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and I was disapointed. She did a regular eye exam and some other stuff, but wants me to bring him back on March 5th for the vision eval. I thought that's what I was doing today, so I was a bit upset.

 

I did like her alot though and she seemed very thorough. Plus she spoke to my son and explained things to him, which I liked. One thing she said he might be having issues with is convergence ( I think thats what she said?) but that she wont know much until the actual eval.

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There are two parts to a developmental vision eval -- the regular eye exam, and then the developmental tests. Professional ethics require that the doctor not rely on previous test results, but conduct his/her own regular eye exam. The office should have explained to you that you would have to come in twice, though.

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I think it was a miscommunication between the recieptionist and Dr. The recieptionist told me the appointment would be 3 hours and the Dr said that all together it's 3 hous, bus she feesl that 3 hours is too long for most kids so she does it in seperate days. I completely understand, I am just anxious to find an answer, kwim?

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I think it was a miscommunication between the recieptionist and Dr. The recieptionist told me the appointment would be 3 hours and the Dr said that all together it's 3 hous, bus she feesl that 3 hours is too long for most kids so she does it in seperate days. I completely understand, I am just anxious to find an answer, kwim?

 

The doctor is right. The children really need to be able to pay attention in order for the test results to be valid, and most children will tire of testing long before three hours is up!

 

We had a two-hour appointment for the developmental portion of the testing, but got sent home after one hour and had to come back a different day for the second hour. This was because my dd's eyes became so fatigued from the first round of testing, they stopped working. (Her eyes refused to change focus anymore, so her vision was blurred.) The DO knew from experience that my dd would fail all subsequent tests if she tried to continue that day, so she had us come back when dd's eyes were rested.

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and I was disapointed. She did a regular eye exam and some other stuff, but wants me to bring him back on March 5th for the vision eval. I thought that's what I was doing today, so I was a bit upset.

 

I did like her alot though and she seemed very thorough. Plus she spoke to my son and explained things to him, which I liked. One thing she said he might be having issues with is convergence ( I think thats what she said?) but that she wont know much until the actual eval.

 

Just posting to encourage you, Jean.

 

Both of my dds had a regular exam on one day and then the vision evaluation on another day. And for each of them, their vision evaluation took only about an hour and they were able to do it all in one sitting. I think you're going to a dev. optometrist different from the one we went to though, so things may not be the same for your ds.

 

One of my girls had convergence insufficiency, and the vision therapy has eliminated it. That is definitely fixable. :)

 

The waiting period you are going through now was one of the most stressful times of my life in that I knew something was wrong but I didn't know exactly what the problems were and I didn't know if they could all be fixed. (This was with my older dd; with the younger one I was clueless that she had any vision problems even after going through it all with my older dd. :o I just took her in on kind of a whim on a day when my older dd was going to be there anyway. I was stunned when I learned that she had some of the same issues as my older dd.)

 

Anyway, I'm rambling, but I want you to know I am thinking about you and your ds and I will be glad to hear what you learn from his vision evaluation.

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Hi Jean,

 

My reading practice is actually in the Family Vision Center building in La Crosse, Wisconsin, so I get pretty familiar with their protocol and the reasons they schedule the way they do.

 

I believe they will accept another optometrist's regular exam for the eye acuity and eye health portion, provided the eyes were dilated (necessary to determine the health of the eye.) However, they won't do the developmental vision exam after the eyes have been dilated. This is the main reason they aren't done the same day. Because the developmental ODs have the tools (vision therapy, mainly) to fix convergence issues, etc., they do a bit more testing in the initial exam before referring you for the developmental vision examination. Therefore, it's likely that a convergence issue cropped up, or it wouldn't have been mentioned.

 

As for two more visits to get the developmental done, most kids get through in one session here, I believe, so that's likely to happen with you also. It is long though. I evaluate each child's reading level when they come for testing, but I think the biggest thing I do is reassure parents that they are on the right track, based on my experience. A good vision therapy department will have a lot of success stories and parents willing to share them as well. If you have two different VT departments to choose from, I would ask to speak to some parents before deciding, I think. That's not an issue here, as the other VT depts are all over 100 miles away, but they are very good and are getting excellent results generally. There's a lot of variation across VT departments though, as with any operation providing therapy.

 

Rod Everson

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Thank you, Rod and Jackie. It does make sense to do the eval and appointment in two days, I just didn't expect it so was disapointed, but I undrstand. I am glad things worked out like they did and look forward to his eval. I believe we have another VT in my state, but it would be 1-2 hours, I think. Jackie, it IS hard to be patient! :)

 

Thanks for the encouragment everyone.

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