VT: Those of you doing it or have done it...

[MicheleB]

I'd like to have a bit of a condensed thread on those who are doing VT or have done VT, and whether you loved it, hated it, what you thought could have been better, what you wish you'd known then, stories, etc.

 

Also, did you do OT *before* VT? With VT? Not at all?

 

What types of problems did/do your child have that caused you to go to VT? How severe? How long did you go? Etc.

 

I know it's a pain to ask you all to type it up. If you can find the time, I'd really appreciate it, as we're looking into it for our boys. :)

[Laurie4b]

We did OT first, and then again. With the second round of OT, we added VT. OT has been great. I hate VT. I'm not sure it's had any effect, either, and it's expensive because our insurance doesn't pay. See the thread on this page for more.

[MicheleB]

Thanks, Laurie. I checked out your earlier post... very enlightening (and confusing ;) ).

 

Now, if I may be so bold to ask... what "exercises" do kids in VT do? I don't have a clue of what even to imagine.

[hsmamainva]

My 14yo son did vision therapy last summer.

 

We first sought it out because he was having trouble reading, once he started reading regular books, for lack of a better word! He was having trouble reading books that didn't have spaces between the lines, if that makes sense. I remember asking him if he had trouble reading and he said, "I do okay, until the words fall off of the page and onto my lap."

 

So I took him to a developmental optometrist and they determined that he was terribly farsighted, so they gave him reading glasses and recommended vision therapy (he had the visual tracking skills of a 4 year old -- at the age of 13!)

 

He did vision therapy for 10 weeks and they assigned things for him to do at home...and the exercises are different for each child, depending on where their weaknesses are. My son did a lot of visual puzzles, hand-eye coordination exercises, etc.

 

His reading level improved at least 2-3 grade levels after vision therapy. He needed to have bifocals added to his reading glasses, because it will help with his visual tracking skills. And his confidence *really* improved!! That was the best pay-off of all! He no longer felt "dumb", as he put it.

 

And...that's the only therapy my son has ever had (he has Asperger's / high functioning autism). He's never had OT or speech therapy -- we couldn't afford it when he was younger....and he was too high functioning to qualify for help from the county system...and, when he reached school age, the state we lived in at the time didn't offer therapy to homeschoolers. So I worked with him at home a great deal. (He's always been a very easy going child, so he was easy to work with -- now my 6yo, who also has autism, is a different story!! She's as stubborn as the day is long and has a very 'short fuse'...she's been doing speech therapy and OT since she was 3)

 

Hope this helps!

[EKS]

Now, if I may be so bold to ask... what "exercises" do kids in VT do? I don't have a clue of what even to imagine.

 

Here is a blog entry I did about what my son was doing at the start of VT. It changed over time but variations of the flipper exercise stayed throughout.

 

http://theknittedear.blogspot.com/2007/08/vision-therapy.html

[Twinmom]

Well, it's been a royal pain in the neck but it's done wonders for DD! She's literally gone from reading at a 1st grade level to reading at a 5th grade level over the summer while we've done VT in a condensed format. Check out this post I made on the subject if you want more info:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55115

[Laurie4b]

Here are some:

 

Wear an eye patch. There is a chart of letters about 72 pts. in size that is hung on the wall and that same chart replicated at about 8 pts. that is held at the end of the chin. Switch back and forth between the large and small chart (Read 5 letters from each line, then switch to the other chart, read 5 letters, and switch)

 

Suspend ball from ceiling. Two people play and pass the ball back and forth. Catch between palms with arms extended. Catch between fists with arms extended. Catch between fingertips with arms extended. Swat ball with palm. Hit ball with fist. Poke ball with thumb. Object is a smooth swing.

 

Put marble in an empty egg carton. Toss so that the marble goes from cup to cup.

 

Patch one eye. Draw a circle on a white board with right hand going clockwise. Try to run marker along exact line as first several times. Do it counterclockwise. Do it clockwise and counterclockwise with left hand. Switch eye patch and do the same thing.

 

Draw two small circles on board about waist high. Put on a metronome. Poke finger into each circle on the beat. (there are about 3 variations of which foot/hand is forward,etc.) Increase the beat from 60-120 beats per minute.

