If your child has had VT

[mhaddon]

So my son will start vision therapy soon as soon as we can get the first half. Gulp. He really really needs it and is struggling right now. I was wondering how much school and what kind of schedual/curriculum you used with your child when they began therapy? I'm afraid I have been doing too much and making it even harder on him and making him shut down. I don't want him to hate school and he is sooo close to just breaking down and giving up :( He should be in 2nd and is doing 1st again with a little brother now ahead of him (K student). It is hard on him, I get it. He is such an awesome audiotory learner and loves auido books so I plan on doing even more of those and read alouds. We are doing 1st grade phonics for the 2nd time so I'm not even sure if phonics will be worth doing again next year?

He hates math so I'm not even sure what to do. We have completed RS level A, MUS primer and Alpha, and some of Horizons 1st. He still doesn't have his addition/sub facts down. Even doing outloud. We've used manipulatives, MUS blocks, number lines, etc. NOTHING has made it easy to do. I'm ready to just take a break from math for the year, is that a bad idea?? I have teaching textbooks 3rd grade as a last ditch math program. I'm tired of spending money on things that don't work. We are "doing" K12, but dropping it because it is way too much for him right now :(

 

He loves science and history I figure is fine. He enjoys art. Would it be bad at this point to just focus on all the fun stuff with him, keep adding rich adio books/read alouds, and the vision therapy exercises? I'm also thinking FLL because it is outloud. I would be droping formal phonics, spelling, writing, and formal math.

 

Also what are your thoughts on copywork? Not worth the struggle for now?

 

I feel so bad and this is SO hard :(

[bluedarling]

He sounds a lot like my oldest at that age. Back off on the schooling...he's young! He will catch up later. Do lots of read-alouds if that what he likes and connects with...just do quick fact games each day with stuff that's easy for him (1+1, 0+0, etc, and very occasionally add another fact....make it PAINLESS.) 5 minutes of math per day for the rest of year won't kill him...use the RS A games. Play addition war with easy cards (1,2,3, e.g.), or have him scoot across the room on a scoot board and match the cards. Our first psych told me, "a little is more" with these kids. He'll get more out of that 5 minutes than he will with you pushing. You should be able to do the same thing to get just a little phonics in. You are on the right track...it sounds like you have the plan! Definitely skip the copywork...if he has visual processing issues the vision therapist writeup we received for "the school" (me in this case) said to eliminate copywork, as well as use large fonts for anything you ask him to read (like math numbers). I've always felt my child was SO behind, but now at 15yo, he's not! We spent the first 10 years of his life just fighting with him and accomplishing very little...in the last few years, he's been gaining speed. A friend told me to relax when he was young, but it was too much of a leap of faith at that time, but looking back...she was right! I was all set to "do it right" with the 4th child, and take it slow and play games...and wouldn't you know she'd be the kind you can't keep up with!

[mhaddon]

Thanks, I am going to do this. I was thinking phonic and math games. Not worksheets. I worry with my younger son getting upset because he will still need to do those things. But, in K he already goes into his room and reads for fun.

[PeterPan]

nt

[mhaddon]

Thanks :) I know you have a lot of experience in this area so I was hoping you'd chime in. I'm getting it at a discounted rate of $80 a week and she is the only one within three hours one way :( I have done research and have talked to people that have used her so I don't have a bad feeling about paying half up front because we probably would't do well with paying by week because DH's income is varried depending on the weather so paying a large chunk at a time is a better option. Within our area I can see many people not paying consistently. And on top of that she has had a lot of trouble with insurance companies not paying, patient not paying, and being burned. So I do feel comfortable or in no way would we move foreward.

 

That sounds like a good plan, he has an ipod and we already do a lot of audio books for free on it, our library selection is very low on the more rice literature selections and I've already gone through all of them. He's listened to so many he's almost out of children's book options so I know I will have to do some reading. I will have to buy WRTR because our library doesn't carry it.

[PeterPan]

nt

[Lecka]

I skipped to the bottom here. My son is in 2nd grade public school and also struggles with math facts. He just passed addition facts (yay!!!!!!!) despite not doing them as quickly as required, and this is with him going with an aide to do them orally with the same time limit as he would have written. (edit: his teacher decided to pass him, thinking he was doing his best, does know them pretty well overall, and he can move on to subtraction now and still review addition... Plus he is learning 2,5, and 10 multiplication now but not for memorizing yet.)

