Tell me about vision therapy

[Lori C- Texas]

Okay, we just got back from having ds's eyes tested for the second time this week. He has to have vision therapy. We have NO money to pay for this. No insurance. The doctor told us today that ds will need vision therapy 2 times a week for 1 hour each time. Plus, wear a patch for 3 hours each day AND do therapy at home with us through out the week. The doctor is also about 30 mins away.

 

I was wondering if any of you do any kind of vision therapy at home. I really want to take my ds to the therapist but have no way to pay for it. These sessions are going to be costing us over $600 a month!:001_huh:

 

Thanks,

Lori

[Ria]

I have no answers to the vision therapy question, but I do have a question for you. Who did you see, an optometrist or an opthamologist? If you did not see an opthamologist, I'd make an appointment tomorrow. An optometrist is not an MD; an opthamologist is an MD. If there's any chance at all that your child might have amblyopia, you need to see the MD. Amblyopia is a medical condition, it's serious enough that the child can lose the use of the eye unless treated properly. Ask me how I know...I was that child.

 

I don't mean to worry you, but my eye condition was not treated properly when I was a child. With amblyopia, you have a certain time period to help the brain begin using the eye. If you miss that window, the brain will never recover the use of the eye.

 

Before you do vision therapy, I'd make sure that what you are treating is NOT amblyopia.

 

If you have seen an opthamologist, good. Then by all means, good luck with the vision therapy.

 

Ria

Edited January 21, 2009 by Ria

[EKS]

Both of my boys went through vision therapy. As far as I could tell, most of the work occurred at home. The therapist did some things with him in the office that were different but most of each session was spent going over his "homework" and getting new homework.

 

Could you tell the doctor that you are needing a more inexpensive alternative? There are computer programs that are quite good. They cost much less than office visits for VT. We had to get the software we used from the doctor and then the therapist monitored the progress. The other idea would be perhaps you could go less often? We only went once/week. That would cut the cost in half. Or maybe more frequently up front so the therapist can see what your son needs and then cut down?

 

There is a book that some people recommend that is about doing vision therapy type stuff at home. It's called Developing Your Child for Success by Kenneth Lane. It seems to be out of print, but he has another one out called Developing Ocular Motor and Visual Perceptual Skills that might be good (I have no idea as I haven't seen either one). Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Developing-Ocular-Visual-Perceptual-Skills/dp/1556425953/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232504111&sr=1-1

 

You might want to post this on the Special Needs board too.

[Lori C- Texas]

Dr Lane is who we saw today!!! That is so awesome. That makes me feel so much better that there are people out there that use his book! We saw our local optometrist yesterday and saw Dr. Lane today. I was very impressed with him but the cost is going to kill us. I will be looking into his book. Now that we are home and have had time to think over all the info that was thrown at us today stuff is starting to make more since. Dh and I were so overwhelmed at the office today. My son has a lazy eye. He had a name for it but I could not even begin to spell it!

[Frankie]

I'm with Ria on this one, go visit an ophthalmologist.

 

There is a lot of controversy about vision therapy. It is not supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

 

From their website:

No scientific evidence exists for the efficacy of eye exercises ("vision therapy") or the use of special tinted lenses in the remediation of these complex pediatric developmental and neurologic conditions.

 

http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;102/5/1217

 

From The Foundation of the American Academy of Ophthalmology:

To date, there appears to be no consistent scientific evidence that supports behavioral vision therapy, orthoptic vision therapy, or colored overlays and lenses as effective treatments for learning disabilities. It seems intuitive that oculomotor abilities and visual perception play a role in learning skills such as reading and writing. However, several studies in the literature demonstrate that eye movements and visual perception are not critical factors in the reading impairment found in dyslexia, but that brain processing of language plays a greater role. Furthermore, the vast majority of individuals with known ocular motility and eye movement defects appear to read and comprehend normally. Many individuals born with severely misaligned eyes excel in reading and academics.

