Convergence Insufficiency and Tracking problems - questions about reading

[Karen in CO]

My youngest had her exam in the developmental eye clinic today. The doctor found convergence insufficiency plus some pretty bad tracking problems along with a couple of other things that were only borderline. After reading about both of these this afternoon, I completely understand why my dd reads the weird way she does and why she avoids reading and why she lacks confidence - the words don't stay put on the page and don't stay focused as she moves her eyes.

 

We're going to do vision theray, but I have a question about reading in the mean time. Should I continue requiring her to read daily? If so, is there a way I can make it easier for her? Also, the doctor suggested reading glasses. Would you get the glasses now or wait until a few weeks into the therapy so we're just changing one thing at a time?

 

Thanks.

[my2boysteacher]

When my DS went through VT for convergence issues, part of his assignment was to read every day using special lenses they sent home. They told us how long he needed to read each day. They also recommended reading glasses which we got right away, although once the novelty wore off he never used them again. :glare:

 

If she enjoys reading, I don't think there is any harm in letting her read for enjoyment, but if it is a struggle I wouldn't push it. We did a lot of read alouds so DS would develop a love of literature, until he was able to read on his own.

[PeterPan]

On the reading glasses, I would go ahead and get them but get them filled either at Walmart or Zenni (online). I've used both. When I first started with the glasses thing, I plunked out so much, ugh. Walmart can do kid glasses for under $60. Zenni filled my dd's glasses this time, and that's with upgraded lenses, for $35 shipped. Unbelievable. So at that price you can afford the glasses, kwim?

 

You can actually use the glasses after VT sessions or when she's fatigued to relax the eyes, so they can be useful to have. If you can get them for that pricepoint ($35-50), I would.

 

The advice on reading really depends on the client. With me, she suggested I suck up and use the red/green sheets during my evening reading, that indeed reading therapeutically will speed progress. However the same therapist NEVER suggested that to my dd. And actually they never told her to read at all. So my advice is NOT to require her to read during this time unless they specifically tell you to. I wouldn't even ask. Just totally let her stop. Read aloud to her, play games, go to the park, do other things. This is going to be plenty hard without adding to it an unnecessary strain. She WILL start reading ON HER OWN when her eyes are working better. Promise. :)

 

Well I'm glad you got answers and are on track to get some help! It must feel like a big relief.

[Karen in CO]

On the reading glasses, I would go ahead and get them but get them filled either at Walmart or Zenni (online). I've used both. When I first started with the glasses thing, I plunked out so much, ugh. Walmart can do kid glasses for under $60. Zenni filled my dd's glasses this time, and that's with upgraded lenses, for $35 shipped. Unbelievable. So at that price you can afford the glasses, kwim?

 

You can actually use the glasses after VT sessions or when she's fatigued to relax the eyes, so they can be useful to have. If you can get them for that pricepoint ($35-50), I would.

 

The advice on reading really depends on the client. With me, she suggested I suck up and use the red/green sheets during my evening reading, that indeed reading therapeutically will speed progress. However the same therapist NEVER suggested that to my dd. And actually they never told her to read at all. So my advice is NOT to require her to read during this time unless they specifically tell you to. I wouldn't even ask. Just totally let her stop. Read aloud to her, play games, go to the park, do other things. This is going to be plenty hard without adding to it an unnecessary strain. She WILL start reading ON HER OWN when her eyes are working better. Promise. :)

 

Well I'm glad you got answers and are on track to get some help! It must feel like a big relief.

It is a big relief. Thank you for all of your advice and support to get me here too. So one day, she'll actually pick up a book to read and not just to pretend to read or to look at the pictures and without being assigned or bribed? I'm looking forward to that. My vision insurance covers one pair of glasses a year so I'll go ahead and get them this week. Thanks.

[Karen in CO]

When my DS went through VT for convergence issues, part of his assignment was to read every day using special lenses they sent home. They told us how long he needed to read each day. They also recommended reading glasses which we got right away, although once the novelty wore off he never used them again. :glare:

 

If she enjoys reading, I don't think there is any harm in letting her read for enjoyment, but if it is a struggle I wouldn't push it. We did a lot of read alouds so DS would develop a love of literature, until he was able to read on his own.

