NM

[MyLife]

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Edited January 21, 2018 by MyLife

[OneStepAtATime]

Are you asking if you should cut back on reading requirements while he is doing VT?  Or if it will improve his reading?  Or...?

[wapiti]

Also ask on the Learning Challenges forum where VT is often discussed.

[MyLife]

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Edited January 21, 2018 by MyLife

[CadenceSophia]

I had VT in highschool. I found it made reading easier (along with prism lenses), but the VT was really painful. I hated doing it. It didn't last long though because the office was SO SO far away. No impact long term at all  (probably didn't last long enough to be a fair judgement though). 

[OneStepAtATime]

I am curious if parents have noticed significant improvement in their child's reading ability after vision therapy. I can re-post in the learning challenges.

It depends on if there are comorbid issues and what those might be.  And what the VT is specifically addressing.  If a child also struggles with phonemic awareness then VT may help with reading but they will probably still need a program that teaches phonemic awareness.  In other words, a child may ALSO have a reading issue such as dyslexia, along with developmental vision issues.  VT does not "fix" dyslexia.  It helps with vision.  Vision issues can cause similar looking issues to what is seen in dyslexics but frequently they can be comorbid (but not always).

 

FWIW, some eye doctors will claim that VT will clear up all reading issues.  This is not true.  Some people will also claim that colored overlays will clear everything up, too.  That is also not true unless a child has Irlen Syndrome.  You need separate evaluations to determine if reading issues are caused by vision issues or dyslexia or both.

 

Does that help at all?

 

What were the issues you were seeing that led you to have your child evaluated for VT?

[Julie of KY]

Yes, VT had significant improvement in two of my kids reading ability.

[MyLife]

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Edited January 21, 2018 by MyLife

[eternallytired]

We did vision testing and discovered YDS needed therapy...but then the doc gave us a price tag more than $2000 above the original quote, which we then couldn't afford.  BUT a friend of mine happened to have a whole binder of vision therapy exercises that were given to her when she was an OT at a special needs school in a poor part of South Africa.

 

I started doing the exercises with YDS in September.  At the time, he was only able to sound out individual words--which he had been able to do for over a year--but was not able to recognize words he had seen before and was frustrated by trying to read more than one word (or trying to read anything at all that was in a book, rather than built with large magnets).  About six weeks in, exactly as my OT friend predicted, he suddenly took off.  He began asking to read parts of his bedtime stories; now he is reading Biscuit books independently.  This morning I found him reading Green Eggs and Ham in his room when I came to get him up!

 

I just blogged about our activities (and the history) not long ago.  Link in my sig, if you're curious.

[OneStepAtATime]

Well, my son was screened a couple of years ago and "failed" the eye teaming portion of the screen. At that time (age 5) he was also having a very hard time making the jump to blending CVC words; so I followed up with an eye doctor, and the doctor determined that there were some mild issues that could be addressed. Shortly after that evaluation, my son made some wonderful progress in his reading, so DH and I decided to hold off on therapy. DS was re-evaulated today by another doctor. DS has had some difficulty making the jump to reading longer words, for example a root word with a suffix. The new doctor has our old evaluation but also determined that DS has some mild issues with eye teaming and visual planning. I am really just wondering if VT will *fix* his issues with reading OR does he just need more time and practice (as in, maturity) OR should we pursue a dyslexia screening.

 

He is 7. He does skip over small words when reading aloud. Many times he will read the root word but completely leave off the suffix. He also will look at a word and read it, but it will be slightly off. For example, today, he repeatedly read the word "went" as "wanted." I'm not sure if he is guessing, inattentive, or if there is a reading issue.

It could be either, or both.  Hard to know without evaluations for both but even then, unfortunately, one issue can cause it to be difficult to accurately diagnose the other issue.

 

 FWIW, both of my kids have developmental vision issues and both were diagnosed with dyslexia.  Of the two, DD absolutely is dyslexic.  She struggled horrifically with learning to read for years and years.   She really struggled to develop any phonemic awareness and did not see words as made up of individual sounds that work together to create other sounds.  She skipped little words, created words based on just the first word, etc. and could not sound out nonsense words.  

 

Once we finally got an accurate assessment and started her with a program designed for dyslexics (Barton Reading and Spelling) her reading ability improved dramatically (barely decoding Clifford in 5th grade to reading Divergent in 7th) but her eyes fatigue rapidly so within 20 minutes mistakes start increasing quite a bit and she gets extremely fatigued.  The developmental vision issues were not really preventing her from learning to read.  The dyslexia was.  Remediating the issues with dyslexia made a WORLD of difference.  She now reads at grade level or above.  But the developmental vision issues are affecting her stamina significantly.  VT will hopefully help with that but it is 4 hours away so we are having to wait a bit to start.  

 

DS is a bit different story.  He has far more developmental vision issues along with an auditory processing glitch and dysgraphia.  He may very well be truly dyslexic as well but it is the other issues that seem to be causing the greatest struggles, not a significant lack of phonemic awareness.

 

While you figure out what path to follow and whether additional assessments are necessary, you might give your son the Barton Reading and Spelling student screening (l linked the site below).  It is not a test for dyslexia or of reading knowledge but it will test out certain basic skill sets that need to be in place for a reading program to really be successful, regardless of age (as long as the child is at least 5 years old because of certain developmental milestones that need to be met).  If he passes the screening then even if you decide to get a dyslexia screening and find out he is also dyslexic he can start right away with a reading program designed to help a dyslexic read/write/spell.  If he doesn't pass the screening, he may need targeted help using something like LiPS or Foundations in Sound first.  He may be missing certain critical components that most people develop without a lot of explicit instruction.  Either of those programs could help him develop those skills.

