VT is completed? only for the first year Do you still follow up with the office who did the VT? no If you knew then what you know now, would you have asked anything or done anything differently? Would have checking into visual processing at that time. VT fixes visual efficiency, not visual processing, at least at the office I went to. ETA: The biggest changes that I actually saw were that she stopped crashing into things (because she finally had depth perception) and she stopped covering one eye while trying to read. Edited May 3, 2011 by AngieW in Texas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dobela Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 I'm curious. How many sessions of VT did your dc have? 1 one hour session per week for 18 months How frequent was each session? once per week How long was each session? 1 hour usually, sometimes 45 minutes How many weeks or months was your dc in VT? 18 months if I am counting correctly How many days per week did you do VT homework? 7 days a week in the beginning. By the end we did not have homework Did you do VT homework on a VT in office day? yes I did. Usually the homework changed somewhat on the clinic day so I would make ds do the homework that night as well. How long did their VT homework take each time? It depends on what the homework was. Sometimes 15 minutes, sometimes 45 minutes. It also depended on if the homework was something we had to do to mastery or just do for a timed session. What were their reasons for needing VT? tracking issues, depth perception, convergence issues and probably something else I have forgotten. What results did they get from VT? Dramatic positive change. Not only did the diagnosis of dyslexia go away, he went up several grade levels academically, we saw the end of some sensory issues, confidence increased dramatically, a sense of accomplishment, could play sports that require accuracy like basketball and football. Pre VT he never played a video game, post VT I can't keep him away from videogames. Did results continue after the VT ended? yes. Some have continued to improve I believe. We went for his annual vision check up last month and the issues have not returned and he may only need glasses for 1 more year only. Does your dc think the VT helped? yes. He will talk about life before VT and life after VT interestingly. Occassionally he will say something like, "MOm, do you remember when the letters would jump around?" "I like writing now, I can remember how to write the letters." Do you have to periodically review VT exercises after VT is completed? no, we have not. Do you still follow up with the office who did the VT? yes, we use the VT as our regular optometrist as well. When ds went for his last annual check up she also took time to do the screening exercises with him again to make sure he was still ok vision wise. If you knew then what you know now, would you have asked anything or done anything differently? I would make sure that my son's clinic time was his alone,especially in the end. I really think there were occassions where ds was doing so well that he was also used as the example or the kid encourager to help motivate a new kid that was more difficult to work with. If I had known just how much it would have changed his life, I would have pursued VT much sooner. Anything else? I hope tihs helps. FYI My dd4 will be evaluated thoroughly for VT this week. Her physical therapist thinks that part of her lack of gross motor progress may be from a depth perception issue. The PT actually recommended I have her eyes examined by the VT because she has seen improvements in her other clients that have received VT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacefully Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 (edited) Are you asking for data collection purposes or to bolster your resolve? You already know my answers, but I'll play anyway. :) I'm curious. How many sessions of VT did your dc have? 3 months for convergence, focusing, etc. and another 2 or 3 months (I forget now) on visual perception. How frequent was each session? We did two half/hour sessions weekly and tried to stack them on the same day to save driving. How long was each session? 1/2 hour How many weeks or months was your dc in VT? About 7 months. We had some weeks off for vacations, etc. How many days per week did you do VT homework? EVERY DAY. I am draconian and make no apologies. The VT place allowed one day off a week as a point of grace. We probably missed some here and there, but we TRIED to work every day. Did you do VT homework on a VT in office day? Absolutely not. She was too tired after a VT appointment to do anything further. They could accomplish in visit (2 sessions with a 1/2 hour break between) more than I could get done with her in a week. They worked VERY hard. How long did their VT homework take each time? It was intended to take 15-20 minutes, and my dd managed to stretch it to more like 1-1 1/2 hours. What were their reasons for needing VT? Convergence insufficiency, poor tracking, headaches with any reading. As we got into the therapy and things started improving, we saw other things that previously we had not REALIZED were vision connected begin to improve. Her handwriting improved dramatically. She was able to catch balls, stopped bumping