That is what will happen to hers, I'm sure.

 

She says she loves reading. She will spend an hour pretending to read. She never chooses to read. Back to phonics for her until her VT says to have her read or until she chooses to do it on her own. Thanks.

[PeterPan]

If she loves print that much and WANTS to connect that much, absolutely she's going to take to it once it's physically working for her! Really, you can do what you want, but it took a couple months of VT for the lightbulbs to come on with my dd for phonics. She was 11 turning 12 btw. We had done SWR for YEARS, and after a couple months of VT she started sounding out words and asking what letters said. (She could read. She just couldn't/wouldn't sound out things.) There was this really stark moment where we were in a parking lot looking for a store and she was trying to read signs and asked me *what the letter C* said. Seriously? Like we've only done that every day, every year since you were age 4!!!!!

 

After VT we went back through AAS and things finally connected. So some people have done differently, but my *personal* advice is not to worry too much about the phonics. It's a lot easier to get that info in and connecting when the vision is working. I think it's fine to do the sounds of phonograms, clap syllables, work on things auditorily (hearing the sounds), or even use Freed's technique for spelling visualization (which your VT person will LOVE). However as far as translating that in to sit down and read, I just wouldn't bother. After you get some therapy under your belts, you're going to see lightbulbs coming on and connectors and know it's time. If there are no lightbulbs, I would wait and let those come.

 

Most valuable things to do during VT? Play games, go to the park, do puzzles. Games work on working memory. The park is to relax you and reward for working so hard. The puzzles are to work on vision skills.

 

Does she have a kindle or ipad or something to make the font larger? Have you tried comics on her? Before VT, my dd was refusing small print, so anything with large print was more likely to get read. Hold it, I just noticed she's only 7! Well cool beans, you have NO worries. Honest. Not gonna hurt one bit to wait a bit on phonics. It's going to be SO much easier once her vision is working a bit better. Play games with her and do puzzles. Invest in games. After I started doing all these therapies (VT, OT, ST), I realized how much I had misunderstood games. Now I see the therapeutic value in games. There are quite a few games you could get her right now and for Christmas that are actually of therapeutic value to her. Ask your VT place for a list! Seriously. At her age, even just versions of memory are a good start. I have like 4 different kinds. The ones where they can't put them easily into words but really have to use their *visual* processing to remember are especially good. See if their vision isn't strong, they'll work around it using auditory. I have one with faces and there's another with Dr. Seuss. Those you can't really put words to, so they're good for visual processing. Chocolate Fix, Day and Night, anything in that vein where they're using visual logic, visual memory, it's all good. Puzzles are AWESOME for visual processing.

 

I have a DK game Silly Sentences that I linked a couple weeks ago here on the boards. You spin and make sentences using parts of speech and provided picture cards. Play Bananagrams with the new giant tiles at Timberdoodle. Don't do phonics right now. Do everything else. But VT for us was really, really hard. Maybe for you it will be better. It's going to go by faster than you anticipate, and she's going to make faster progress than you expect. Have they given you any estimates? Usually you're talking in terms of months, like 3-4 months for basics and another few months for visual processing. That means that even if you were to totally drop formal reading right now, it would only be till say December or January. And you'd hit it lots of other ways in the meantime. You'd play Hangman and banangrams and word games. You'd read comics together and do puzzles.

 

What have you been using for phonics btw? I don't see anything in your sig. Anything in the OG family? (SWR, AAS, WRTR, LOE, whatever) Have you done the Barton pre-test on her? I would definitely take advantage of this time to check whether she's connecting sound to written and written to sound. If she doesn't have that and the other components of phonemic awareness, those are things that will have to be remediated. There's a list here. http://phonologicalawareness.org

Edited October 4, 2012 by OhElizabeth

[twinkletoesmomma]

I asked very similar questions last year as my ds started VT. I did get glasses, and he wore them for about a month (he was getting headaches when reading). I also didn't force reading at the beginning (at the advice of those here on WTM board). I didn't need to because shortly after VT started, he started pulling early readers off the bookshelves--even Bob books! On his own, he worked his way through the early readers and then early chapter books...devouring the ones he struggled through before! We are almost at the 1 year anniversary of starting VT (finished this past June), and DS is reading the Lord of the Rings books! This is the kid who could barely get past level 3 readers a year ago! I did go back and review phonics (Dancing Bears curriculum) as I know there were things he missed. Your dd will take off! You'll be so happy you did this! It has been an amazing transformation for my ds. His self-confidence has soared this year.

