Does your VT include school stuff?

[FairProspects]

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[Jennifer-72]

Our VT never included anything like that. That sends up all sorts of red flags to me.

[LittleIzumi]

Our VT never included anything like that. That sends up all sorts of red flags to me.

 

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

[JessicaLady]

We've just started doing memory work as part of our VT. Perhaps they saw a hole in his ability that they didn't cover with his program, which is unfortunate considering how long he was in therapy.

 

I believe memory work, visual memory is part of VT and school. I've seen gains in most of the work he does in class. But particularly in his ability to comprehend a math story problem or, any story for that matter, has greatly improved.

 

We do a lot of sight words, I show him up to four cards, then he must repeat to me all four in the correct order. Also, we have cards with three letters on each card. I literally flash the card and he air writes the letters again in order. It doesn't take too long but has really improved his abilities. This also is NOT something my son could do a few months ago so I'm pleased he can do it now.

 

However, 18mos is a really long time for therapy. I can understand your frustration over both time and money. My son has been in for 10mos and will probably be in for another 4 mos. It's expensive, time consuming and very hard for me to keep up with as well (in addition to all the other work I feel he must do and not to mention fun stuff).

 

Perhaps they can put you on a more intermittent check-in schedule, give you more homework, and see them less? I'd imagine you are ALL ready to be done with going there!

 

J

[laundrycrisis]

Our son's VT has gone way beyond tracking. However.....

 

They have drawn a very clear line between what they do and education. They have made it very clear they are not educators. They do not help kids with reading, learning letters, words, numbers, etc. That is not their professional area of expertise. They work specifically with visual skills. If a kid does not know the letters or words, they will switch to pictures or symbols. They only address visual skills and processing. When I ask for help with a particular aspect of reading, they only help with the parts that are related to visual skills or processing. For example, he was rushing and cutting the endings off words and/or substituting words that look similar. They taught him to slow down and pause his eye movement after each word so he took time with each word. He could not recognize sight words after months and months of exposure. They worked on his visual closure - recognizing a whole from parts. He couldn't remember the order of things...the alphabet, numbers 1-10, simple spelling. This is related to visual sequential memory. They taught him to visualize with his eyes closed after viewing the sequence in alternating colors, and recite it forwards and backwards. He had a terrible time with forming letters. They did therapies with him that involved using his hands and feet and crossing his midline. They also did a lot of directional stuff with him. Sometimes letters and handwriting were involved, sometimes not. They weren't teaching him handwriting - they were helping him establish the visual motor skills he needed to be able to learn handwriting.

 

All of this help was directly related to the specific visual and visual processing skills his test results showed deficits in. They only worked on the visual issues and the therapy was specifically to address his personal test results. It wasn't any kind of general therapy to improve reading or fluency or anything like that.

 

I would be very suspicious of being told he needed to come in for help that seemed very education-oriented, or for therapy that was not directly related to his own individual test results.

Edited November 18, 2011 by laundrycrisis

[FairProspects]

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Edited November 21, 2012 by FairProspects

[FairProspects]

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[laundrycrisis]

It is interesting that your VT uses memory work though. I wonder why?

 

Ours does visual and sequential memory work, because our son tested with a severe visual and sequential memory deficit.

 

Interesting! Were you also pursuing OT at the time? I ask because our OT was targeted on crossing the midline, using hands & feet, etc. and the VT keeps contradicting the OT and saying she is wrong (the OT has said that the VT's exercises were too overstimulating for ds and that there were better ways for him to accomplish the same goals).

 

I don't think any of this instruction was specific to ds's testing. It was all related to increased fluency and processing speed in general, none of which I even brought up as an issue. The VT is operating from some list of "supposed to" and even forgot what grade ds was in as he began telling me how ds should be doing multiplication.

 

We were not pursuing OT. We were advised that since he had so many visual problems and they were so serious, wait until VT was done to see where he was and then go for OT if still needed. The body stuff they did was all related to visual-motor skills and dominant eye/hand issues. They also did some alignment stuff, because he is a severe amblyopia case, and with amblyopia comes a head tilt, always sticking one foot forward, and basically aligning the whole body to avoid using the weak eye. To get his eyes working bilaterally, they had to get him to use his entire body bilaterally. Their OT-ish stuff is limited to what helps the visual system. They don't teach handwriting, but they do teach kids how to make their hand reproduce the picture their eyes see, because making it backwards/upside down/inside out or distorted is an issue with the visual system.

 

I would not be willing to spend money or time on anything that wasn't specifically related to my child's test results.

Edited November 18, 2011 by laundrycrisis

[FairProspects]

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[laundrycrisis]

Another question that came to me: What are the qualifications of the person performing your VT?

 

Our testing was done by a COVD fellow, but he does not perform the VT. The VT is done by a gal who calls herself a Neurodevelopmental Specialist but has no degree at all that I can ascertain, other than experience working with said fellow. Is most VT done by the doc themselves or by someone else?

