What Should I Do? HELP!

[jeffcolemanfamily]

Ok, I am new here but not new to homeschooling or kids with special needs, but I need some serious help!

 

I have 6 kids that I homeschool currently and they have never been to public school. This August I have signed them up to attend a charter school in our area that practices a classical education model complete with the Socratic method. Great Hearts Academies. They are all very excited to attend and so am I. I never thought I would put them in public school but I always said only if it had the values/educational ideals that I try to work towards here at home and they do! http://www.greatheartsaz.org

 

Anyways, I have one daughter {just turned 8} who has recently been diagnosed with dyslexia and mixed receptive expressive disorder. She can not read on her own more than a few three letter words even after much practice and work on phonemic awareness and all kinds of phonics programs. She is currently undergoing neuropsych testing as well and I believe she has high functioning Autism {Aspergers} with a ton of sensory processing issues.

 

My concern is... what do I do with her for next year? Do I send her to school with the other kids in an environment and a school heavily involved with reading... {They use a language-based and heavy word problem-based math program- Singapore Math} and hope that with an IEP and speech and lang therapy and reading therapy through Lindamood Bell {which we can't afford} that she will not get behind and be alright? Do I put her in a private school that costs $17,000 tuition {we can't even afford a 1/3 of that!} that has small class sizes and works with kids with dyslexia and social skills? That school is a 45 min. drive one way! Do I put her in another charter school just for kids with autism that has speech/lang/occupational therapy all rolled into her school day and is tuition free but is also a 50 min. drive one way and scholastically... educationally... it does not utilize the educational ideals that I want for my kids {more dummed down curriculum, etc}. Or do I homeschool her again next year with private therapy for her on top of that to get her at least reading by next year so she can attend the school her siblings will be going to? Either way she will be bummed if she can't go to school because everyone else will get to but her. However, I am more worried about her long term success and I know that whatever we decide to do, she will be ok with. I am completely overwhelmed and feeling like a failure that I could not teach her to read after all these years. We even tried the Barton Reading program without success. :(

 

So I don't know what to do. My husband has Aspergers... trying to have him tell me what we should do is a joke... he just wants to do the cheapest option and he thinks he turned out ok too in his public education. He is also dyslexic and can't read past a 4th grade reading level, even though he has a college degree.

 

Regardless of what we decide to do, what do I do in the meantime? I feel like I should be doing something. My daughter HATES reading now and I feel like that is my fault for forcing her to practice so much when she couldn't even see anything that I was seeing at the time!

 

Any thoughts, suggestions, ideas, would be so helpful!

 

Thanks!

Steph

[jeffcolemanfamily]

anyone?

[Paisley Hedgehog]

nm

[Dobela]

Barton is good. We used a Scottish Rite Dyslexia tutor that we found thru atlaread.org. I was very impressed with the Scottish Rite program. If you have a Scottish Rite Clinic near you the testing and material can be free. Scottish RIte is an extension of the Masonic Lodge and Shriners so they may be able to help you find one.

 

Have you had her vision checked? www.covd.org has a page of signs and symptoms of vision problems. If she has some vision issues it could be making it even more difficult for her to learn to read.

 

:grouphug::grouphug:

[jeffcolemanfamily]

Thanks Shari. When my daughter was tested just recently, her phonemic awareness was really low. I remember doing the testing with her before starting Barton but it is possible that she did worse than I thought and I passed her anyways thinking that she could do it. I have heard of the LiPs program before and it was recommended by her Speech Language Specialist that tested her. So so so expensive. Why does all this have to cost an arm and a leg? ugh.

 

And yes she has had her vision checked. She wears glasses and can not read at all without her glasses. She just had a well child check and did not pass the vision screening in one eye during the eye exam with her glasses on so she has an appt. next week to check her prescription and hopefully fix that. I know when she first got her glasses a year ago she went from just sounding out words to putting them together finally for the first time. I thought her vision was the only problem but I do not think that's it... I think it's a combination of vision AND dyslexia. We have done vision therapy before and it seemed to help for a little bit. I have an online program she is using right now for visual therapy that her pediatric opthalmologist created for her to use. We also use an online program called Reading Assistant which is great and she loves it... but I wonder how much of the words she is "reading" and how much is she just guessing at from having them read to her first? Does it matter HOW they read? I have been so gung-ho on making sure she knows the sounds of the letters so she can decode words and programs like this make me scratch my head as they are for kids with dyslexia but they don't do any phonemic awareness, just reading stories. Has anyone heard of Reading Assistant? I bought it through the Homeschool Buyer's Co-op. You use a headset with a microphone for it and the program reads the story to her with the words highlighted as they are read to her. Then she reads it herself into the microphone and records it so she can listen to herself read. She can click on a word and find out what the dictionary says about it... there are pictures for each word when she does that. Anyways, she loves it and its the first reading program I've bought that she enjoys. :001_smile:

 

Our speech and language specialist recommended LindaMoodbell and honestly I don't think we can afford that! yet on the other hand, if thats the only way my daughter can learn how to read and speak correctly then can we afford NOT to? Ugh.

