Good News! Good News! (Re: VT)

[MicheleB]

Today I spoke with a technician for an optometrist who does VT. This is the optometrist our neuropsych recommended to us in the first place, but since our friend/director of therapy had taken charge of finding funding sources for our VT, he chose another therapist.

 

Anyway... the tech. I spoke with today said that the costs for their program are $187 for each boy's initial evaluation; THEN if the optometrist felt it necessary, a purchase of a internet-accessible program ($130), possibly two programs but probably not. Otherwise, the 'work' part of it is done at home and through an occupational therapist. Which means we would do it locally, our insurance would cover the OT visits, and our costs would be around $600 for the entire thing! (Compared with the $3200 we were quoted by the other VT.)

 

Now a question: Does this sound like a valid VT program? I know many of you do a lot at home anyway, due to finances, but the VT oversees the program. It sounds like in this case, our OT would oversee the program. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the idea of not traveling each week. Plus the lower cost of this program is what makes it do-able for us.

 

What do you all think?

[LizzyBee]

FWIW, I read somewhere that OT's pioneered VT. So some of the OT's that have been in the field for a long time would probably have experience with doing/overseeing VT. At my 7 yo's OT evaluation last week, the therapist said that she would do the screening tests for visual issues and refer us to an optometrist for futher evaluation if she thought it was warranted.

 

Hopefully someone who knows more about it will chime in.

 

I just noticed you are from PA. I grew up in western MD 2 hours from Pittsburgh. If you are in southwestern PA, maybe we could hook up sometime when I come up to visit my mom. We usually get up there once or twice a year.

[Rod Everson]

FWIW, I read somewhere that OT's pioneered VT. So some of the OT's that have been in the field for a long time would probably have experience with doing/overseeing VT. At my 7 yo's OT evaluation last week, the therapist said that she would do the screening tests for visual issues and refer us to an optometrist for further evaluation if she thought it was warranted.

 

Hopefully someone who knows more about it will chime in.

 

 

 

First, OT's are not certified to work with lenses and prisms so VT, as we've been describing it, must be overseen by a licensed optometrist or ophthalmologist. At least that's my understanding of the issue.

 

Second, developmental optometrists are the experts in the field, are trained to do the proper diagnoses of the various vision issues and run the vision therapy centers, so why one wouldn't go to them is beyond me, at least to obtain a diagnosis.

 

OT's will do various forms of testing that cover vision issues, but I highly doubt that they are capable (nor do they have the required equipment) to do the exams routinely done by a developmental optometrist.

 

Everyone is looking for the cheapest route around VT, it seems. I understand that, but in the long run a child who has had his vision needs addressed effectively is going to save you far more time, effort, agony and yes, even money, than one who has not.

 

VT is cheaper than professionally administered OT, PT, etc., or is at least competitively priced. The only reason people consider it so expensive is that schools generally don't provide it (as they often do in the case of OT and speech therapy, for instance) and insurance usually doesn't cover it (a decision that, in my opinion, costs society literally billions of dollars in lost productivity and wasted or misdirected resources.)

 

Knowing what I now know of VT and having seen the results I've seen, if my child needed it, something else would have to give in the family budget, or I would find a way to temporarily add to my income, or both. It's that important to the life of the child.

 

For instance, I'm working with a child now who is sharp as a tack, gets everything I teach (phonics primarily) and is making obvious, rapid progress over just a few weeks thus far. She has also nearly finished VT. What must it have been like for a child like her to struggle through the first few years of school, knowing she was smart, but failing to learn to read like her peers? I could tell story after story about kids like this all year long, but I don't because of privacy concerns and because everyone would justifiably consider it just anecdotal evidence, which it obviously would be.

 

Anyway, that's how I see it.

 

Rod Everson

OnTrack Reading

[LizzyBee]

Second, developmental optometrists are the experts in the field, are trained to do the proper diagnoses of the various vision issues and run the vision therapy centers, so why one wouldn't go to them is beyond me, at least to obtain a diagnosis.

 

Fyi, I wasn't trying to get a diagnosis from an OT. My dd was being evaluated for a couple of other things, and we discussed briefly visual processing issues. And she said if she noticed anything amiss, she'd refer us to a dev opt, so it's not as though she was trying to usurp another professional's expertise.

[MicheleB]

Well, as much as it bursts my bubble, I do thank you for posting that info, Rod.

 

I have a call in right now to the VT we're considering to get accurate info about their program.

 

What about these computer-based home programs that I was told my boys would possibly use if I go with this VT? With the oversight of the optometrist?

