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vision therapy...does this sound right?


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I took DS10 to the only eye doctor who does developmental vision exams.  She said he was below age level in ocular motility and random attack skills when reading and prescribed home exercises for him.  I don't think she does any vision therapy in her office, which is why I waited two years to take him to see her, but there's no one else less than 90 miles away.  The two things she sent home for him to do are called "K-D tracking" (random numbers with lines of different length in between them on one page, and two pages of random numbers at different distances), and two pages of random letters in sentences.  She didn't send instructions for either, just a note saying to call her office for instructions.  I'm supposed to do these with him 4x/week for 20 minutes.  Does this sound like what a vision therapist would normally recommend?  Is it likely to be helpful for his tracking issues (I suppose this is what she's referring to as random attack skills...myself and two different OTs have all noticed that he has tracking issues).

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For just tracking skills and not other vision issues I was given a sheet of activities I could work on but it did have directions and it was mostly stuff that was not only paper. I did similar activities to what you were given for my child who had other issues besides just tracking but it was in a certain sequence in which that part was not first and only a small part of what was done and they showed me how it was done first. 

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I would drive the 90 miles. If the office will work with you, you could go just once a month and be given homework. 

The issue is the woman, in not knowing what she's doing, is also not testing other things that need to be tested that affect vision development, like retained reflexes. So no, it's not addressing the root problems, doesn't tell you what else is going on, and wastes valuable intervention time and energy.

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His OT tested retained reflexes so I don't know why that would necessarily have to be part of vision therapy.  And I don't know if there is actually vision therapy available 90 mi away...that would just be the closest potential location.  If there's not the next option is 3 hrs away.  

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On 1/3/2019 at 4:13 PM, caedmyn said:

I took DS10 to the only eye doctor who does developmental vision exams.  She said he was below age level in ocular motility and random attack skills when reading and prescribed home exercises for him.  I don't think she does any vision therapy in her office, which is why I waited two years to take him to see her, but there's no one else less than 90 miles away.  The two things she sent home for him to do are called "K-D tracking" (random numbers with lines of different length in between them on one page, and two pages of random numbers at different distances), and two pages of random letters in sentences.  She didn't send instructions for either, just a note saying to call her office for instructions.  I'm supposed to do these with him 4x/week for 20 minutes.  Does this sound like what a vision therapist would normally recommend?  Is it likely to be helpful for his tracking issues (I suppose this is what she's referring to as random attack skills...myself and two different OTs have all noticed that he has tracking issues).

Are these the only problems she found with his eyes? Did she do a full developmental exam otherwise?

If you are pretty sure there aren't retained reflexes and no convergence issues, then I would try the paper exercises and just see. Some kids have more trouble with this kind of stuff but have decent convergence and such. 

Directions...if these pages are what I am thinking they are...we had shapes and even lines instead, so I am not sure...
I would put the pages in a clear document sleeve and use dry erase markers on them. Basically, I think you are supposed to have him do these from Left to Right as quickly as he can do them and be accurate. You can pick and choose different targets--so, for one paper you might have him circle every D that he sees (or whatever you want him to circle). He can do this a few times to try to beat his best time. The papers are varied so that you can get more mileage out of them. Sometimes after you get good at them, then you can ask them to circle all of one thing only when it follows a certain other letter/number/object. Really, you can customize what you do, but you want to encourage accuracy and good Left to Right eye movements.

I think the 20 minutes sounds like a long time for one sitting. We did stuff like this 5 times per week, but for a shorter period of time and as part of a larger set of exercises. I would not do it for longer than he's able to do the activity well. More when it's not done well is just practicing wrong. 

Have you looked online for eye tracking exercises to see if something like what you've been given comes up? I think this kind of dysfunction is also called saccadic eye movements too. There are lots of things online for that. For K-D tracking, it mostly brings up testing. I hope she's not giving you the test pages to practice from!

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