 

Thanks everyone for your input!

Steph

[PeterPan]

Steph, the VT through an opthamologist and developmental optometrist may differ. I'm not sure what you did, but what you're describing with the software is nothing like what we did with our developmental optometrist. The results of VT (the VT we talk about here on the boards) should not drop away, because the VT actually rewires the brain, making new pathways. I would suggest you get a 2nd opinion and evaluation through a developmental optometrist. http://www.covd.org

 

I wouldn't spend money on that reading software right now. It's basically doing whole word reading instruction (which you can do for free) and not actually addressing any eye teaming, convergence, etc. problems she has. So instead of the software, I would get the evaluation with a GOOD developmental optometrist. Not opthamologist, optometrist.

 

On the Lindamoodbell, the stuff is good, but you don't have to go through a center for it. You can buy the materials yourself and do them for a whole lot less.

 

If I could say, and this is just may advice as someone not parenting an aspie but doing the whole therapy and how to do school thing, I would put *your energy* into making the therapy stuff happen. The academics are incidental at this point and going to be built on the foundation the therapy provides. If you try to do EVERYTHING perfectly, you're going to burn out. Poof, flame, gone. So pick 2 things, do those, and decide to let everything else be imperfect for a while. Then when those 2 therapy things are kicking in, then see what else you can change. But you really CAN'T change it all at once. And as you're finding, expensive curriculum isn't always the solution. Sometimes you have to back way up and rebuild that foundation through various therapies.

 

Now here's the other problem I see. You're just starting into this and don't know all the therapy options they might throw at you. It's possible your child needs OT for the SPD. It's possible she has retained primitive reflexes or severe sensory integration problems. Until you get that OT eval, you don't really know what's going on there, kwim? If there are severe sensory integration problems or retained primitive reflexes, that would explain why the VT didn't stick. So what you find out there will tell you how to start prioritizing. A good developmental optometrist will screen for the retained primitive reflexes and sensory integration (both of which affect vision and hinder progress with VT) and refer you off to do that FIRST if necessary.

 

But I go back to this *2* thing. You really humanly can't do it all. In the next couple weeks you're going to start to see a lot of options so that your head starts to spin. Financially, practically, there's just no way to do it all at once. So you're going to pick two. Say the two you pick are OT and SLP with LiPS at home. Seems to me, if you find yourself wanting a break, it would be JUST FINE to let her go to school, let them bear part of this burden with you, and you put your energy into making those things happen. Then after a few months of OT, see where you're at and get the developmental optometrist eval. Or flip that and do the developmental optometrist plus SLP.

 

But you see what I'm saying? It's ok to use the school option as a tool in your arsenal, to make sure you're staying sane and are refreshed to get done the things that need done. Can she go 1/2 days? Can she do LA and math with you and just do the fun stuff, art, and PE with them?

 

If you don't want her to go to school, I'd be cool with that too. Have you seen the materials from Christian Cottage Unit Studies? You ought to look them up. They'd be FABULOUS for this age, very hands-on, very fun, inexpensive ($45 for a whole year curriculum!), and very easy to put together. It's literally all right there, day by day, telling you what to do. It would be just enough without being too much. Check it out. http://www.christiancottage.com/Units.html The lady who developed them was trying to teach a very bright, dyslexic daughter. :)

Edited June 2, 2011 by OhElizabeth

[merry gardens]

Thanks Shari. When my daughter was tested just recently, her phonemic awareness was really low. I remember doing the testing with her before starting Barton but it is possible that she did worse than I thought and I passed her anyways thinking that she could do it. I have heard of the LiPs program before and it was recommended by her Speech Language Specialist that tested her. So so so expensive. Why does all this have to cost an arm and a leg? ugh.