 

http://www.aao.org/eyecare/treatment/alternative-therapies/vision-therapies-learning-disabilities.cfm

 

 

We took my son to two different clinics, and the same tests were administered. The results were amazing--complete opposite. How could that be? (IMHO, it couldn't.) We handed the second doctor the results of the first test after she gave us her conclusions. She was shocked. We were shocked.

 

We were told our DS would never read--even though he was already reading. We were told that he would have life-long learning problems if we didn't get this therapy by the behavioral optometrists. He is a unique learner, but he's doing fine. (Thanks to homeschooling!)

 

We chose not to spend $6,000 that was quoted to us by both behavioral optometrists.

 

That said, there are people that swear by vision therapy. I know many personally. If you look to the special needs board, you'll see many who have had great success.

 

This was a huge issue for us. We felt extremely guilty--are we going to damage our child? We felt a little better when we remembered the first doctor we visited was high-pressure, wanting us to set up a payment plan before we had even processed the information or had a chance to talk on our own.

 

In the end, we followed our gut. It was scary, but for us, it was the right decision.

 

Okay, gang, don't blast me as I know this may not be a popular opinion on the subject.

[katalaska]

I, too, would look into inexpensive home vision therapy programs (get your pediatric ophthalmologist to help you here).

 

My middle child, a dd, had vision therapy prescribed by our pediatric ophthalmologist. It cost us $59 or so and was time spent daily at home working on the computer. The program was the Computerized Home Vergence Exercise Program from this company: http://www.computerorthoptics.com/

 

My ds has amblyopia (lazy eye) and anisometropia (uneven farsightedness) so he tends to use his better eye (the right) while his brain ignores the input from the left eye. We are treating this in two ways. First, he has prescription eyeglasses. Second, his doctor prescribed atropine eyedrops to be put in his good eye (one drop three days a week...and as of today two days a week) to "blur" the vision in the good eye to force the weaker one to work and be acknowledged by his brain.

 

I just noticed on the Computer Orthoptics page that they have a new computer program for ambylopia. I guess I'll be calling the doctor's office tomorrow to see if he knows about it (he probably does--he's a top-notch doctor in my opinion) and see if it might also help my ds.

 

Anyway, just my two cents on the subject.

[Aubrey]

Lori, my neighbor's son was just diagnosed w/ something similar. They're seminary, too, so they've got no $ & ins doesn't cover the therapy. She's doing it at home. I don't know much about it, but I imagine she'd be happy to talk to you, if that would help. PM me if you want.

[Alexandra]

my child really hated it. He would turn white as a sheet and feel nauseated throughout the VT. In the end I discontinued it. I felt guilty as well. My dad a MD gave me a big lecture about going to an optometrist. Now, at almost 14 my son's reading is much better - at grade level acutally. I credit Barton Reading with his improvement.

[Ottakee]

I would see a pediatric opthamologist. IF they suggest treatment, your health insurance is more likely to cover it as it would be for a MEDICAL condition--eye muscle problems, etc.

 

We did vision therapy for a while with my now 13dd. While they said they saw improvements, we saw none in her reading ability, way she looked at things, etc.

 

The one thing we did do that really helped was use a CURSOR for reading. This is a notched 3x5 card that is moved long left to right with the notch in the upper left corner. It really helps the child focus on tracking left to right as they read and keep their eyes from jumping around. It isn't going to cure a muscle problem (which is why I suggest the md above) but will help with tracking. It costs about 5 cents---basically the cost of a 3x5 card and the use of a scissors.

 

My dd has gone from not being able to track on a single line of large print texts on a page to reading a full page of regular size text.

 

http://www.piperbooks.co.uk/documents/Notched_Card_Technique_000.pdf Here is a link with more information.

[Jackie in AR]

Lori,

 

My dd has had great success with the eye therapy prescribed by our developmental optometrist. I'm short on time this morning, but I'll send you a detailed PM later today.

