How has vision therapy helped your child?

[Indian summer]

I understand that there are various deficits that VT can improve and that not every patient is dealing with the same issues or starting from the same place, but I'd like to get an idea of the kinds of improvements that are possible and realistic with VT.

 

At this point, I have decided to go ahead with it, so that isn't up for debate. I just want to know what sorts of improvements might be realistically expected - even if the specifics are not relevant to my kid, it may help someone, so I'd love to hear about all aspects of how helpful it can be.

 

So, would you say it's been life changing for your child? Or has it simply made a few things a bit easier? I have a tendency to expect amazing results, but I'd like to go into this with realistic expectations.

[prairiewindmomma]

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[PeterPan]

My dd went from unable to catch a ball to catching a ball.

She used to bump into things, stub her toe, and hurt herself by banging into things CONSTANTLY.  She basically had bruises or was howling multiple times a day.  That totally stopped.

Her writing improved.  (I have before and after samples.)

She stopped walking on all fours and barking like a dog.  (I think it was immature cover-up behavior for the lack of depth perception, etc.)

Her EF and overall maturity (follow through with cleaning room, that kind of thing) improved because they integrated some PACE worksheets. 

Her visual memory improved dramatically, giving her the ability to use it as a better learning modality.

Her VSL abilities came out.  She had had them all along, but her visual processing was so weak that her brain just flipped and used auditory, which on her was weaker than the VSL would be when the VSL came in fully.  

She had terrific academic surges for about 6 months after therapy as we went back through a lot of basic stuff with her new eyes and ability to process.

 

Side benefits?  We learned how to work together better.  She got cool field trips after therapy sessions and cool bribes like lego kits.  (We hadn't done lego kits before.)  We reached a place where we understood that things that were happening and going wrong were not because of lack of volition on her part or compliance issues but because something was actually WRONG.  When we got that out in the open, we were able to address other things that needed to happen.  She now wears bifocal contacts and has had her full psychological eval so we could understand the REST of what was going on. The therapist was extremely knowledgeable and could catch things we didn't, like how she was breathing, things that were provoking anxiety, etc.  She doesn't have anxiety as a label, but that potential is there and something the psych told us to avoid.  It was just interesting to get that outside perspective of someone working with her and someone pointing out where things were happening (grip, posture, breathing, etc.).  

 

I like to tell people whatever you're dealing with right now that's a result of the vision problems will get better with VT.   :)  Sounds a little trite, but there you go.  Those were our issues.  You doubtless have your own curious list.  She was 11 when we did VT btw.  We got the evals late 10 and started when she turned 11.  So we did VT during 6th, psych eval during 7th and had a pretty good year in 8th.  9th has been AWESOME.  Very productive, really coming into her own.  Even though it felt late at the time, I'm glad we got it done.

[Lecka]

My son went to OT, but for things that he could have done at VT.  Some things seem like they vary by location.  I took my son to a VT for eval and the VT thought OT could help with the issues they both saw.  

 

Anyway -- for his tracking, he had a tracking problem related to his eyes "skipping" or "jumping" when he crossed the midline.  With this -- he went from reading captions, cartoons, things with one or two or maybe 5 lines of text, with good reading, and became able to read a page of text with a chapter-book format.  We had been doing OG-style reading remediation, and his decoding improved very well with it, but he was not making the jump to reading a page in a chapter book, though he had that level of reading if it was a caption or cartoon.  Though of course -- the picture support also helped him to know what to expect.  But he was NOT using context clues to sound out, it just helped with his comprehension.  

 

For his coordination -- I didn't even realize it could improve so much.  He can dribble a ball for basketball without it always just getting away from him so fast.  He can swim much better.  He looks more fluid when he runs.  He has an easier time doing the school music programs where they have hand movements.  These are still not awesome -- but much better.  This is also related to crossing the midline and bilateral coordination, both are with coordinating the left and right side of his body.

 

So those are the highlights.  

 

His handwriting is better but we are not expecting him to have functional academic handwriting skills moving forward (as demands increase), he will need accomodations of some kind, we expect.  Though he could have a leap, too.  But we are not really expecting it.  I have not pursued VT again since he finished up his OT.  But -- I think I would have seen similar improvements with VT that was addressing the same issue.  That is what the VT and OT I spoke to both told me, specific to him.  The OT at his school said similar things.  