 

And yes she has had her vision checked. She wears glasses and can not read at all without her glasses. She just had a well child check and did not pass the vision screening in one eye during the eye exam with her glasses on so she has an appt. next week to check her prescription and hopefully fix that. I know when she first got her glasses a year ago she went from just sounding out words to putting them together finally for the first time. I thought her vision was the only problem but I do not think that's it... I think it's a combination of vision AND dyslexia. We have done vision therapy before and it seemed to help for a little bit. I have an online program she is using right now for visual therapy that her pediatric opthalmologist created for her to use. We also use an online program called Reading Assistant which is great and she loves it... but I wonder how much of the words she is "reading" and how much is she just guessing at from having them read to her first? Does it matter HOW they read? I have been so gung-ho on making sure she knows the sounds of the letters so she can decode words and programs like this make me scratch my head as they are for kids with dyslexia but they don't do any phonemic awareness, just reading stories. Has anyone heard of Reading Assistant? I bought it through the Homeschool Buyer's Co-op. You use a headset with a microphone for it and the program reads the story to her with the words highlighted as they are read to her. Then she reads it herself into the microphone and records it so she can listen to herself read. She can click on a word and find out what the dictionary says about it... there are pictures for each word when she does that. Anyways, she loves it and its the first reading program I've bought that she enjoys. :001_smile:

 

Our speech and language specialist recommended LindaMoodbell and honestly I don't think we can afford that! yet on the other hand, if thats the only way my daughter can learn how to read and speak correctly then can we afford NOT to? Ugh.

 

Thanks everyone for your input!

Steph

How far did you go with Barton? The first level covers some basic phonemic awareness in only one syllable words, but phonemic awareness should continue to develop over the next few levels. The first level focusses on phonemic awareness exclusively, but there more to phonemic awareness than just what is in that level. Some people don't have enough phonemic awareness to even start Barton. I had to do LiPS with my son before doing Barton--and as we do Barton, I often refer him to some of the things he learned in LiPs. I did LiPS at home with just the manual and some of the supplies, although Barton recommended using someone trained in it.

 

Please don't take this next question personally. Have you checked out your own phonemic awareness? While Barton and LiPS can be done at home, the person tutoring needs to have a good foundation in phonemic awareness in order to teach it.

 

As far as next year, if it were me, I'd homeschool the child with dyslexia. I have contemplated sending my others children to school and just homeschooling my son with dyslexia. But...that's me.

Edited June 2, 2011 by merry gardens

[LizzyBee]

Our speech and language specialist recommended LindaMoodbell and honestly I don't think we can afford that! yet on the other hand, if thats the only way my daughter can learn how to read and speak correctly then can we afford NOT to? Ugh.

 

Thanks everyone for your input!

Steph

 

You can buy the clinical kits for the LMB programs and use them at home. You might take longer to see results than if you went to one of the clinics and had a trained therapist to work with her dd. But lots of us on this board have used LiPS and/or other LMB programs at home with good results. The difference in price is astounding - I've heard quotes from $8-$10k for LiPS at an LMB clinic vs. $350 for the kit to do it at home.

[jeffcolemanfamily]

You guys are awesome. I came here to read more and I am in tears because its great to have someone else who's "been there, done that"... thanks!

 

As for doing just 2 things... yes, I can do that. That's doable and does not seem as overwhelming! I definitely want to make the therapy happen for her... however we can. She has an appt in two weeks to be evaluated by an optometrist. I didn't know there were two different kinds! LOL Anything in particular I should ask the optometrist for when she is being looked at?

 

As for phonemic awareness... we only got through part of Level 1 of Barton. I am sure its because she probably needed LiPs first and I didn't realize it.

 

As for my phonemic awareness, no offense taken. Yes, I have good phonemic awareness... can read nonsense words, I know how to sound out words, etc. I have taught all my other children how to read the same way I was taught back in 1984 with phonics based reading programs. Reading is actually my strong suit and I think this is why this is so difficult for me... knowing how reading/writing opens up a whole world to a person and feeling frustrated that my daughter still can not grasp something that I learned to do when I was 4 1/2. Reading/writing came easy to me. Once it clicked, it clicked. I have a high vocabulary and reading comprehension. I personally haven't been tested for awhile but I am the speller, the reader, the teacher in our home for that area as I am sure my husband is dyslexic himself and refuses to get help for that. I know this is part of my problem with teaching my daughter. I do not understand nor can I grasp at all how she is looking at these words or letters. I am not getting what it is that she is not getting. Is she seeing the letters upside down and backwards? I see a word and I read it. If I don't know the word, I sound out the letters of the word until I figure it out. I don't have to do that for many words. I taught my other kids the sounds of each letter of the alphabet and then we started putting the letters together to form basic words and they progressed. They started out with short readers and now are in larger chapter books. We used Sonlight phonics and Well Trained Mind. With Leah we tried those two programs plus Hooked on Phonics and Barton. All three of my other children that read are a grade level or two above in reading and my soon-to-be kindergartener has already started reading!

 

I guess I am not understanding how all of this fits together and yes, there are so many things/issues to worry about... it makes my head spin just thinking about it. I don't know how we'll afford everything either.

