Looks like we may be doing VT...

[MicheleB]

I have been working with the therapy dept. at our local hospital, and they are very graciously working to find funding for my boys to receive vision therapy! They have been just amazing at looking at options with me, talking with the nearest VT (two hours away), and looking into possible sources for funding. I am so impressed. (Of course, the director of therapy is also a homeschooling dad I know from our hs group.) :)

 

The therapists at our hospital feel that for now, my boys should stop speech therapy and hold off on OT. They feel, after reviewing the neuropsych reports, that the boys would be over-serviced at this point if we did OT, ST and VT, and that it would be frustrating for the boys, esp. considering the length of drive we'll have for VT.

 

I'm not against that. I think the hope is that VT will "ground" some of these areas my boys are having problems with, and give us a better picture of what else needs to be worked on once VT is done.

 

What are your thoughts on that? It seems to make sense to me. The ST thinks that once my boys can read some and see words in print, they will be able to make more sense of speech sounds (for my son with articulation issues) and have a larger sense of vocabulary and how words are used (for my son with syntax problems and expressive language delays).

 

Is it really going to hurt if we do stop other therapies while doing VT? At this point, even though our OT eval. showed that both boys do have visual perceptual delays, the therapy team at the hospital feel VT is the best choice for those problems, for now at least.

 

What do you all think?

[philda62]

Michelle,

I think this is a great idea. My dd went through neurotherapy for 1 1/2 years. She did progress but we did not discover her vision issues until after she completed that intensive therapy.

Her Vision Therapists believes if she had had VT first it would have given her so much more progress in her neurotherapy and we may not have had to do it for so long and so intensively.

I would be interested in hearing about funding.

[LizzyBee]

Michele,

 

If the funding for VT doesn't come through, I know other people here have mentioned doing VT at home with programs they purchased from their developmental optometrists or opthalmologists. With your boys' cases being so severe, home therapy may not be ideal, but it might be an option, perhaps with frequent check ups with your provider.

 

I think giving them a break from other therapies sounds like a good idea.

[Kathy in MD]

What type of OT is your child recieving? If it's primarily for handwriting issues, I'd delay it in a heartbeat. If it's for sensory integration problems and fine motor control, I'd probably try for both OT and VT. Much of dev vision problems are due to fine motor control problems and SPD OT works on fine motor control issues in addition to other problems.

 

Of course, it's always better to do therapies sequentially than to overstress your child or you.

[siloam]

Sometimes kids show the greatest progress when they have had a break. I would just focus on VT for a while. Maybe look at the situation again in 3 months to see if it is time for more.

 

Heather

[MicheleB]

What type of OT is your child recieving? If it's primarily for handwriting issues, I'd delay it in a heartbeat. If it's for sensory integration problems and fine motor control, I'd probably try for both OT and VT. Much of dev vision problems are due to fine motor control problems and SPD OT works on fine motor control issues in addition to other problems.

 

Of course, it's always better to do therapies sequentially than to overstress your child or you.

 

For OT, thus far we've only had the evaluation. I asked for a sensory eval, but for some reason it wasn't scheduled. Since the OT eval showed pretty much was the n.p. said about visual processing problems, I figure VT will take care of some of that. (Maybe...???)

 

But, I asked *again* for a sensory eval, and they seem loathe to do it. I don't know why. It's my 9yo who needs it. I do know there is a fairly new pediatric OT there and he may be over-scheduled right now. Not sure. But I'm a bit frustrated about it. Sometimes, I feel like people are making decisions about what *they* see in my child, for one hour a week or less, rather than what *I* see each and every day. KWIM?

 

I mean, I guess since we've waited 9.5 years, we can a few more months. But I was wondering if SPD would affect visual processing or vice-versa.

[Kathy in MD]

For OT, thus far we've only had the evaluation. I asked for a sensory eval, but for some reason it wasn't scheduled. Since the OT eval showed pretty much was the n.p. said about visual processing problems, I figure VT will take care of some of that. (Maybe...???)

 

But, I asked *again* for a sensory eval, and they seem loathe to do it. I don't know why. It's my 9yo who needs it. I do know there is a fairly new pediatric OT there and he may be over-scheduled right now. Not sure. But I'm a bit frustrated about it. Sometimes, I feel like people are making decisions about what *they* see in my child, for one hour a week or less, rather than what *I* see each and every day. KWIM?

 

I mean, I guess since we've waited 9.5 years, we can a few more months. But I was wondering if SPD would affect visual processing or vice-versa.

 

If the OT is relunctant to do a sensory evaluation, it may be because the OT doesn't feel qualified to do a good evaluation or good sensory therapy. OT's usually specialize in very specific areas; some in hands only, some in teaching the "handicap" how to drive, some in post brain injury recovery, some in SPD, etc.

 

There are some who believe that SPD often is the underlying cause of visual and speech problems. I know that my ds had inner ear and fine motor control problems related to his SPD. He also struggled with almost all areas of speech and one of his vision problems involved not being able to control the tiny eye muscles to follow a line of type across a page. My ds's original OT actually included "primative" VT as part of her SPD therapy (She'd been in the filed a LONG time) Laurie's ds's visual problems were also helped by good SPD OT.