Wondering if my 9th grade might need vision therapy again...

[Greta Lea]

We just finished our first week of school. I didn't plan for a full load this week. Instead we started very light on MOnday and have slowly added stuff each day. Friday, of course, was his fullest day.

 

Late yesterday afternoon, I noticed that he kept rubbing his eyes (grabbing them at the top of nose, then rubbing in a circular motion). His eyes LOOKED tired, but then again, he's been very tired the past two days.

 

We highly suspect he has dyslexia, so I've always used OG methods with him very successfully. When he was in 5th grade, we did vision therapy. The VT helped some, but not as much as I had hoped (especially for the $$ spent!!!).

 

Here's what he did yesterday.

 

-Math U See: did some problems with me, then a review page

-RS4K level 1 Chemistry lab (good bit of reading with this although it was a lab)

-Easy Grammar Plus: 1 page

-Megawords book 5: 1 page

-Building Thinkings Skills level 2: He did 4 very *easy* pages, but he did have to read a good bit again.

-History of US: 1 chapter (Also, when I was doing the questions from the SL manual orally with him, I did have him scan the chapter-with my help-to find the answer)

 

SO, does this sound like enough to make his eyes SO tired that he'd be rubbing them that much and LOOK so tired in the eyes?

 

I had his vision checked this summer and he can *see* fine. That's why I'm now wondering about VT again.

 

Monday I'll add in literature (he'll be reading the Hobbit but with audio). Then later in the week Explorer's Bible Study lessons.

 

I don't want to wear him out, but then again I can't go any lighter. It's a stretch to call this 9th grade anyway!

[PeterPan]

When you had his eyes checked for his regular check-up, was it with the developmental optometrist or a regular? Now that we've done VT, we get all our checks through the developmental optometrist. It sounds like you weren't fully satisfied with yours. Of course there are things that could cause him to rub his eyes (allergies, whatever), but yeah in general that's a good reason to check the eyes.

 

Has he gotten glasses since VT? What actually happened to us was that dd did all her VT *without* glasses, because the first optometrist (regular) said she didn't need them. About 6 months after we finished VT she started complaining of problems, so this time we went back to the *developmental* optometrist, who really kicks but with astigmatism. She took one look and put dd in glasses, as if that wasn't needed before when the first optometrist saw her! Grrr, now we know why VT was so agonizing for her. Anyways. After she wore her glasses for (forget how long) she started complaining of headaches again. Dev. optom. checked her and said to go do a dab more therapy. Turns out now that she has glasses she's *over-converging*. After all that work on convergence insufficiency, now with the glasses she's over-converging? Screwy.

 

So anyways, it's not this frightful thing of needing a ton of therapy, but it did need some. We started, got distracted by summer, and will have to hit the stick this fall.

 

Just saying that can happen. And since you weren't very pleased with the results your dev. optometrist got the first time, I'd probably find a new one. Can you find a Fellow or someone with more feedback?

 

Really though, after you've dealt with the eyes, it's high time to get the neuropsych eval. Not only can they check for dyslexia, but they can also look at processing speed, etc. etc. It may be you change some things when you get that information. It might be a combo of things.

[Dobela]

At your child's age, eyes can change rapidly as the body continues in that teen growth stage. I know that for me personally, I was seeing fine, then 2 months later I couldn't see anything. I would also go back to a VT for the exam if possible since they can do some screenings during the regular exam.