 

One step at a time.

 

How do you do LiPs at home? I thought I had to see a trained person to do that program and is it very expensive? I don't even know where to start.

My daughter is in serious need of speech and language therapy along with some reading help and possibly some OT. She had OT a year ago back in Washington where we used to live and she loved it and I really think it helped her.

 

Thanks,

Steph

[LizzyBee]

How do you do LiPs at home? I thought I had to see a trained person to do that program and is it very expensive? I don't even know where to start.

My daughter is in serious need of speech and language therapy along with some reading help and possibly some OT. She had OT a year ago back in Washington where we used to live and she loved it and I really think it helped her.

 

Thanks,

Steph

 

Just buy the clinical kit. It is about $350 with free shipping from http://www.linguisystems.com. It includes the manual and all the supplies you need. Take some time to read and absorb the introductory material before you begin teaching it. My kids actually enjoyed using LiPS. :001_smile:

 

Does your insurance cover ST? If not, LiPS will help some with articulation because it teaches how to make each sound correctly. You can get Oral Language Exercises from Abeka to help with grammatical issues. My dd's ST loves Oral Language Exercises and asked me where she can buy it. You can also look around on the linguisystems website to see if they have some ST materials that look doable at home.

[PeterPan]

If the optometrist isn't a developmental optometrist on the list at http://www.covd.org I would cancel and find one. Developmental optometrists specialize in looking at the things with vision that affect school work. It's what you need. A regular optometrist or opthamologist won't get you to the same place. You don't need the regular optometrist exam as a springboard to a developmental optometrist either. Go right to the developmental optometrist.

 

Said as one who wasted money on a regular optometrist appointment and the reading glasses they recommended. Don't bother. Go straight to the developmental optometrist.

[jeffcolemanfamily]

When we got the report from Leah's speech and language specialist and these were her recommendations...

 

-Seeing Stars program {has anyone ever heard of this?}

-LiPs {i went online to that link and could NOT find the clinical program! Help!}

-Speech and Language therapy

-Social skills group

 

*I am looking up Oral Language Exercises from Abeka right now...

 

Thanks,

Steph

[PeterPan]

Go to http://www.ganderpublishing.com and you'll find the Seeing Stars and LiPs materials. OLE (Abeka) is inexpensive.

[merry gardens]

When we got the report from Leah's speech and language specialist and these were her recommendations...

 

-Seeing Stars program {has anyone ever heard of this?}

-LiPs {i went online to that link and could NOT find the clinical program! Help!}

-Speech and Language therapy

-Social skills group

 

*I am looking up Oral Language Exercises from Abeka right now...

 

Thanks,

Steph

Does her speech and language specialist do LiPS? Some do, and if you are planning of doing speech therapy, maybe the therapist can cover the much of the material presented in LiPS. I'd ask about that before buying any of the LiPS materials.

 

I use portions of Seeing Stars. It's another Lindamood Bell program. It builds off LiPS, but it's not LiPS. It also goes in a different direction by working on mental images of letters and words in the mind. I use it to help built up my son's sight word vocabulary and to work on spelling. He had a very poor memory for words, (in addition to poor phonemic awareness) and had to sound out common words every single time he saw them. He can read most of those words now, but we're still working on learning to spell them.

[jeffcolemanfamily]

Is this what I need? I did not see a "clinical kit" unless this is it of course...

http://www.ganderpublishing.com/LiPS-Kit-Fourth-Edition.html

[LizzyBee]

Is this what I need? I did not see a "clinical kit" unless this is it of course...

http://www.ganderpublishing.com/LiPS-Kit-Fourth-Edition.html

 

Hm, they've changed the name and raised the price. But they've also upgraded from VHS to DVD, so that's good! And apparently linguisystems no longer sells it. But yes, the kit is the simplest way to buy it. If you can keep everything in good condition, it will have an excellent re-sale value when you finish it.

[merry gardens]

Is this what I need? I did not see a "clinical kit" unless this is it of course...

http://www.ganderpublishing.com/LiPS-Kit-Fourth-Edition.html

They very recently came out with the fourth edition. That's the kind of thing we're talking about. :)

[jeffcolemanfamily]

Argh ok so I called ONE of two optometrists in my area and they charge $245. private pay just for the testing and eval with the doctor. Then vision therapy is $150 per session, once per week out of pocket. WHY does everything have to cost so much darn money???? GRRRRRR

[PeterPan]

Some have sliding scales and ways to help. Talk with them. And yes, that's about what we paid. We got HUGE changes. We didn't have to go into debt to do it, but we did have to wait a while till the money was there. If you can't do every week financially, spread it out. Remember they're going to be able to give you homework, so you'll still be making progress in between sessions. And VT is typically in the weeks or months, not years the way SLP or OT will be.