 

The tracking was the main thing the VT saw.  He thought his tracking was very concerning and was shocked he could read at all.  But shocked in a good way, lol.  He said he thought what the OT would do would also help him.  For his tracking -- three different people all saw the same thing when they saw him read, two OTs and the VT. They all saw his eyes jump.   

 

I can't say I will never try VT for his handwriting.  Maybe.  Some of his visual skills are still on the low side, even after OT.  

 

I am mainly mentioning b/c, I had NO idea that some areas of visual skills could also be addressed by OT.  Locally, for my son's issues it seems that both sides think they are both good.  For some kids it needs to be VT, but the private OT we saw said she had a VT she mentions to people when she thinks it would help and her approach has not been as effective as she would like. 

 

But with this issues improved from either approach -- I would hope to see the results.  Very worthwhile!  His reading!  His coordination!  He can swim fast enough to keep up with other kids at the pool!!!!!!!!!!

 

He does not have this feeling of "always being the slowest."  That is the best thing, and I didn't know we would see this result.  I was looking only for reading and handwriting.  

 

Edit:  the two OTs who thought VT was an option for him, for his tracking, do not think it would help his handwriting.  That is just their opinion, but I have a good impression of them, and they did think it would help his tracking.  They have both seen kids who have been in  VT and seen what improvements they did and didn't have with different issues.  And, my son did have dramatic improvement in his handwriting, it is just still very poor.  But it is like -- the difference between being 1-2 years behind and being 3-4 years behind.  That is dramatically better, even if it is still not really good.  He can copy very nicely now, but it does not fully transfer to his other writing.  The OTs think he has dysgraphia, we have not followed up beyond making sure things are going well for him at school and helping to support his handwriting needs.  I am pleased with what OT has done, but it would not be true to say -- that it is what I wanted when he started.  

 

[laundrycrisis]

Yes, for our son it was life changing.  He was unable to learn to read until he completed therapy for both visual motor and visual processing problems. 

[mommymonster]

My son completed VT recently. We have had some really great successes -- he can tie his shoes now, follow directions to construct Legos, and his reading has improved. However, he still does have learning challenges we are working with and through. So, yes, it has helped. We haven't seen huge surges in academic performance, which is a bit of a bummer.  :001_rolleyes:

[Ottakee]

My nephew went from a non reader at age 10 to reading above grade level at age 12.  It was totally life changing for him.  It helped his younger brother some but his needs weren't as severe.

[Julie of KY]

We are in the middle of vision therapy. It has been life changing for my daughter who was able to decode words, but had no endurance for anything on paper. She would have severe headaches after a paragraph and would cry regularly. She couldn't do math on paper. So far she has gone from reading step into reading books to middle school level novels. Her headaches are very infrequent. Before VT, she had such poor depth perception that she'd fail a driver's license test - now it is much better. The VT doc says we are likely to see more improvements in reading, math, writing, her gait, her tics, etc.

 

My 14 year old is also in VT - his biggest difficulty in life is his handwriting and it is improving. He's writing more of his math and other things. He is beginning to visualize better and have better special judgment. He says he notices a difference in his reading.

[Mukmuk]

We did it several times. The biggest impact was when ds 1st did it at age 6. Suddenly, words stopped jumping and he could read fairly sophisticated books. After that, another round got rid of his convergence issues. He started scooting at 9yo and shortly after, was able to ride a bike.

 

But improvements in tracking has yo-yo'd. I think I finally found the problem - computer games. Ds was introduced to PC games at 8yo. I saw a drop in the amount of time that he would read for leisure. When he started playing big screen xbox type games at 10yo, the reading trickled to nothing. When he did read, it was a restless sort of read, to fulfil a requirement rather than to fill the mind, like he did before. I finally put a stop to all gaming (DH and I are not on the same page on this) earlier this year, but the reading did not resume. A recent vision test showed that whatever tracking gains he had made was all lost (although convergence is fine). At the VT session I was in with him, he seemed to have developed "gaming" tricks like staring ahead and relying on peripheral vision to track objects, which was clearly not possible. This continues to be ironed out.