 

Jackie

[Amy in MI]

My dd had vision therapy for about a year. It cost about $2500, but it was money well spent. Before vt she couldn't ride a bike, hit a baseball, or anything that required visual coordination. She would not look you in the eye when talking to you, so she was considered odd by her peers. VT made a huge change in her life, she has developed the coordination needed to do things she couldn't do before, she can talk to you while looking at you. A lot of the work with VT is done at home, but our vision therapist was wonderful. I did a lot of research before spending this money and vt is controversial with some MDs, but so are many other natural or holistic therapies.

 

Amy

[Margaret in GA]

My ds (now 12) did VT when he was in 3rd grade. It totally solved his reading problems. I couldn't understand why he could read *words* perfectly, but not read a book. He was a phonetic genius, but when it came to many words on a page he just broke down and couldn't do it. Until VT I didn't know that H couldn't wink. I have to admit that we were VT drop outs, because he got all he needed after about 8 mos. We were supposed to continue on for a year or more. It *was* expensive and I might try a home alternative if I were you, but do not believe that it's voodoo, because it's not.

 

Margaret

[Lisa in CO]

My dd was diagnosed at age 3 with amblyopia (lazy eye). She did not have strabismus (where the eye drifts in or out). We patched for 8 months. Her vision in her weaker eye improved from 20/200+ to 20/40. Not perfect, but much better! Dd could see, but she still wasn't using her eyes together, so the developmental optometrist gave us some VT exercises to do at home to improve her binocular vision. It took about 2 months before she was able to use both eyes at the same time and see in 3-D.

 

When dd was 5 we moved and found a new developmental optometrist. She suggested vision therapy to help dd with reading. We were given the options of in-office therapy (pricey!) or home therapy. We chose home therapy. We met with the vision therapist for 45 mins. to get some activities to do at home, and we returned after 6 weeks to get some more activities. After 3 months, our optometrist said dd's eyes weren't "doing funky things" anymore, and dd's reading had improved dramatically.

 

Dd says VT helped her. I know it probably doesn't work for everyone, but it was very beneficial for us.

 

We were referred to a pediatric opthalmologist when dd was first diagnosed, but ended up going with a developmental optometrist instead. The opthalmologist wanted to use atropine drops to blur dd's vision in her good eye to make the other eye work harder. I didn't think that was necessary as dd was compliant with the patching. (And as a pharmacist, I don't like using drugs when they are not needed.) But I do think we would have had the same outcome if we had gone with the ped. opthalmologist.

 

We have never used one of the home VT computer programs, so I don't know anything about those.

 

Let your optometrist or opthalmologist know that money is a problem. They may be able to work an alternative for you. I do think VT is worthwhile in most cases.

 

 

Lisa in CO

[Twinmom]

My DD9 completed in-office vision therapy this past summer. She was diagnosed with a visual processing disorder as well as an ocular motor problem. Prior to vision therapy, she had major headaches, nausea and school-related anxiety. She couldn't spell at all. She could barely read at a 1st grade level, and she'd have fits while she was doing it! She truly thought she was stupid.

 

Vision therapy was tough on her and was expensive. However, it has made a world of difference for her! I'm not teaching any differently than I was before. Despite that, today she took a nationally normed quick reading test and she scored at a 5.6 grade level (she's a 3rd grader!). She is reading chapter books like The Wind in the Willows, The Swiss Family Robinson and The Boxcar Children. Last year, she'd have been lucky to make it through two pages of a Frog and Toad book without a major meltdown!

 

I completely understand about the financial aspect of VT...it's ridiculous. We are still paying off the credit cards on this...I believe it was around $6,000, plus gas to travel 3 hrs round trip 3x a week for the summer. It was money well spent. However, there are other options. Keep looking at dev. opts. until you find one willing to help you set up an in-home, supervised program with minimal office visits. It's a bugger to do at home if your child is not super motivated, but it CAN be done. Get Dr. Lane's book and work on some of those exercises. If your child is resistant, wait a year and then give it a go. Many kids (like my DD) catch up fast after VT if visual problems were the only issue.

 

Feel free to PM me if I can help further.