How do I find someone qualified to do a vision evauation...

[siloam]

for my 8yo who shows signs of dyslexia? I have called around (big town lots of options) and either they say right of they don't do those type of evaluations or say they do and set me up for a 30 mins appointment, which doesn't seem consistent with the time I think these appointments are supposed to take. It sounds, to me, like a regular exam.

 

Help!

 

Heather

 

[JenneinCA]

Could you ask your child's doctor? I would guess they would be able to point you in the correct direction.

[Claire]

Go to this board-certification website and run a search to find board-certified developmental optometrists in your area. If you find more than one, it's a good idea to call or email each one to get a feel for their office, how long an evaluation takes, cost, etc.

 

For a good evaluation, it can be worth traveling if that optometrist is willing to design a primarily home-based program of vision therapy to keep costs down. (One mother who lived in a remote part of Canada flew her son to a very good optometrist she had corresponded with first via email. He provided her with instructions so she could do the therapy at home.) IMO, it's more important to get a good developmental optometrist than to get a convenient one.

 

If money is a big hurdle, I would suggest visiting this home computer therapy website and searching there for optometrists licensed to dispense the software. It is pretty good for some of the most common problems, and cost of pre-testing, the software, and post-testing is usually under $300. Just make sure that the optometrist is willing to dispense the software even if you live within driving distance for in-office therapy. (In-office therapy is the most expensive way to do VT.)

[siloam]

Go to this board-certification website and run a search to find board-certified developmental optometrists in your area. If you find more than one, it's a good idea to call or email each one to get a feel for their office, how long an evaluation takes, cost, etc.

 

For a good evaluation, it can be worth traveling if that optometrist is willing to design a primarily home-based program of vision therapy to keep costs down. (One mother who lived in a remote part of Canada flew her son to a very good optometrist she had corresponded with first via email. He provided her with instructions so she could do the therapy at home.) IMO, it's more important to get a good developmental optometrist than to get a convenient one.

 

If money is a big hurdle, I would suggest visiting this home computer therapy website and searching there for optometrists licensed to dispense the software. It is pretty good for some of the most common problems, and cost of pre-testing, the software, and post-testing is usually under $300. Just make sure that the optometrist is willing to dispense the software even if you live within driving distance for in-office therapy. (In-office therapy is the most expensive way to do VT.)

 

Ok I e-mailed the first 5 people on the list for my area.

 

In addition I did call my medical insurance and found out they will pay for 10 VT visits per condition per person. I am afraid to ask how many visits it usually takes to correct a problem. :eek:

 

Now there is NO one who is on both lists...so I assume it would be best to stick with the first? I did ask in my e-mail about their willingness to let me work at home doing VT.

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Heather

 

[kRenee]

My sons VT is estimated to take 24-36 weekly visits. He has 3 diagnosed treatable conditions.

[Claire]

My dd had multiple severe problems. Major ones were accommodation and convergence. She also had severely restricted field-of-vision. We did almost 50 in-office visits, plus we did color therapy at home for field-of-vision. My dd's problems were on the extreme end of the bell curve in terms of degree of deficit; however, her types of problems were among the most responsive to therapy.

 

I should add that our DO offered to design a primarily home-based program. However, at the time I felt highly stressed and did not want that responsibility on my shoulders. That's why we paid for in-office therapy.

 

Also, I should mention that VT corrected dd's visual *efficiency* problems (brought them up to age-appropriate levels). However, she needed cognitive skills training as a follow-up to VT in order to fully realize all of the benefits of VT, including development of visual *processing* skills. Pre-VT her vision testing showed many deficits. Post-VT showed all of the areas of deficit corrected to at least low-normal. Post-cognitive skills training showed all but one area at 85th percentile or better. (Fine saccades remained at 40th percentile, but probably improved slowly over the next year.)

[siloam]

My sons VT is estimated to take 24-36 weekly visits. He has 3 diagnosed treatable conditions.

 

At the moment I have one possibility that I think will work well and normally does at home VT. It will require about an hour's drive, but at least we will get to the bottom of whether my 8yo has issues or not.

 

Thanks!

 

Heather

 

[siloam]

My dd had multiple severe problems. Major ones were accommodation and convergence. She also had severely restricted field-of-vision. We did almost 50 in-office visits, plus we did color therapy at home for field-of-vision. My dd's problems were on the extreme end of the bell curve in terms of degree of deficit; however, her types of problems were among the most responsive to therapy.

 

I should add that our DO offered to design a primarily home-based program. However, at the time I felt highly stressed and did not want that responsibility on my shoulders. That's why we paid for in-office therapy.

 

Also, I should mention that VT corrected dd's visual *efficiency* problems (brought them up to age-appropriate levels). However, she needed cognitive skills training as a follow-up to VT in order to fully realize all of the benefits of VT, including development of visual *processing* skills. Pre-VT her vision testing showed many deficits. Post-VT showed all of the areas of deficit corrected to at least low-normal. Post-cognitive skills training showed all but one area at 85th percentile or better. (Fine saccades remained at 40th percentile, but probably improved slowly over the next year.)

 

Claire,

 

I am very concerned with cognitive issues because that is where my problem lie, even more so than vision issues and my poor 8yo, at this time, seems to have the exact same issues I have.

 

Was the doctor the one who set you up on cognitive training or is that something you handled on your own?

 

It would be such a blessing if many of these problems could be solved instead of coped with.

 

Heather

 

[Claire]

Was the doctor the one who set you up on cognitive training or is that something you handled on your own?

 

No. The cognitive skills training was a separate program. We did PACE, which is a provider-based program. My dd met with the trainer for an hour three times a week, and then we did a minimum of one hour of homework on the exercises every day (two to three hours is even better if you can manage it!). The program lasted 12 weeks. It helped my dd significantly in a variety of areas. It's important to remediate any sensory-level problems as much as possible before starting this -- OT, vision, motor planning (Interactive Metronome), auditory (FastForWord) -- because sensory-level deficits lower the ceiling on how far you can go with cognitive skills training. Also, IMO the program works best with 8yo and older. Again, IMO, the ideal age is probably 8yo to 10yo. (Once you hit the hormonal changes of the teen years, cooperation tends to suffer.)

 

Some developmental optometrists offer cognitive skills training, but it is usually limited to visual processing skills. My dd had lags in many areas as a result of her early vision problems, not just in visual processing. PACE is a very broadly-based program that works on a variety of cognitive skills simultaneously. That is one of the things that makes it effective.

 

The same company now has a franchised version called LearningRx. These tend to be more expensive because of overhead costs. One of the programs they offer at LearningRx is PACE (but they call it by another name). The company also used to offer a home therapy kit, but that was discontinued last year. A new home program is scheduled to go on the market sometime this year. It will be called Cognitive Calisthenics, and I'm sure someone here will announce it when it becomes available. Still, with severe problems, I think you are better off going with a provider-based program if you can afford it.

[siloam]

Claire,

 

Thanks! I have bookmarked them for future reference.

 

Heather