 

https://bartonreading.com/

[ChocolateCake]

My son completed 9 months of vision therapy for convergence insufficiency (eye teeming issues) last year at age 8. He would skip words and entire lines. He would also replace words while reading. He now skips words and replaces at times but rarely skips lines. His handwriting is slightly better. I recommend bargaining to get your price down. I ended up taking him twice a month for 30 min. sessions instead of 60 min. every week. I still buddy read with him during his reading time so I can monitor his reading and comprehension.

[MerryAtHope]

For my student, it was a combination of things. Vision Therapy definitely made a difference (and by "vision therapy" I also mean the inclusion of primitive reflex integration activities, which a good VT office will do). I started All About Spelling the previous year (6th grade), which is O-G based (and I continued to have him read-aloud and showed him how to apply strategies to reading. I would have used All About Reading, but it wasn't out yet back then.) His reading jumped 2 grade levels that first year on AAS. The next year, when we added in vision therapy (7th grade), it jumped another 2 grade levels--so between both of these, he made up 2 grade levels in reading (presumably he should have gone up 1 year each year). When we started VT, I had him listen to an audio for science. I encouraged him to read along, which he did try but couldn't keep pace. In 8th grade, I again purchased the audio, and after a week he came to me and asked if he could just read his text book--he could now read faster than the audio.

 

Best wishes on your journey. 

[MyLife]

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Edited January 21, 2018 by MyLife

[2_girls_mommy]

We are in the final weeks of a 12 week VT program. I am seeing improvements in handwriting, spelling, and I believe in reading. Time will tell a bit more on the reading. Mine is older and could read, but was very slow in tackling a novel of any size. In small portions she can easily read. But give a novel and a few chapters to read a day, and it just wasn't happening yet and should be.

 

Ours does some special education therapy with the VT, and they are teaching some daily things to work on with her, and their methods are helping immensely along with my personal reading on alternative education methods that apply to her as far as the spelling and some other things. The weekly screenings and therapy appointments help because they give me things to work on specialized just for her, and I do see a difference.

 

I haven't assigned a full novel yet since we started. But her daily reading and comprehension and output on those readings has improved a ton.

[ElizabethB]

I have known several children who were able to improve after therapy, friends whose children used either my online lessons or the things on my multisyllable page with their children afterwards. It is good to do a quick review of phonics and syllable division and multisyllable phonics once you are seeing better.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/WellTaughtPhonicsStudent.html

[MyLife]

I will read through it when the kids are in bed. Thank you!

[MyLife]

And thank you everyone for your responses. I truly appreciate the insight. It has been very helpful. 

[PeterPan]

I had VT in highschool. I found it made reading easier (along with prism lenses), but the VT was really painful. I hated doing it. It didn't last long though because the office was SO SO far away. No impact long term at all  (probably didn't last long enough to be a fair judgement though). 

 

Fwiw this usually means there are OT issues like retained reflexes

[PeterPan]

FWIW, I just gave him the Barton screen and he did not pass Task B, clapping syllables

 

This is phonological processing, not a vision problem. He definitely needs to be eval'd for dyslexia.

[CadenceSophia]

Fwiw this usually means there are OT issues like retained reflexes

I have no idea what this means :) The optometrist I saw was the "talk down to people"sort who didn't use any technical words, but he said one eye saw further, and one eye saw closer to a much greater extent than normal. I had a very hard time with eye fatigue in high school. I can't read more than 4-5 hours in a stretch or 1-2 hours/day under fluorescent lights. In college I had more control of light source and schedule so it wasn't quite as bad. As an adult.. Gosh I'd love to read for 4-5 hours in a stretch lol.

[stutterfish]

I don't know how it differs in the US, but in the UK, VT isn't well-known or easily-available and is expensive. My son was assessed and received VT age 12 and it was life-changing for him. He went from 1st centile reading speed, to the lower range of normal for his age. He stopped reversing letters, he was able to write in cursive and his tracking and reading stamina improved massively. Obviously, VT won't cure sequencing or processing issues, but, for my son, it just made accessing information a lot easier. Simple things, like being able to read a textbook page or extract information from a website, were suddenly so much easier. At a younger age, I don't know if the treatment would have been beneficial or if any improvements would have been noticeable, but at age 12 the change was almost miraculous. His sister, who has less obvious issues, is also on the waiting list to be assessed.

Edited December 16, 2016 by stutterfish

[laundrycrisis]

Yes, our son was not able to build any visual fluency for reading until he completed VT. He had several visual motor issues, convergence problems, and several visual processing issues that made reading almost impossible - visual memory, sequential memory, visual form constancy and visual closure. The whole combination had to be addressed. It was life changing.

[PeterPan]

I have no idea what this means :) The optometrist I saw was the "talk down to people"sort who didn't use any technical words, but he said one eye saw further, and one eye saw closer to a much greater extent than normal. I had a very hard time with eye fatigue in high school. I can't read more than 4-5 hours in a stretch or 1-2 hours/day under fluorescent lights. In college I had more control of light source and schedule so it wasn't quite as bad. As an adult.. Gosh I'd love to read for 4-5 hours in a stretch lol.

 

I'm not an optometrist either, but it sounds like you'd benefit from a fresh eval by someone who is more willing to talk with you and explain things. Like I know know if he was saying you have amblyopia or what. But I was taking that one step further and saying when the VT is awful and not sticking, it's your big clue that you have other things going on as well. Google retained primitive reflexes. Sometimes an OT will be really good at them. We just found a PT who is stellar with them. I'm kind of liking the PT for this, but again it is an unusual thing to find someone trained in it. But I'm just saying it's something to look for. You can google and find videos to do the testing yourself, but there are a lot of nuances to it.