 

Wow, am I more confused than ever. :confused:

 

I'll come back later and report about the info I receive from this VT and how it all works. Then you all can give me your critique. :)

[MicheleB]

I just noticed you are from PA. I grew up in western MD 2 hours from Pittsburgh. If you are in southwestern PA, maybe we could hook up sometime when I come up to visit my mom. We usually get up there once or twice a year.

 

Well, my father grew up in the Pittsburgh area, but currently dh and I live in northeastern PA. Exact opposite direction! Figures, doesn't it? :glare: That would have been fun to meet up sometime! :001_smile:

[MicheleB]

I talked with the technician today. She said it just depends on the problem as to the therapy. Some children they have work through an OT for their therapy. Some children, those who have convergence problems, work in their office instead of through the OT.

 

I don't think I'm going to have many more specifics until the optometrist does the evaluation.

 

Now I will say she does work with the neuro-developmental team at a major children's hospital in our state. Does that sound promising?

[LizzyBee]

Now I will say she does work with the neuro-developmental team at a major children's hospital in our state. Does that sound promising?

 

That sounds great! Let us know how it turns out.

[MicheleB]

That sounds great! Let us know how it turns out.

 

I'm a nervous wreck about all this. I did make appts. today for initial evaluations. They're quite costly but the appts. in office are $60 (IF they need to go into the office), and they are only once a month. I know, that's a LOT less than most other people's VT.

 

I guess I just think that the neuropsychologist highly recommended her and hopefully that was for a good reason. I don't know. It may very well turn out to be one of those 'live-and-learn' type things and we may end up doing the other VT eventually anyway. But, for now, this is what we can do.

 

I will definitely let you know how it turns out! We don't go until January so it will be a little while. Meanwhile, I am going to try working on Dianne Craft's exercises at home.

[Laurie4b]

OT's do address visual issues, and in our experience, they did it well. One thing that OT's bring to the table is a full range of impacting the neurological system. The vestibular system, for instance, has a strong impact on the visual system and OT's treat vestibular issues, sensory processing dysfunction, etc. which all tend to be related. The vestibular system, however, is to my understanding, at the bottom of the pyramid.

 

My son's experience was that during his first round of OT (age 7-8 or so), he went from severe tracking problems (as dx'd by the VT, our optometrist, and the OT) to "almost normal" tracking as dx'd by our optometrist and later by the same VT, who found pretty mild-moderate issues at present rather than the severe issues that she dx'd on the first testing. During the first round of OT, our son's scores on the VMI made a huge jump: 26 standard points. So our OT did strongly impact his eye tracking, focusing, etc. without working with lenses, etc.

 

Right now, I'm trying to decide whether to continue the financial bleeding of VT or to hang on and see if it pans out after a full course of treatment. We've seen zero results after 4 months. We are seeing a practioner with an excellent reputation statewide. We do the exercises at home, etc but with the exception of his doing somewhat better in video games according to his brothers, we are seeing no impact in sports, reversals, etc. His reading is at grade level, due to standard dyslexia intervention with Wilson and REWARDS, but he still skips words, lines, etc.

 

Hopefully, we will see some progress soon, but OT's can certainly make a demonstrable impact on vision therapy issues.

[Laurie4b]

Yes, working with the np team at a major children's hospital sounds very promising!

[Rod Everson]

OT's do address visual issues, and in our experience, they did it well. One thing that OT's bring to the table is a full range of impacting the neurological system. The vestibular system, for instance, has a strong impact on the visual system and OT's treat vestibular issues, sensory processing dysfunction, etc. which all tend to be related.

 

OT's can certainly make a demonstrable impact on vision therapy issues.

 

Hi Laurie,

 

I agree with what you're saying here. The point I was trying to make is that VT normally involves work with lenses and prisms and that only certain professions are licensed to oversee such work. I also tried to make the point that while VT is expensive, it's no more so than other similar professionally administered therapies, such as OT, PT and speech therapy. Unfortunately, people often end up paying for VT out of their own pockets compared to other therapies.

 

I'm not trying to take anything away from OT's. I've found that OT's and developmental optometrists have a lot of respect for one another, at least in our area. VT's see a lot of patients clearly in need of OT work and vice versa. If I had a young child with vision issues accompanied by a lot of other motor issues and other delays I would probably start with an OT. After that, if vision remained a problem (as it does for many older kids even after other issues have diminished) I would check the need for vision therapy. Along the way, I would have my child's normal vision care addressed by a developmental optometrist so that I would be fully informed of the status of his visual development over time. (Note that I'm only advocating this in the case of a child with various developmental issues. A regular OD would be fine most of the time, but they will usually not do full testing of developmental vision issues.)

 

Rod

[Laurie4b]

Then yes, we agree. It is true that around here, OT's are pretty much the only profession that doesn't totally disregard VT, and they do make referrals for it.