[jeffcolemanfamily]

Just thought I'd give an update...

 

So my daughter went and got evaluated by a developmental optometrist. We have the consult this week to go over results from that. Anyone have suggestions, questions or anything that I should ask at my appt. ? I know this is silly but I hope she doesn't need VT because I don't know how we can afford it.

 

She has been seeing a reading therapist at the Speech/Lang specialist place and using the LiPs program. She is doing well and I sit in on the lessons with her.

She is getting all the sounds and doing them really fast now but its not translating into being able to read.... she is still guessing words in books only she is doing it faster! Argh... $60/ hour for the reading therapy. I am considering moving from the LiPs to the Barton reading program once she can pass the Barton screening... although she is learning so much better from someone else that I hesitate to try to take over the teaching part of her reading.

 

I have decided to continue to homeschool her myself and I have purchased curriculum that is more for Right Brain learners. So we'll see how that goes. I am revamping everything I am doing... I have been teaching her the way that I learn best... Left Brain techniques and that does not help her at all. Sigh.

 

I will focus on the reading this year and the speech therapy we are doing at home with an at home program I purchased that is easy to do yourself called NATHAN. If she gets anything else along with that, great! We will be apart of Classical Conversations as well so I am hoping that the memory work/social stuff will be good for her. We'll see how it goes!

 

Thanks everyone for your advice/words/help!

[PeterPan]

VT is foundational to get her reading going. Drop that tutoring money and put it into the VT. Drop the CC if there's still not money. *If* she needs VT, you'll be extremely glad you did. For us it was life-changing, and we're not the only ones on the board here who have had that experience.

 

Post back when you get the results! I'm surprised they didn't tell you upfront. Did you even have a general sense of how it was going? They showed me stuff as we were going along, so by the time they gave me the write-up letter, it was all stuff I had already heard.

 

PS. If you don't believe me on dropping the tutoring, well think about it anyway. My dd never could sound out words, and after a couple months of VT she started asking me about letter sounds because she was trying to. You might not even NEED the tutoring after you do the VT. Things could change that radically.

[jeffcolemanfamily]

Wow, ok, so drop the reading therapy tutoring? Ok. I was getting frustrated because I am still doing the same thing we were doing in the past... covering up each. and. every. single. letter. for her to be able to get the sound, even though she is getting the sounds individually through the LiPs program. Poor Leah. I feel awful for my daughter that it seems I keep throwing her around from place to place trying to find something that works. :confused: and draining all our money doing it too.

 

I just want that magic bullet for her. Its a long, winding road we are on instead of a straight one it seems and its so frustrating for the both of us. I could just cry.

 

Thank you for your advice. It is more important to me that my daughter learn how to read than she do anything else.

 

How long does it take to see improvements from VT?

[PeterPan]

We saw improvements in a month, radical within 2-3 months. You get out of it what you put into it, and your progress is directly proportional to the time you put in. It's ok to focus on it, get that part in order, then go back to the academics. It's all going to work out.

[merry gardens]

Wow, ok, so drop the reading therapy tutoring? Ok. I was getting frustrated because I am still doing the same thing we were doing in the past... covering up each. and. every. single. letter. for her to be able to get the sound, even though she is getting the sounds individually through the LiPs program. Poor Leah. I feel awful for my daughter that it seems I keep throwing her around from place to place trying to find something that works. :confused: and draining all our money doing it too.

 

I just want that magic bullet for her. Its a long, winding road we are on instead of a straight one it seems and its so frustrating for the both of us. I could just cry.

 

Thank you for your advice. It is more important to me that my daughter learn how to read than she do anything else.

 

How long does it take to see improvements from VT?

:grouphug:

 

If I'm reading your older posts correctly, it looks like she only recently started LiPS at the recommendation of an SLP. You don't even have the VT's report back, so I wouldn't change anything yet. Once you get that report, I'd suggest you evaluate it in light of the speech therapist's report, the neuro-psych's report and what you know about your child. A child can havephonemic awareness problems and language problem ALONG with vision problems too. They aren't mutually exclusive.

[PeterPan]

:grouphug:

 

If I'm reading your older posts correctly, it looks like she only recently started LiPS at the recommendation of an SLP. You don't even have the VT's report back, so I wouldn't change anything yet. Once you get that report, I'd suggest you evaluate it in light of the speech therapist's report, the neuro-psych's report and what you know about your child. A child can havephonemic awareness problems and language problem ALONG with vision problems too. They aren't mutually exclusive.