[PeterPan]

Hey Twinkles, how old is your ds? That's unbelievable to go from Bob books to LotR in one year!!! I know VT works, but WOW! Happy dance for you!!!!!!!!!!

 

:party:

[Karen in CO]

We started doing ETC at the pace of 2 pages a day a couple of days a week when she was 5 and I noticed her reading problems. Our regular eye doctor found a mid-line jump and severe flipping and reversals. So for the past 2 years we've worked 6 pages a week of ETC and have finished ETC 4. We have a family of very early readers and as much as I tried to shield her, she has always known that she is the only one that could not read early. We focused last year a lot on whole body movements, art, dance, music, memory, stories - basically everything but reading and dropped written work and math completely.

 

My mom has always done the ETC with her, but she's been in Michigan since summer. I was planning to start back at our slow pace when she gets back. It is slow and steady and has allowed her to feel successful while we were waiting for that magic age of 7 that was supposed to resolve the majority of the problems. She can read, but I have a big suspicion that a she is doing an equally good job of guessing and remembering as she is of actually reading. I think that I'll just have game time and puzzle time everyday instead of trying for phonics or reading daily.

 

The doctor wants her to come in once a week for 8 weeks then be reevaluated to see if there is progress. I didn't get a list of the "border-line" issues, but she wants to reevaluate those issues and verify that she is making progress with the tracking and convergence. Also, my dd was being clever and trying to out-think the tests instead of simply responding so the doctor thinks she can get a better evaluation after she's more comfortable. The tracking and convergence were impossible to mask so we're starting with what is certain.

[Karen in CO]

I asked very similar questions last year as my ds started VT. I did get glasses, and he wore them for about a month (he was getting headaches when reading). I also didn't force reading at the beginning (at the advice of those here on WTM board). I didn't need to because shortly after VT started, he started pulling early readers off the bookshelves--even Bob books! On his own, he worked his way through the early readers and then early chapter books...devouring the ones he struggled through before! We are almost at the 1 year anniversary of starting VT (finished this past June), and DS is reading the Lord of the Rings books! This is the kid who could barely get past level 3 readers a year ago! I did go back and review phonics (Dancing Bears curriculum) as I know there were things he missed. Your dd will take off! You'll be so happy you did this! It has been an amazing transformation for my ds. His self-confidence has soared this year.

 

Thank you.

[twinkletoesmomma]

Hey Twinkles, how old is your ds? That's unbelievable to go from Bob books to LotR in one year!!! I know VT works, but WOW! Happy dance for you!!!!!!!!!!

 

:party:

 

He will be 11 in January. He was reading(struggling through) early readers when we started VT, but on his own he went all the way back to the beginning with the good ole Bob books! :) I know he isn't reading the LotR books perfectly as he mis-reads a few words when I ask him to read me a paragraph or two, but hey, he is reading it plenty well enough to tell me details and the storyline! Thank you again for all your advice through this past year! You helped me more than you know! (now if I could just get him to spell and stop occasional reversals. LOL In time.... that is another thread!)

[Guest Take2]

It is a big relief. Thank you for all of your advice and support to get me here too. So one day, she'll actually pick up a book to read and not just to pretend to read or to look at the pictures and without being assigned or bribed? I'm looking forward to that. My vision insurance covers one pair of glasses a year so I'll go ahead and get them this week. Thanks.

 

And one day, she might even say that she LOVES reading and books are better than movies!!!!

 

I never thought i'd hear that - but did last week from my now 13yo. She was even trying to convince a friend (9yo, with no learning disabilities - they are on the same cognitive level) that reading was awesome!!!

 

Honestly, it is the best thing I have ever heard from her :D