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Vision therapy at home? Eye fatigue?


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I have that book. I bought it after noticing our VT was using exercises directly out of it, thinking I would just continue following up on my own. My son had made incredible progress by that time, and we were working more on coordination and similar gross motor issues than vision specifically. I found it hard to follow through with it! I guess the cost and regularity of doing VT assigned homework was better for me. I don't think I could have remediated my son's vision issues with just that book.

 

Ok, I looked at it again and I do think it's quite comprehensive. It's just that it would be very difficult to know where to start, how to modify, and what a particular child would need. Still, I think it would be a good purchase if formal VT is out of the question. And it could be just me! I do think everything we ever did in home VT exercises, and gross motor too, is in that book. But my son's vision issues were major and difficult to remediate and, still, we weren't assigned anything close to all those exercises.

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That book is fine, but do you have the option to head to a dev. optometrist to get proper therapy? It's uncommon for an OT to do complete VT, no matter what they say. If you can get in with a VT doc, you can find out exactly what's going on.

The dev optometrist I spoke with has NO experience with the condition our son has. The OT was treating other things and willing to "give it a try" to help with some VT that she had learned (she worked for a dev. optometrist.

 

I could call again but last time I called for an eval they said "hmmm. . . I"m not sure about that" and didn't really even suggest a consult! Our son has a weak right eye due to neurological damage (stroke like incident). The problem is that they don't know if it's "rehabilitative" or "permanent" and to the tune of thousands of $$, they don't seem interested in us and that doesn't make me want to "chase them down"

 

Does that make sense??

 

SO I am really just looking for "eye fatigue" exercises as all the other symptoms have disappeared except eye rubbing and not being able to read for long periods of time. However, he's gone from being able to read 5 minutes to being able to read 25 minutes if it's at his fluency level. BUT we have hit a wall after all that improvement. Plus, when the decoding is difficult, he RUBS his eyes a lot!

 

So far we do palming and some "vision gym." He's improved A LOT over the past 3 months but I just wondered if this book was good since it appears he is stuck. On the other hand, I wonder if he just needs time to pass this plateau??

 

What I'm reading in this thread is that it would be a good second step if we found a dev. optometrist to help us.

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Jodi, the book is very good. Just as someone who's been on the receiving end of good VT with my kids, I know that when you do it you can have things happen that you need explained, aren't sure if you're doing it correctly, don't know what you need, etc. I think it's FINE to get the book. It's a BETTER to do it with a knowledgeable dev. optom.

 

Suggestion. I don't know where you are, but have you thought of driving farther, perhaps even out of state if necessary, to do a consult with a very good developmental optometrist? They could bring you in, do the full eval, tell you what's going on, and help you target your work. There ARE much better dev. optometrists than what you found, mercy. Our place has quite a few, but one is a Fellow who writes for textbooks. That's the level you're looking for. If you found the right person, they'd be worth driving for. You can use the list at the COVD site, see who is a Fellow, and start googling them. Usually I would expect them to be in a state capitol or major city. Then *email* the doc and tell them your situation and ask what experience they have. Then you'll know. That's how I handled finding ours, and the docs were more than happy to write back, connect you with their therapists, etc. Email is a wonderful thing. :)

 

So yes the book is fine, but still it would be nice to get some knowledgeable help. Try emailing Fellows and see what you can find.

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Jodi, the book is very good. Just as someone who's been on the receiving end of good VT with my kids, I know that when you do it you can have things happen that you need explained, aren't sure if you're doing it correctly, don't know what you need, etc. I think it's FINE to get the book. It's a BETTER to do it with a knowledgeable dev. optom.

 

Suggestion. I don't know where you are, but have you thought of driving farther, perhaps even out of state if necessary, to do a consult with a very good developmental optometrist? They could bring you in, do the full eval, tell you what's going on, and help you target your work. There ARE much better dev. optometrists than what you found, mercy. Our place has quite a few, but one is a Fellow who writes for textbooks. That's the level you're looking for. If you found the right person, they'd be worth driving for. You can use the list at the COVD site, see who is a Fellow, and start googling them. Usually I would expect them to be in a state capitol or major city. Then *email* the doc and tell them your situation and ask what experience they have. Then you'll know. That's how I handled finding ours, and the docs were more than happy to write back, connect you with their therapists, etc. Email is a wonderful thing. :)

 

So yes the book is fine, but still it would be nice to get some knowledgeable help. Try emailing Fellows and see what you can find.

I wonder if I got a bad office person because people drive from all over the state and I am in the largest city in my state :( Many people we know have gone there but the person who answered the phone basically listened and said "I don't think we can do anything for your son. I've never heard of such a thing." (neurological stroke like damage from chemo probably a medical reaction).

 

In the person's defense, the entire generation of "emerging" cancer survivors have a lot of therapists/medical professionals scratching their heads in confusion. They save these children with chemo and then have no clue what to do with them afterwards when they are damaged from the crazy toxic drugs. It's only been the past 15 years that the survival rates are increasing but with the survivors comes a slew of after affects. *sigh*

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I'm sorry you got a poor response, but you're asking the wrong person. Go to the COVD site, find a Fellow, and write that doc directly. The person on the phone at the doc's office is a receptionist, possibly just a high school graduate, and typically knows NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about what is going on. You have to talk to the doc directly.

 

If I recall correctly from reading his bio, the neuropsychologist we used did his research in effects of chemo and cancer treatment on learning in children. (It was him or another neuropsych I was reading about at the time, my bad memory!) I remember it, because it was such a shocking thing to ponder, like you say, that the thing that did them good also hurt them and has consequences.