 

There are a bunch of therapists, and they are all trained by the doctor, and closely supervised by him. I believe most of them have either teaching or OT backgrounds. I do not think there is any industry-standard training for a vision therapist yet. He gets notes after every therapy session and gives instructions back for the next session. He does re-exams himself after every six sessions. DS had a re-exam today and it was interesting...Dr. thinks therapist is not picking up on the main problem he was seeing today in the exam, so Dr. will sit in on the next therapy session. He wants to see what she is seeing and show her what he is seeing. Should be interesting. I'm hoping for little to no drama...Dr. is very passionate. But that's a good thing really.

 

I would not be happy with a therapy situation that was not being closely supervised by the doctor.

Edited November 18, 2011 by laundrycrisis

[JessicaLady]

Ours does visual and sequential memory work, because our son tested with a severe visual and sequential memory deficit.

 

 

 

We were not pursuing OT. We were advised that since he had so many visual problems and they were so serious, wait until VT was done to see where he was and then go for OT if still needed. The body stuff they did was all related to visual-motor skills and dominant eye/hand issues. They also did some alignment stuff, because he is a severe amblyopia case, and with amblyopia comes a head tilt, always sticking one foot forward, and basically aligning the whole body to avoid using the weak eye. To get his eyes working bilaterally, they had to get him to use his entire body bilaterally. Their OT-ish stuff is limited to what helps the visual system. They don't teach handwriting, but they do teach kids how to make their hand reproduce the picture their eyes see, because making it backwards/upside down/inside out or distorted is an issue with the visual system.

 

I would not be willing to spend money or time on anything that wasn't specifically related to my child's test results.

 

My son has many of the same issues. Severe deficit in memory, he'd literally fall off his chair when we first started doing the hidden pictures w/ the flippers lens, etc.

 

He's been in OT (and ST) for almost 5yrs. We've run the entire range of possible issues to address. It started for severe sensory issues, proprioception and others. Now, she mostly works on fine motor skills (with a bit of sensory needs). Our therapy team has worked really great together. I've stated on these boards how impressed I've been especially with our PT (started the same month as VT) and VT working together. They've called one another to discuss progress and the PT will help re-inforce the reflex integration that the VT wants him to work on.

 

We are working on things that have been tested to be low scoring and he's being given treatment that 'should' work. The thing to point out though is vision therapy is widely regarded as 'experimental' or unproven as effective by the scientific/medical community. Which is why it is (mostly) not covered by insurance. We went into this with the understanding that we were taking a bit of a risk, not to mention the financial strain, but with the hopes that we would see results without a guarantee of them.

 

So much of what I do for him is me following my instincts. I don't care if something isn't proven or researched. A lot of what has worked for others hasn't worked for him and vice-versa. Regardless, I forge ahead and do what I think is best at the time.

 

It's just so hard having a child with issues that nobody can tell you what WILL work so you just try everything until you hit a winner.

[FairProspects]

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[LittleIzumi]

I think this is the crux of it. The only thing that came back on ds's eye testing was weak tracking. Yes, he has other issues, and perhaps they are all related, but the eye tracking is what I was told made the VT necessary. Now that the tracking issue is resolved, I'd like to wait for neuro-psych results and not go "looking for trouble" trying to resolve issues that may or may not exist.

 

Another question that came to me: What are the qualifications of the person performing your VT?

 

Our testing was done by a COVD fellow, but he does not perform the VT. The VT is done by a gal who calls herself a Neurodevelopmental Specialist but has no degree at all that I can ascertain, other than experience working with said fellow. Is most VT done by the doc themselves or by someone else?

 

18 months for just tracking and now they're trying to do this stuff?? :confused: Dd's VT is about 4 months for a bajillion issues (give or take a few :tongue_smilie:). The VT is done by the therapists, not the doc, but the doc is involved, evaluates & changes things regularly, etc.

[laundrycrisis]

See, and our experience was basically the opposite. Ds's tracking was off because his whole vestibular system was out of whack from the SPD. The OT was the most necessary and even the VT admitted that the OT was likely what caused the dramatic improvement in tracking.

 

My opinion is jaded because my one friend with an older son who also did VT in this office had to verbally quit since they never released her son even after years of therapy, and they expressed surprise that he was succeeding at grade level in ps :glare:. I think it's a racket.

 

If you don't have good feelings about this place, I would look elsewhere...go with your gut. And there is nothing wrong with concentrating on the therapy that is most helpful now and saving others for later.

 

Our son's problems were clearly visual from the beginning...he was blind in one eye. The vision was recovered at age 6, but then the two eyes didn't work together at all. He was also ambidextrous and could not tell backward/forward/right/left apart, couldn't recognize sight words or build any reading fluency after over a year of me working with him every day, couldn't remember the order of anything, our address, or even how to spell our last name (which is not hard), couldn't tell numbers apart or remember what order they went in, could not reproduce even the simplest figures on paper, like a t or a square, nothing. He could remember letter sounds verbally, but couldn't do anything visually. So the need for VT was very clear with him.

Edited November 18, 2011 by laundrycrisis

[wapiti]

I do not think there is any industry-standard training for a vision therapist yet.

 

I don't know the answer to this, but FWIW, our vision therapist is certified by the COVD (the optometrist she works for is a Fellow).