 

Just to agree with Merry, I wouldn't drop the LiPS. That's foundational. I only meant the tutoring that doesn't seem to be getting her anywhere anyway.

[jeffcolemanfamily]

I'm sorry I must have confused everyone. She isn't doing anything other than the LiPs right now. That is the one on one tutoring she is getting in reading... with a reading therapist who is trained in the LindaMoodBell program. She started there in June I believe? This reading therapist also recommended that my daughter do something called Fast Forward. I am not sure that we can afford that right now either. I want to do whatever I can to help her but I want it to be the RIGHT thing!

 

Thanks for listening

[Paisley Hedgehog]

nm

[PeterPan]

Ok, that makes more sense. Like Shari, I don't think you're going to get out of doing LiPS (or Fast Forward for that matter). But you might need to do some staggering to make it all happen. Only so many dollars at a time. Some VT places also have sliding fee scales or will cut deals. Just talk with them.

 

Like Shari said, don't buy problems you don't have. First you have to get the results back from the VT. I guess my next question would be whether you could get the Fast Forward or LiPS materials and do them yourself with your dd. There might be a big savings there.

 

Just sort through it. You'll figure it out.

[jeffcolemanfamily]

Thanks everyone. Our appt. is Thursday so I will know more then!!

 

I looked at the LiPs materials online and I have been sitting in on the lessons so I have a pretty good grasp of what she is doing with her and how to do it. I thought of doing it on my own with her but she seems to do better for the therapist than me in that regard. :confused:

 

But we will see. As for the Fast Forward, I believe there may be a grant option available that our therapist referred us to so we have to check that out as well to see if we qualify.

 

Thanks everyone, I'll be back on Thursday I'm sure! LOL

[jeffcolemanfamily]

Ok, so I had the 2 1/2 hour consult appt with the Vision Therapist.

 

It was very interesting.

 

Basically the optometrist diagnosed her with Ocular Motor Dysfunction- Pursuits and Ocular Motor Dysfunction- Saccades.

 

She said that her visual perception was great. Everything else... Visual Saccades, Visual Tracking, Visual Motor, Reversal Frequency, Reversal Frequency Execution, Reversal Frequency Recognition, and Visual Memory were all at about a 4-5 year old level. She showed me each and every test and how my daughter did on each one. When she did the test with the Reversal Frequency Matching test... she actually did alright. She had to find the correct letter in a line up of letters and match it to the letter she was looking at. The letters she had to choose from were all backwards and reversed and on EVERY single item on that page she chose the correct letter. The vision therapist said she believes that if she was truly dyslexic that she would NOT have been able to see the correct letter in the line up. I don't know about that but that's what she said. At this point I don't even know what true dyslexia is. I think it just means she's 8 years old and can't read.

 

She has 2 mild retained primitive reflexes... Tonic Labyrinth Reflex, Spinal Galant, three moderately retained primitive reflexes...Moro Reflex, Asymmetric Tonic Neck Reflex, and Symmetric Tonic Neck Reflex, and a very severely retained Palmar Reflex which she said explained her extreme grip on the pencil when trying to write.

 

The full 40 sessions of vision therapy was recommended. $150 per session of course. The therapist offered to do once a month with us for two hours instead of once a week to cut us a break financially and said that she would teach me as much as she could in that time frame to go home and practice with my daughter for the month. She referred us to Care Credit for a credit card for medical services. I don't know how I feel about that. 15% discount with a club card there for every time I make a payment. But I can't do both.. either the Care Credit Card OR the club card. Sigh. Total amount for the therapy including a materials fee charge is about $6000 total.

 

I wish we hadn't already spent $2000 on a neuropsych eval and $800 on a speech/lang eval and another $1000 already on LiPs. I don't know where we're going to get this money but we have to make it happen somehow.

 

Thanks for listening.

[Dobela]

:grouphug:

Ok, so I had the 2 1/2 hour consult appt with the Vision Therapist.

 

It was very interesting.

 

Basically the optometrist diagnosed her with Ocular Motor Dysfunction- Pursuits and Ocular Motor Dysfunction- Saccades.

 

She said that her visual perception was great. Everything else... Visual Saccades, Visual Tracking, Visual Motor, Reversal Frequency, Reversal Frequency Execution, Reversal Frequency Recognition, and Visual Memory were all at about a 4-5 year old level. She showed me each and every test and how my daughter did on each one. When she did the test with the Reversal Frequency Matching test... she actually did alright. She had to find the correct letter in a line up of letters and match it to the letter she was looking at. The letters she had to choose from were all backwards and reversed and on EVERY single item on that page she chose the correct letter. The vision therapist said she believes that if she was truly dyslexic that she would NOT have been able to see the correct letter in the line up. I don't know about that but that's what she said. At this point I don't even know what true dyslexia is. I think it just means she's 8 years old and can't read.