 

Well keep looking, but write the docs directly via email.

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I agree with Elizabeth - try to speak with the doc directly. (FWIW, I made my dh see our COVD when he had vision difficulties following brain surgery that affected the cranial nerves. That wasn't terribly unusual to them, a post-op patient, even though they may not have seen his exact, specific situation before. Most post-op patients get sent to the neuro-opthamologist instead of an optometrist, though I'm not sure they have much to offer.)

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So you are still doing the eye exercises from your OT and he's not continuing to improve at all? 5 to 25 minutes seems like good improvement so it would seem you just need to be able to take those exercises to the "next level". What exercises you're doing now? I can look in my copy of that book and see what they show that is similar.

 

However, FWIW, I'm taking my DD back to VT this summer due to quick fatigue - after about 5-15 minutes of reading she tells me that the words start jumping around. I must admit I am not completely confident but I'm willing to invest the first few appts to see what they do. Because I do still feel like I am guessing blindly even with that book and having the exercises they gave us before (and googling lol)

 

Also was it the Dr you talked to? In your case I would really want to talk to the Dr, and lay out what you have done already and how it has improved things so far.

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So you are still doing the eye exercises from your OT and he's not continuing to improve at all? 5 to 25 minutes seems like good improvement so it would seem you just need to be able to take those exercises to the "next level". What exercises you're doing now? I can look in my copy of that book and see what they show that is similar.

 

However, FWIW, I'm taking my DD back to VT this summer due to quick fatigue - after about 5-15 minutes of reading she tells me that the words start jumping around. I must admit I am not completely confident but I'm willing to invest the first few appts to see what they do. Because I do still feel like I am guessing blindly even with that book and having the exercises they gave us before (and googling lol)

 

Also was it the Dr you talked to? In your case I would really want to talk to the Dr, and lay out what you have done already and how it has improved things so far.

 

I suspect he hit a plateau and not a wall because about a week ago he started improving again. He can make it through 45 minutes before complaining about fatigue if he is doing "easy reading" and 30 minutes IF a lesson includes really difficult decoding. I have definitely found that at times he stops improving for a short time before improving again - like an upward progression ceases and then holds for awhile before increasing, ya know?

 

Exercises he does:

Vision gym:

*lots of figure 8 work - following thumb, closed eyes following finger tracing eyes on face like mask, following pencil in 8

*pencil work in addition to figure 8 - following pencil back and forth, up and down and in x while pressing on bone beneath eye and holding head stationary

 

Plus several brain gym exercises for midline work as well as memory exercises and front to back brain waves

 

One really important thing I also noticed is that his right eye has stopped "jumping" when he reads (if I sit across from him, every now and then I would notice his right eye jumping. I haven't seen that anymore.

 

At this point, I am going to wait and see.

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Just so you know, what you described isn't vision therapy. They're eye exercises, but actual vision therapy works on very specific things with developmental vision (tracking, focusing, convergence, depth perception, etc.). If you have absolutely no budget, you'd do better to get the book on amazon and implement it. At least then you'd get actual vision therapy exercises. Nothing you're doing is bad. It's just that with proper VT you can fix basic problems in just a couple months.

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Just so you know, what you described isn't vision therapy. They're eye exercises, but actual vision therapy works on very specific things with developmental vision (tracking, focusing, convergence, depth perception, etc.). If you have absolutely no budget, you'd do better to get the book on amazon and implement it. At least then you'd get actual vision therapy exercises. Nothing you're doing is bad. It's just that with proper VT you can fix basic problems in just a couple months.

Yes, I know I'm not doing vision therapy - just described what I do with the OT as someone asked. BUT something that you just said made me remember what the person who worked for the COVD said specifically.

 

Our son has a medical damage to his vision and doesn't appear to have a "developmental vision" issue. Reversing damage is different than rehabilitating "stroke like" damage to a child.

 

I may or may not consult further but your post prompted recall of why they didn't think they could help him. It is food for thought on where to go from here - because his progress this year has been significant, I"m unsure that any new therapy is necessary.

 

I will admit that I cringed at the "couple of months" idea. EVERY single therapist he's needed has told us a couple of months and it's taken years to fix the other problems that have come from this issue - core, gait, trunk, shoulder, arm, speech. We are still in speech and OT and he still has a PT schedule for at home although we are moving to weight lifting and swimming for maintenance.

 

Thank you all for listening to me process/figure this out ;)

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I sort of understand what you mean, because apraxia of speech is the same type of issue (praxis, motor control) that you have after a stroke when a person loses their speech. It's not developmental, so the therapy has to be totally different. However good VT is aimed at making new pathways in the brain and I would think should be able to help make new pathways to replace the damaged ones. It's not so outrageous to think this can work. The thing is finding a really good COVD doc who has some experience with it. You get the right doc and they *will*. For instance the lead doc at the practice we use is a Fellow, writes for textbooks, heads up the state association, and does deal with those harder cases.

 

So keep pursuing it. It's just you'll have to have somebody with experience. I would limit your search to Fellows.

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We just had the first VT appt today and our homework for this week seems applicable to the OP in that it would work the muscles in a manner similar to following the fingers: Child holds a "pick up stick" type stick, Mom holds a straw in front of child's face and moves slowly around in different direction (circle, in & out, left and right), child tries to put pick up stick in the straw. To make things harder, cover one eye (w/patch) and hold the straw on the side of the face with the covered eye (forcing the uncovered eye to look "in").

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have 2 children in VT and insurance paid for both. We have United Healthcare. We had already met our deductible when I submitted the claim for my 2nd child in therapy and I didn't have to pay a dime out of pocket. So push your insurance company.

 

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