 

He has had anxiety and lessening the anxiety is huge. With the aide he doesn't know he is being timed and that has helped the anxiety. He just does the sheet and she tells the teacher how far he got.

 

Now -- the upshot is he just had MAP testing and got 97th% on math.

 

I don't have a good solution but can say he could still be a good math student.

 

My son also shows that he can remember in context but when it is just asking him, he does worse. That said, he often counts on his fingers, too, even in context. But he does do better with recalling them in context (aka solving a word problem vs asking him the fact directly).

 

Edit: I read back and agree with everything. I have already done OG with my son and he is doing well with reading, but I have recently learned he could (probably) still need VT. His handwriting is bad and it looks like I am going to have him do OT and VT (or at least schedule evaluations).

[PeterPan]

nt

[mhaddon]

Do you have that book? I ask because my friend had to drop VT with her daughter (another state) because of how much it cost and was thinking of getting the book.

 

Also, what is the benefit of OT and VT? My youngest is in OT right now and it seems like a lot of fine motor skills and speech work (she is 2.5 yrs old). I wondered what OT was like for 7 year olds? His fine motor skills are still lacking for his age.

[PeterPan]

nt

[sbgrace]

I have that book. We were working with a Fellow of COVD and I noticed everything we were assigned was coming from that book. So I stopped therapy and bought the book. That said, we were already far along the road. My son was very severe. He wasn't ready for what was in that book when we started. I think we needed the expert to adapt and make the teeny tiny (but so hard for him) assignments to get us to the point to work a more standard program. If I'm to believe the Fellow, though, I don't think my son is typical. He was the worst they had worked with and they had been doing it for many years. Maybe others could start with that book and do well.

 

Honestly, my son was so improved by the VT already and we were a little burnt out anyway so I didn't use the book much. I keep intending to go back to it though now that he's older.

 

If your child is anything like my son the VT and homework related are going to be very hard. It was exhausting for both of us for quite a while. I don't think we could have done anything else that required a lot of brain power. You are likely going to be making huge gains that will make academics easier for him. You'll make much more progress than plodding through academics when he is struggling with the visual perception.

[Rod Everson]

I have that book. We were working with a Fellow of COVD and I noticed everything we were assigned was coming from that book. So I stopped therapy and bought the book. That said, we were already far along the road. My son was very severe. He wasn't ready for what was in that book when we started. I think we needed the expert to adapt and make the teeny tiny (but so hard for him) assignments to get us to the point to work a more standard program.

 

"Noticing that everything was coming from the book" isn't the same as knowing what to do from the book, as you acknowledge. Just because a therapist is doing something that you can find in the book doesn't mean that an untrained parent will pick the right lessons from the book to address a particular problem.

 

I'm extremely impressed, and pleased, with the way vision therapy has been accepted on these boards over the past few years. Ten years ago, there were more skeptics than advocates and it was a tough job to convince parents to consider spending the money. Now, with so many parents having had good experiences with it, we're down to fine-tuning the process, figuring out how to get it without mortgaging the house, etc.

 

Nevertheless, we pay for OT and PT for a reason. Experts, and expert opinions, are required to diagnose and to put together a treatment plan. VT is best thought of as PT for the eyes, and one should view paying for it in the same light. The problem is that schools will often provide the PT/OT, but very few will even acknowledge the need for VT, much less provide it. The same is true of insurance policies.

 

I agree that some vision therapy is both more expensive than it should be and not as effective as it could be, and that parents should be encouraged to do some serious investigation before spending a few thousand dollars on VT, but it is an area where trained experts in the therapy provide a lot of value beyond what you'll find in a book.

[PeterPan]

nt

[DyslexicParent]

I think the VT exercises from the Manual of Procedures of the Convergence Insufficiency Treatment Trial can also be done at home. If the HTS, PTS II iNet and Dynamic Reader software recommended by a developmental optometrist do not help DD enough, I will do the Brock String and other VT exercises at home.

And you know, if my optometrist was willing to let my kid rot with no therapy for 6 months simply because I didn't have $KKK to pay upfront, I'd probably go get the Kenneth Lane book off amazon for $28 or whatever it is and tell the optometrist to rot. You already know there are no retained primitive reflexes, and much of VT can be done at home. Sure the VT doc can do it better, but you could get the book, get started, and maybe when you go in you only need half as much therapy.

 

Developing Ocular Motor and Visual Perceptual Skills: An Activity Workbook