Interesting. I will have to say that for my son, from the very beginning, his VT believed that he was not dyslexic based on her screening evals. At the end, she was right.

 

She has 2 mild retained primitive reflexes... Tonic Labyrinth Reflex, Spinal Galant, three moderately retained primitive reflexes...Moro Reflex, Asymmetric Tonic Neck Reflex, and Symmetric Tonic Neck Reflex, and a very severely retained Palmar Reflex which she said explained her extreme grip on the pencil when trying to write.

 

Overall, your dd sounds very much like my ds. It took uis 18 long months to graduate from VT but we were one of the life changing families.

 

The full 40 sessions of vision therapy was recommended. $150 per session of course. The therapist offered to do once a month with us for two hours instead of once a week to cut us a break financially and said that she would teach me as much as she could in that time frame to go home and practice with my daughter for the month. She referred us to Care Credit for a credit card for medical services. I don't know how I feel about that. 15% discount with a club card there for every time I make a payment. But I can't do both.. either the Care Credit Card OR the club card. Sigh. Total amount for the therapy including a materials fee charge is about $6000 total.

 

 

 

I wish we hadn't already spent $2000 on a neuropsych eval and $800 on a speech/lang eval and another $1000 already on LiPs. I don't know where we're going to get this money but we have to make it happen somehow.

 

I know it is a lot, but it is all giving you a much clearer picture of how to teach your child. For reading, we hired a reading specialist who used the Scottish Rite method after Susan Barton told us that her program would not work for our son. The Scottish Rite method included a LIPs like program in the beginning because they believe that many children need it to be successful.

 

Thanks for listening.

:grouphug::grouphug:

[jeffcolemanfamily]

Thank you so much for your reply Dobela. I feel like a blubbering idiot and have been crying since yesterday! :)

 

This whole roller coaster of trying to get down to the bottom of my daughter's issues and be able to actually help her has been so long and frustrating already. She's frustrated and I'm frustrated and I just want to help her with the RIGHT method. I told the therapist I am willing to try just about anything right now. :)

 

On another note: I got approved for a Care Credit card so we'll have to use that for the time being and go more into debt. My husband will not be happy with that, but if its a life changing thing then it'll be worth it.

 

So do I keep taking her to the reading therapy {the LiPs program} along with the vision therapy or do we just focus on one at a time?

 

Thank you again.

[jeffcolemanfamily]

I forgot to ask...

 

what is the Scottish Rite method?

[Dobela]

Thank you so much for your reply Dobela. I feel like a blubbering idiot and have been crying since yesterday! :)

 

This whole roller coaster of trying to get down to the bottom of my daughter's issues and be able to actually help her has been so long and frustrating already. She's frustrated and I'm frustrated and I just want to help her with the RIGHT method. I told the therapist I am willing to try just about anything right now. :)

 

On another note: I got approved for a Care Credit card so we'll have to use that for the time being and go more into debt. My husband will not be happy with that, but if its a life changing thing then it'll be worth it.

 

So do I keep taking her to the reading therapy {the LiPs program} along with the vision therapy or do we just focus on one at a time?

 

Thank you again.

I would talk to the VT. I know that for my son, he had to have the vision at least some what corrected before he could even consider begining to read correctly. He was unable to connect sounds to letters because the letters looked different every time he saw them. In addition, with the tracking issues, he couldn't follow any print very well unless it was huge. We started vision therapy about 1 month before reading tutoring and it was about another month before the reading tutor began agreeing with us that the vision was what was effecting his ability to read.

 

If it was me, I would stop LiPs for a month or two while focusing on the vision. It takes that long for you to see the dramatic changes. Our VT would also reassess every 6 weeks in the beginning, then 12 weeks or so later to show where he was improving.

 

I forgot to ask...

 

what is the Scottish Rite method?

Scottish Rite is a part of the Masonic Lodge. It is a service organization like the Shriners. The Scottish Rite Clinics have developed a program for teaching dyslexics that is considered to be one of the best. If a child is diagnosed thru a clinic, they can use the program for free. Actually, if you can find a way to get an appointment in one of their clinics, the clinic itself is free. We don't live close enough to one but foud a local tutor who is certified in the method. Her time was not cheap, but the workbooks and materials we ordered thru Scottish Rite were very inexpensive. They have an updated version, or you can purchase the older method thru EPS. THe older version is also available on video.

 

The Texas Scottish Rite hospital is most well known for the dyslexia training. Their informational download is for Texas but still very informative. The program my son went thru is the Take Flight Program .