 

It's been about 6 weeks worth of the new therapy. He's now reading in his leisure and will actively discuss stories. He asked for and started tennis lessons, which he loves. Handwriting continues to improve in isolated big steps (he just had another step up). For eg, he volunteered to take notes while watching Khan Academy videos so that he can think though better. This is major step for a dysgraphic kid. He does have OT going on as well and I've revamped our homeschool to require MORE from him, so I can't say for sure that all this improvement is entirely due to VT. But it certainly helped in a big way.

[OneStepAtATime]

DS10 is tracking better across the page.  He still says he can't read...but he IS reading.  He will read over my shoulder, read text off the computer screen, grab a book and read.  He was not really doing that before.   I think VT coupled with Barton is starting to help a lot.  He still has extreme insecurities about his coordination, but that may take more than VT to address.  I think we need OT but DH disagrees.

[Atilla the Mom]

It was definitely helpful.  My eldest had multiple hits, including both auditory and visual processing deficits.  We handled the auditory processing ones first, and she developed phonemic awareness and became able to read and write using phonics - albeit  slowly by the beginning of second grade.  She still had trouble memorizing sight words including the common easy ones like "you" and "skool" if there was a phonetic alternative (e.g. "u" and |"skool".)  She also got headaches with reading, and while big print helped some, she couldn't handle timed fluency drills at all.  She did visual processing over about a year during third grade, and after that was able to memorize sight words, did well on spelling tests, stopped having headaches and became able to handle fluency drills.  We saw improvement on sight word memorizing within a month.  She also developed marked improvement in comprehension; i think that the decoding just required too much working memory for her to handle comprehension.  By the end of it she had books she actually liked to read, (Mostly Frog and Toad Are Friends level, but that was new.  Before, she liked being read to out of heavily illustrated books, and curiously enough, loved Where's Waldo type books as well, but she didn't have any books that she would voluntarily pick up and read if the emphasis was on the reading.

[Atilla the Mom]

<<He still has extreme insecurities about his coordination, but that may take more than VT to address. I think we need OT but DH disagrees.>>

 

I would enroll him in beginner gymnastics. It is fun, cheap, and doesn't have the smell of therapy, but it really is helpful for coordination.  My kid also had balance and coordination issues, but that helped quite a lot.

[SKL]

Hard to say whether it was "life changing," since my daughter was not quite 4 when she started.  But the benefits have been substantial.  I suspect she would have had a very hard time learning to read and write without it.  Instead she is a little ahead of the curve on those basics.  She still has some issues that mean she has to work harder to keep up.

 

She learned how to control and team her eyes in order to see and track print more clearly/efficiently, to use planning to write legibly, and to use other techniques to use the vision she does have to accomplish things.  She used to avoid both books and videos because of the way everything moved around on her; now she is pretty normal in her enjoyment of both.  She is 7.5 and on book 35 of the Magic Treehouse series, for example.

[Lecka]

I am going to add, my son's behavior and attitude have improved in settings where he used to get very frustrated, but I thought it was his attitude.  I had thought he just had a bad attitude about some things or had questionable behavior, previously.  

 

Now it seems that it was just way too hard for him to do some things, so he was getting too frustrated.  Now he has an easier time and is not so frustrated, even if his result is still on the lower side.  He is enjoying things and he is pleasant!!!!!!!!!

 

I am thinking of a lot of things sports-related, anything with crafts, a lot of things with music with hand gestures.

 

He had always been good at Legos and still is.  I am told it is b/c he holds things to one side (???? If I understand this correctly) and did not need to cross the mid-line or really have his hands work together too much, with one hand just holding something steady.  Compared to things where the two hands are doing more of different things.   

 

The music and crafts and "let's play a game" things all come up at church -- and for whatever reason, I think were a reason for him to not enjoy church and have some difficult times with his behavior.  Though it could have been more than just that -- it did not help.  It is better now, though.  

 

It is not as life-changing as speech therapy was, but I am pleased, and I can see my son having an improvement in his quality of life.  He has more social opportunities (being able to participate even a little in basketball, in particular -- casually playing basketball is popular around here).  With swimming, too, he would not want to hang out if he couldn't keep up, and now he can keep up around the pool.  

 

*I* am pleased he can read so much better, but I don't know if it made such a difference for him.  For him, the things I am mentioning made a bigger difference to him than just reading, I think.  

 

It is definitely only one part of reading for him, though, he has had trouble with a lot of facets of learning to read, though he is doing pretty well now.