into objects, etc. What results did they get from VT? Honestly? The most stunning thing was how much she GREW UP during the process. It was like she had been using her silly behaviors all this time to hide her problems. She had the most inane and annoying little things, like she would walk around on the floor barking like a dog or roll around and act silly. It was all an ACT, because it's not cool to be 11 and admit that you walk into objects all the time. So she'd act silly instead. This totally stopped. She no longer has bruises from running into things. She can catch balls, all kinds of balls. She can read the books she was rejecting due to print size. She no longer gets the headaches. She can look at her nose, which she couldn't do before at all. She has proper depth perception now. And this is just life stuff. Sure she can do better on the tests they give her, but the point is her quality of LIFE improved. She couldn't/wouldn't do puzzles or word searches before, and now she can. She ENJOYS doing puzzles, coloring, visual perception games, etc. that she wouldn't even touch before. I have a whole CLOSET full of games and puzzles she would never touch prior to VT, and now we play them together regularly. HUGE change. Did results continue after the VT ended? Of course. Supposedly they can do MRI's showing the changes and new pathways the brain develops in response to the therapy. I have no clue. In our case her performance in tasks using vision has actually IMPROVED since VT. It's like she got the skills, built the wiring, then had to go back and see the info afresh and let it gel. So not only has she not lost the skills, but she has gotten stronger. Does your dc think the VT helped? That's a good question. I never asked her, since it seemed so incredibly obvious. What usually happened during the therapy was that we'd wait till we saw HER doing something she couldn't do before, then we'd tell it to the therapist. So when she suddenly started picking up books again and reading the fine print selections she had rejected before, it was her own perception, not ours, kwim? When I threw a ball at her and she suddenly could catch it, that was her, not us. But yes, it's very vivid to her what it was like before NOT to be able to catch balls, read small print, form the letters/strokes she was trying to do for the handwriting program no matter how hard she tried, etc. Do you have to periodically review VT exercises after VT is completed? No. When I asked our VT, they said that should not be necessary. They also take the dc BEYOND age-necessary in skill to make sure they have a comfortable padding. We continue to do things for visual processing, and on occasion I'll ask her to cross her eyes and do some of the more sophisticated stuff (cross and hold while looking forward, with no object, etc.) See these are skills that get BUILT on, and once they're built on they're naturally being reinforced and held. I just don't see that as an issue. Do you still follow up with the office who did the VT? I doubt they want to hear from me, with as much as I bugged them during the process, lol. Seriously, we could go there to get our eyes checked (regular exams) I suppose, but it's a long drive. I'm probably going to have dd do the therapy with me before I go for my next pair of glasses. Depending on how that goes, I may have a VT doc do it rather than my regular doc. Someone on the boards had mentioned that the VT work helped slow the pace of their astigmatism changes. Mine is bad enough, I'd like to see what it would do there. If you knew then what you know now, would you have asked anything or done anything differently? That's not rocket science. I'd have done it sooner. I'd go back in time many years and do it ASAP. HUGE, life-changing experience for dd that would have saved us years of grief. Edited May 3, 2011 by OhElizabeth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted May 3, 2011 Author Share Posted May 3, 2011 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 I've wondered about that, and I honestly have no clue. At our place they had a progression of the materials, so pretty much no matter where you started and how bad, you were going to need a minimum of 3 months. But you know, even that's not true. I need to get started on myself and see! See I THINK I was good on the earlier skills, just not the peripheral and depth perception. So I do think some of what you're seeing and can't account for is the severity of the problem or how much time that dc needs to get the change. My dd really struggled with the depth perception stuff, really struggled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted May 3, 2011 Author Share Posted May 3, 2011 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacefully Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 Michelle, your experience of VT is actually the most fascinating to me, because you have your three going at the same time, all for different issues. Our office typically saw patients once a week. We went once every two weeks because we simply could not get to the office more frequently than that. They also had several tiers of VT. Ours was the shortest (only 8 weeks), but other patients went for 16, 24 or more sessions. The office work was vastly different from our homework. They had ds working with computers, whatever that light-up wall thing is, different prisms, etc. Our homework was actually pretty simple—some paper-based activities, some lens and prism work, pencil push-ups, and a Brock string. It took FOR.EV.ER to do each day, but that was it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted May 3, 2011 Author Share Posted May 3, 2011 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
