clemota Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 This is our first big step in working through DD11's diagnosis of stealth dyslexia/dysgraphia, which we finally received last month. I just wanted to post and thank all of you who have posted before on VT - I have learned so much just from reading through these forums. Our psychologist was pleasantly surprised that I knew what VT was (he recommends an assessment through a COVD doctor for most of this dyslexia patients) and we were able to talk about the differences he has seen in many cases. He also recommended a doctor for DD's assessment. Turns out that she does have convergence insufficiency, along with several other mystifying/interesting results. We're looking forward to starting therapy with the hopes that she will improve. The whole dyslexia/dysgraphia thing has me re-researching various curriculum for next year as well. We're with a charter in CA, and we have a teacher who has been incredibly supportive of DD's needs for accommodation. She was able to help us get a 504 in place almost immediately after we had the diagnosis in hand, so those accommodations are now "official." It's all been a bit of a shock even though I knew there was something not right. It explains so, so much. DD was also diagnosed with SPD when she was 4, which still causes issues at times. But at least now I can try to separate that from the dyslexia component. It's an interesting ride, as I'm sure many of you here can relate to. So no questions at the moment except for why no one explained what "flippers" were in their posts! After our last consult with the O.D., I drove home wondering why DD would need to purchase such expensive swim flippers for vision therapy - something to do with balance maybe? Trying to walk with them on while doing pencil pushups? Was she trying to incorporate OT with VT? LOL, Google came to the rescue! That makes a lot more sense!! And I'm so glad I didn't say anything outloud while at their office! :blushing: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Sorry. I forgot about your flipper question. Good luck! Glad you were able to impress your psychologist. :) And good luck with the VT. I know I need a more thorough eye exam. I am certain I need VT, too. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Good luck. As you do VT, don't be afraid to set aside other things in life as you devote a bunch of time and energy to VT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 That's a hoot!! Did your dev. optom. check for retained primitive reflexes and sensory integration issues? Is he sending her back for more OT? How much did she get at age 4? I'm just asking, because *sometimes* (not all the time, just sometimes) a dc will be sorta cross-wired, with info going to the wrong sides. If you have that or retained primitive reflexes or other OT issues, takes a much more savvy eye doc than normal or more OT. Since you already know she had some issues and are a seeing a bit more vision issues than the norm, you want to make sure they're checking all that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clemota Posted May 13, 2014 Author Share Posted May 13, 2014 That's a hoot!! Did your dev. optom. check for retained primitive reflexes and sensory integration issues? Is he sending her back for more OT? How much did she get at age 4? I'm just asking, because *sometimes* (not all the time, just sometimes) a dc will be sorta cross-wired, with info going to the wrong sides. If you have that or retained primitive reflexes or other OT issues, takes a much more savvy eye doc than normal or more OT. Since you already know she had some issues and are a seeing a bit more vision issues than the norm, you want to make sure they're checking all that. Hmmmm, I hadn't considered that. But looking at all of retained primitive reflex "warning signs" on various websites she only has one - bad pencil grip. I will still mention it to the OD though - thanks for the tip. We did OT for a year, then her therapist "graduated" her. She did work for proprioceptive and auditory integration, as well as a bit of eye tracking (if I'd known about VT then, I suppose that would have been a sign). She responded well to therapy - especially the brushing protocol. Her SPD is not as severe as some - her issues seem mostly limited to tactile (tags, seams) at this point, though occasionally sensitivity to sound comes up. We are considering OT in the future - right now, since both the psych eval and the VT are all out of pocket, we're doing triage: VT first, then either OT or reading tutor (though Barton is more likely), then whichever is left. Our psychologist strongly suggested getting the VT done first, since it would basically help re-wire the brain to help it learn the other stuff better. But I see what you mean about primitive reflexes - that would need to be re-wired first as well. The OD knows about her SPD - we talked about it and it's in DD's psych report, which she read. Would primitive reflexes be something that the OD can test for if she thinks it's necessary? Thanks for the encouragement, everyone. We are certainly prepared to let other things "go" as we work through the VT. I am fully expecting DD to be exhausted after doing her exercises - She said her brain was tired after doing the assessment, so I imagine that focused work will wipe her out. Fortunately we'll be doing a large chunk of it over the summer, so trying to work around academics is less of an issue for now. The when school starts again in August we will adapt as needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Sounds like your OT