[merry gardens]

Ok, so I had the 2 1/2 hour consult appt with the Vision Therapist.

 

It was very interesting.

 

Basically the optometrist diagnosed her with Ocular Motor Dysfunction- Pursuits and Ocular Motor Dysfunction- Saccades.

 

She said that her visual perception was great. Everything else... Visual Saccades, Visual Tracking, Visual Motor, Reversal Frequency, Reversal Frequency Execution, Reversal Frequency Recognition, and Visual Memory were all at about a 4-5 year old level. She showed me each and every test and how my daughter did on each one. When she did the test with the Reversal Frequency Matching test... she actually did alright. She had to find the correct letter in a line up of letters and match it to the letter she was looking at. The letters she had to choose from were all backwards and reversed and on EVERY single item on that page she chose the correct letter. The vision therapist said she believes that if she was truly dyslexic that she would NOT have been able to see the correct letter in the line up. I don't know about that but that's what she said. At this point I don't even know what true dyslexia is. I think it just means she's 8 years old and can't read.

 

She has 2 mild retained primitive reflexes... Tonic Labyrinth Reflex, Spinal Galant, three moderately retained primitive reflexes...Moro Reflex, Asymmetric Tonic Neck Reflex, and Symmetric Tonic Neck Reflex, and a very severely retained Palmar Reflex which she said explained her extreme grip on the pencil when trying to write.

 

The full 40 sessions of vision therapy was recommended. $150 per session of course. The therapist offered to do once a month with us for two hours instead of once a week to cut us a break financially and said that she would teach me as much as she could in that time frame to go home and practice with my daughter for the month. She referred us to Care Credit for a credit card for medical services. I don't know how I feel about that. 15% discount with a club card there for every time I make a payment. But I can't do both.. either the Care Credit Card OR the club card. Sigh. Total amount for the therapy including a materials fee charge is about $6000 total.

 

I wish we hadn't already spent $2000 on a neuropsych eval and $800 on a speech/lang eval and another $1000 already on LiPs. I don't know where we're going to get this money but we have to make it happen somehow.

 

Thanks for listening.

VT may indeed be a good thing for your child, but so might be some of the other therapies that you already started. Besides the vt eval, you also have a neuro psych eval and an SLP report that indicate there's something more than just vision going on. Some of the people here talk about "life changing" changes with vt, but I saw that with LiPS.

[laundrycrisis]

I would focus on the VT for now. Other therapies that require visual skills will be more effective after the underlying visual skill problems have been addressed with VT.

 

I came back to clarify: I meant VT before any other therapies that require visual skills, like some of the dyslexia programs. For therapies that don't require visual skills, I can't see any reason to delay those.

Edited August 13, 2011 by laundrycrisis

[Dobela]

Thank you so much for your reply Dobela. I feel like a blubbering idiot and have been crying since yesterday! :)

 

QUOTE]

:grouphug: I just want to say this is normal. Once while in the pediatricians office, I broke down into tears. The pediatrician was ever so nice and told me that the parents who don't cry are the ones who concern him most.

 

Right now you are tired, frustrated, and grieving the loss of an easy education. You know, the one where our kids learn everything with little effort. None of us want our kids to struggle or feel different. Not to mention the learning curve for you as a parent is steep leaving you mentally exhausted as well. It is all overwhelming. And each time you go thru this, it is the same. My dd has different special needs than my son and it isn't easier.:grouphug::grouphug:

[jeffcolemanfamily]

Thanks everyone for the advice, I so appreciate it. I am going to talk to the VT and see what she says about that. My daughter also has an expressive and receptive language delay which I don't know if that is somehow related to her visual issues or not. Its hard to know. I have to wonder what she really "has" since so many things seem to cross or be connected.

 

Thanks again! I am grateful I have somewhere to come to for advice about this.

[PeterPan]

Steph, the stuff you've described is all OT. Is the VT planning to do things to integrate the primitive reflexes before doing the actual VT stuff? At this point, given the severity and high number of retained primitive reflexes, I would go get a thorough OT eval, do OT *FIRST* and *Then* do the VT. You might need less VT that way. And our OT was $100 an hour, which is less than the $150 the VT wants to charge you. Nope, I want to know why, with that many retained primitive reflexes (and the many ramifications for SPD, etc.) they didn't refer you for OT.

 

And yes, what the eye doc is saying makes perfect sense. My dd can't read upside down. If we have a board game with print going only one way that she needs to read, we have to turn the board her direction. It's not a big deal if it's a game with limited text she already knows (Go on the monopoly board). But if it's anything significant, we have to turn the board. This happened recently, which is why it's on my mind.