my2boysteacher Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 It's taking us at least 1.5 hours to get through the VT homework and have to split my youngests into two sessions. Interesting....my son just had his third session this morning and hasn't received any homework outside his 20 min/day light therapy. He did receive a new color lense to add to his light though. My DH just asked, "wasn't he supposed to be getting homework?" DH took him the last two times, I'll have to find out about that when I take him next week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 How many sessions of VT did your dc have? 24 How frequent was each session? weekly How long was each session? LOL I can't remember, maybe 45 min or 1 hr How many weeks or months was your dc in VT? 6 months (not counting the months off doing OT - see below) How many days per week did you do VT homework? 5 Did you do VT homework on a VT in office day? no How long did their VT homework take each time? Long story - At the time, dd was 6. We began VT at the end of the summer before first grade. For the first month, it was torture (for me :D). It took about 1.5 hrs per day at home. Part of that was due to dd's resistance and personality issues, and part was due to how difficult it was for her to do the exercises. Coincidentally, we had been waiting to get into the Star Center for OT. The way the schedule worked out, the OT program started about a month into our VT. The OT was 3x per week for a month, then a month off, then 2x per week. So as not to overload dd, and also due to the OT's insistence that it would help, we stopped VT after that first month, did the OT, and when the OT was finished 3 months later, we re-started the VT. When we re-started the VT, the difference shocked both us and the vision therapist. Suddenly it only took 20-30 minutes per day, and the VT exercises were obviously much easier for dd to do. What were their reasons for needing VT? tracking/teaming What results did they get from VT? jumped a couple grade levels in reading Did results continue after the VT ended? yes Does your dc think the VT helped? yes Do you have to periodically review VT exercises after VT is completed? we did not - it may depend on the situation Do you still follow up with the office who did the VT? Yes. We've continued to see him for glasses, and my other kids have seen him for regular checkups, but we are switching to a different covd optometrist for checkups who is closer If you knew then what you know now, would you have asked anything or done anything differently? I probably would have gone to the closer person sooner - a more well known FCOVD - but ironically I didn't know about her at the time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixpence1978 Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 Well, we are completed yet, but I will answer a few of your questions. I'm curious. How many sessions of VT did your dc have? She was scheduled to have 36 sessions. However, she did just get skipped ahead 2 weeks, so now the outlook is looking like 34 sessions. Unless she skips again. How frequent was each session? We go each week with an evaluation every 8 weeks. How long was each session? Each session lasts about 1 hour. How many weeks or months was your dc in VT? She has been going since the first week of January. How many days per week did you do VT homework? We do homework 5x a week, which is what we are asked to do. Did you do VT homework on a VT in office day? Nope, we were told not to. How long did their VT homework take each time? It really has depended on the exercises. This past week was super easy at about 20 minutes of homework a day. We have had some weeks where the homework last over an hour. What were their reasons for needing VT? Eye suppression, visual memory, tracking. What results did they get from VT? We are still working on it. But so far she is skipping a bit less. She is now reading for longer stretchs, and she is now coloring (inside the lines) which she never cared for before. She also is doing more puzzles with ease. The rest of these questions I can't answer yet, but hopefully my above answers will help. Did results continue after the VT ended? Does your dc think the VT helped? Do you have to periodically review VT exercises after VT is completed? Do you still follow up with the office who did the VT? If you knew then what you know now, would you have asked anything or done anything differently? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laundrycrisis Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 (edited) I am happy to answer: I'm curious. How many sessions of VT did your dc have? around 40 How frequent was each session? once per week How long was each session? 45 minutes How many weeks or months was your dc in VT? it took almost a year, with a break of a month while changing practices and have more testing done How many days per week did you do VT homework? 