was very thorough! She probably would have caught those things if they were going on. What an awesome foundation to go into VT with! Good luck! :) As for when to eval, well there's usually a wait to get in. After VT is fine. It seemed like dd surged for about 6 months after VT, so a bit of space there is good. Also, this is weird, but her eyes seemed in flux. Like she needed glasses for a while, then didn't. Now she wears bifocal contacts. I think she did the attention part of the TOVA (computer test) without them, and I wonder how the results might have differed with them. I don't think you need to wait on more OT to get the psych eval. For us the psych eval was SUCH a watershed moment kind of thing, I HIGHLY recommend getting it done once you're past the vision stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clemota Posted May 13, 2014 Author Share Posted May 13, 2014 Sorry, I didn't mean to confuse: we did the psych eval already: that was started last fall when I finally thought, "Ya know, there's just something off in her learning. 11-year-olds should not burst into tears when asked to write a sentence about the pyramids." That process took most of the school year - but now we have results in hand (eye-opening, yup!) and are moving on to what seems to be the next step, VT. We figured that getting a VT eval would be helpful even if it showed no issues - at least then we could rule it out and move on to OT. But with a confirmation, well, that's helpful, too, obviously. So our next step now is the actual therapy. I guess my point was that we had already spent so much this year on the psych eval and now the VT, that we'd wait on either the reading or OT until we were done with VT. It's worth it, of course, but it's still a matter of finding the money to do what needs to be done. Our OD's office says that they have helped some of their clients receive reimbursement for patients who have an actual diagnostic medical code. Oh, and I forgot to mention that DD was diagnosed with SPD at age 4 and had OT between 4-5 yrs. So it was quite a while ago, which is why we'd consider doing it again as another step as needed. ETA: a period. I had a sentence with no ending there... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Ok, I'm curious. What was so eye-opening in the evals? :) With us it was processing speed. I had NO CLUE about processing speed, and that one bit CHANGED OUR LIVES, wow. I'd love to hear what it was for you! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clemota Posted May 14, 2014 Author Share Posted May 14, 2014 For starters it was the Beery scores - and the drawings that she attempted for it - which were down in the 7% range. You just looked at her pictures and wondered how her brain was translating what she saw into what she copied...it was just...odd. That ties in with what she was doing on the math part of the Woodcock - she was lower on fluency because she was "having difficulty identifying visual symbols." She also scored less than 10% on rapid naming..so she's likely having decoding issues in general - not just with mathematical symbols. I'd known for a while something was off in math, but couldn't really place it, she understands concepts and can verbally spit back answers (complex ones that I need to figure out on paper) in seconds. But on paper? Not so much. Understanding WHY that's going on is making SO MUCH SENSE now. Now I need to figure out how we can work to her strengths while accommodating her weaknesses. Processing speed (66%) was about 1.5 deviations from her verbal comprehension (98%) - definitely asynchronous! I found that the OD's report was just as interesting, and I'm still trying to put it all together to see what it means: delays in automatization and tracking, convergence insufficiency, Oh! and reversals! She doesn't WRITE any, but apparently she's seeing them regularly! Wow, that just blows me away! Somehow she's scanning/"reading" but with reversals - how crazy is that?! She actually did better on the Beery with the OD, though I didn't see any of the drawings, so I can only go by the written report. Visually, she has good visual discrimination, spatial-relations and sequential memory, but her visual closure is abysmally low. Not sure how that's affecting her. Like I said, I'm still putting all those pieces together. LOL, so this was much longer than I intended - sorry. I find this stuff fascinating...it's like a peek into her brain, you know? Now if I can just learn what it all means...! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted May 14, 2014 Share Posted May 14, 2014 Did you see geodob's mention of the angular gyrus a couple days ago? It's in a part of the brain and apparently when you get glitches in there you get that combo of r/l confusion, apraxia (word retrieval), dyslexia and dyscalculia, also finger agnosia. And the dyslexia and dyscalculia I think are joined by that issue with how they're going from concept to symbol. I've only been noticing it because it seems to be what's going on with my ds. Well that's really wild the stuff they found. Neat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clemota Posted May 14, 2014 Author Share Posted May 14, 2014 Did you see geodob's mention of the angular gyrus a couple days ago? ... Ok - I'm off to read about that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted May 14, 2014 Share Posted May 14, 2014 Ok - I'm off to read about that! Actually, you might want to check out lots of geodob's posts. I find them fascinating. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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