 

Look through various lenses figuring out what you can do with your eyes to create certain effects in vision.

 

Back to the chart on the wall. Read letters/numbers jumping columns. eg read symbol in column 3, 5, & 7 in each line.

 

That's a sampling.

[Cindy in MO]

Ds is currently in VT and has had 10 sessions. He was tested the begining of July. My son has some mild dyslexic issues which appear to be visual and neurological. The only official testing he has had was by the Develop. Optom. Ds tested fine in some areas and very low in some areas. Dh and I felt we needed to try VT to cover all the bases and strengthen that area for Ds. After 8 sessions, his re-evaluation showed improvement in weak areas. The DO said he would only need 16 sessions, where as it could have been as many as 24.

 

I have not seen any noticeable improvement in his reading yet, but we are in level 3 of Barton, so ds in not reading very much on his own right now. This is per Susan Barton's instructions, but I am going to have ds start reading more again so he doesn't forget what he knows while we are working through the levels.

 

Anyway, we are not enjoying VT. I drive 45 mins 1 or 2 times per week to the sessions. Ds has been mostly cooperative, but it is a challenge to fit in the home VT every day. We will be very glad to be finished with it, whether it works or not. Thankfully insurance is covering all but 10% since we already had our deductable paid this year. After VT we'll try some neuro. stuff, maybe.

 

Cindy

[MicheleB]

Thanks for the posts with the specific exercises done in VT. Very helpful!

[Kathy in MD]

My ds started VT during OT, because his OT noticed that one eye would turn out as ball approached his midline and he could no longer focus on it. Ds had several other vision problems, including the inability to follow a line of type across a page, uncovered during the dev vision exam. Some of these problems had been revealed in his reading problems, but I blamed the reading problems on other things. VT continued after OT was completed.

 

What I wish I'd known then that I know know is that selcting the actual therapist that works with your child is as important as selecting a good dev. opt. It's the therapist that can coax your child into working hard on difficult things and make them fun. All too often the therapist doesn't have training in working with difficult children. It was a goal oriented therapist that turned my ds into disliking VT. A later, more child-oriented therapist helped, but ds still fought VT, making it last much longer than nescessary.

 

I also provided small toys as a reward for attending VT sessions at the recommendation of the opt. I wish I had tied it into attitude and progress as I did for BrainSkills. It would have made more of an impact.

 

One good thing was that our dev. opt included cognitive visual training as part of VT. I understand most don't, making the VT time shorter and cheaper. However to recieve full benifits from VT in the more severe cases, I feel teaching the brain how to deal with the improved imput is important. My ds, with multiple LD's, did need more cognitive training than was provided by the VT, but it still helped. Afterwards we did the now defunct sister program to PACE and Learning Rx.

 

The results were well worth the time, expense and complaints. But remember that VT will only improve the visual imput into the brain, it will not turn your dc into an automatic reader. My ds also needed phoneme work, memory work, multi-sylabic reading strategies, comprehension work, etc.

 

I do however wish I'd looked into other dev opt practices before settling for the one that was initially recommended. There was just something that rubbed me the wrong way.

 

.

[Quiver0f10]

We did OT first and just hit the 6 month mark with OT and today was his first VT session. We started down this path because of his dyslexia but as time went on we discovered he has more issues that need dealing with.

[Cindy in MO]

More VT exercises:

 

*Wear glasses with a red and a green lense while doing worksheets printed in red, or red and green; or playing cards with a deck where half the cards are red.

 

* Touch the side squares of a checker board with and without an eye patch while being paced with a metronome. Touch same side of every row, then opposite sides, then same side and step, than cross and step.

 

*Focus on beads on a string at different distances. When staring at a bead should see two strings which make an "x" at the focal point. Notice surroundings while making an "x".

 

*There's a page with rows of colored squares and circles. On the bottom of the page, ds places a left finger on a square and a right finger on a circle. He then goes shape by shape, row by row, pointing to each circle with the right hand and saying the shape and color or to the squares with the left finger. Next he will add in "left" or "right". For example, he will point to a circle and say, "pink, circle, right."

 

Cindy