4-5 Did you do VT homework on a VT in office day? no - the session wore him out How long did their VT homework take each time? about 30 minutes What were their reasons for needing VT? It started with severe amblyopia - one eye basically blind and not correctable. After 6 months of patching, it can see with a very thick lens but the two eyes did not work together at all and the weak eye had all sorts of issues. So his original problems were eye teaming, tracking, focus changing, perception of size and white space, poor saccadic muscle control no left/right awareness, and convergence insufficiency. After those were treated with therapy we went on to discover some visual processing issues - visual sequential memory, form constancy, and visual closure. What results did they get from VT? Amazing improvements. There are still some issues with sequential memory, and still some reversals but he can recognize them on his own now. Did results continue after the VT ended? Yes Does your dc think the VT helped? Yes, very much so. He was not able to learn to read and write before VT. He had been trying but just could not do it. He is very grateful that he has been able to learn to read. Do you have to periodically review VT exercises after VT is completed? Only with the vectogram. Do you still follow up with the office who did the VT? He is supposed to have a 4 month checkup. Need to schedule that. If you knew then what you know now, would you have asked anything or done anything differently? No. I feel very fortunate that everything worked out in the best way it could have. Edited May 4, 2011 by laundrycrisis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacefully Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dobela Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 I've wondered about that, and I honestly have no clue. At our place they had a progression of the materials, so pretty much no matter where you started and how bad, you were going to need a minimum of 3 months. But you know, even that's not true. I need to get started on myself and see! See I THINK I was good on the earlier skills, just not the peripheral and depth perception. So I do think some of what you're seeing and can't account for is the severity of the problem or how much time that dc needs to get the change. My dd really struggled with the depth perception stuff, really struggled. I wonder of the sessions have to do with insurance sometimes. My son's insurance paid for his VT. After the initial assessment the insurance preapproved 12- 1 hour sessions of therapy. We chose to do one per week, actually at the preference of the VT. Near the end of the 12 weeks the VT would assess progress and have to get more sessions preapproved by insurance. Sometimes insurance would preapprove 8, other times 12. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dobela Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Interesting....my son just had his third session this morning and hasn't received any homework outside his 20 min/day light therapy. He did receive a new color lense to add to his light though. My DH just asked, "wasn't he supposed to be getting homework?" DH took him the last two times, I'll have to find out about that when I take him next week. We began with homework after the second session. More was added and taken away each session after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dobela Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Michelle, your experience of VT is actually the most fascinating to me, because you have your three going at the same time, all for different issues. Our office typically saw patients once a week. We went once every two weeks because we simply could not get to the office more frequently than that. They also had several tiers of VT. Ours was the shortest (only 8 weeks), but other patients went for 16, 24 or more sessions. The office work was vastly different from our homework. They had ds working with computers, whatever that light-up wall thing is, different prisms, etc. Our homework was actually pretty simple—some paper-based activities, some lens and prism work, pencil push-ups, and a Brock string. It took FOR.EV.ER to do each day, but that was it. :iagree: The most dificult exercise for my son, the one that we spent forever one, and the one that brought the most tears was the special walk for the Moro Reflex where my son had to walk pigeon toed or like a duck with palms up or down while holding a large dowel, and in front of a mirror. It took weeks for him to be able to do this. In the beginning I had to move his feet for him. Once he broke thru this though, we began to move more swiftly thru other exercises. I still find the Primative Reflex connection very fascinating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted May 4, 2011 Author Share Posted May 4, 2011 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted May 4, 2011 Author Share Posted May 4, 2011 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyofsixreboot Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 Really interesting. We're only on week 3 but it's encouraging to hear so much success. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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