Hello All,
Welcome to our NEW President’s blog. This blog has been created for you as parents to discuss your child’s situation with other parents. So many times I am asked about the costs of Vision Therapy, defeating insurance companies, realistic outcomes after treatment, and so on. My best resources for answering these questions are other parents…..and so many of you have different perspectives that may prove to be very helpful for other parents. So, this is a way for you to discuss it directly with eachother. If you have a question, comment, feedback, or advice for other parents, please leave it here. We would love to hear from all of you.
Looking forward to hearing from you!!
Robert
August 9, 2008 at 5:21 am
hello……my son has been recommended for this vision therapy. the doctor seems to be knowledgeable in her craft, but i have never heard of this before. i really want to help my son (he’s really struggling in school) i am just not sure if this is the right answer. he is 9 years old and he hates school. he used to love school until he reached 2nd grade and all the books got bigger. vision therapy seems to be the answer based on what this doctor says. i am wondering if anyone else has any advice?
September 4, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Dear James, I am exactly in the same boat. My 9 yo son is currently into 3 weeks of Vision Therapy. It is so new that it is hard to know what to think however, everything else we have done has not worked so my thought is, it can never hurt to try. I just got off the phone with my son’s teacher, he is in a new school and we have held him back a year. The Teacher very condescendingly told me that his behaviour is more than vision problems, and in the next breath, told me my son was a nice kid and that he has been enabled by past teachers. My son is a good boy and not a behaviour problem but he has a hard time sitting still and getting down to the task at hand. I hope you find some peace in trying this. It is not easy, but while we still have our kids attention, it is probably worth a shot before they get to the point that they really hate school and turn to other things! My son is working with me quite diligently in hopes that it works. His vision has affected his coordination, gross motor skills, the whole 9 yards….and when I found out he had this, it started to all make sense. Good luck and if you want, I can keep you posted on how things are going.
September 12, 2008 at 12:43 am
My son is four years old and is just starting with vision therapy. He was labeled as a behavior problem at his first preschool. They thought that he was knowingly running into people and things. He often drops things and is very uncoordinated. I took him to an occupational therapist who right away noticed that he is constantly is closing his right eye. She recommended a visual acuity test. The ophthalmologist said that we could not coordinate his right and left eye to work together, but she would not do anything at this point. I told the OT who was able to refer me to a vision therapist. The therapist said that starting at a young age was the best way for him to learn to read on track. They just ordered him therapeutic glasses. We don’t actually start therapy for 2 weeks.
September 20, 2008 at 12:29 am
It’s not very often you can hear from a parent who has been there and done that… but I am here to tell you that Vision Therapy Works!
My son is a happy junior in high school. In 4th grade he could not read fast, he had trouble with keeping track of where he was reading, had eye teaming issues and was dealing with esophoria and convergence insufficiency. During this time I was told multiple times to put my child on Ritalin and that vision therapy would never work.
Well after we worked with Dr. Paul Lederer ( he is amazing ) as a behavior optomitrist using vision therapy, Robert is now an honors student and has broken two school records in track.
I want to encourage all of you to hang in there, advocate for your child and when you get worried or frustrated just know that the Vision Therapy not only solves vision issues, but also provides a vehicle for self confidence to bloom which then reduces the behavior issues.
My son originally was put on an IEP and now has a 504 with accomodations.
Remember that with the school systems – it is a learning process not only for you as a parent, and a child but also for the teachers. If you keep this in mind and simply gently advocate and create strong alliances with the school’s special education department heads, you can indeed work wonders and not only make it better for your child – but for a lot of children…
I wish you luck and will keep you posted on the progress we are making…
September 25, 2008 at 2:18 pm
I am new to this . My Daughter has vision processing issues. I am looking for classroom interventions. She is in Middle school. I am searching for ideas for Math and also colored paper ex: yellow lined paper with darker blue lines and other ideas. Does anyone have these. I find alot of websites with info on vision therapy but no classroom ideas. Thanks!
September 30, 2008 at 4:55 pm
My son is 10 years old and we have spent 4 years trying to understand why he couldn’t read with any fluency and without getting tired and frustrated. He has done well on every standardized measurement of school proficiency so we were told there is no problem. We were finally referred to a dev. optometrist and have never felt more relief hearing that we are not nuts. He has tracking problems and converegence insufficiency. We/He started VT last week. I am optimistic that his frustration level is going to go way down and his confidence back up in the coming months. It took way too long to get headed in the right direction. I will be doing as much as I can to get the word out. Thanks to everyone who has posted encouragement. When I think maybe I’m putting too many eggs in this basket, I read your kind words and those on similar posts and smile at the possibilities.
October 14, 2008 at 11:11 pm
I just wanted to share the excitement I have felt as a parent. I have a nine year old boy who loves school, but was as at a point of frustration. It started well in Kindergarten, first grade seemed fine, and second grade seemed to decline. He had a fabulous teacher but I still watched him as his reading struggled and he lacked progression in school and piano. We would go the rounds at home with fits of frustration from me and from him. His “b” and “d”’s were still consistently reversed, and it was a fight to get him to even try. My friend who is a reading specialist referred me to Dr. Baxstrum and told me how he was more than just an eye doctor, but worked with disabilities. We took my son, he needed glasses and we have been using the techniques he has shared with us. We have gone from a consistantly 70% on his spelling to our first 100%, because of the techniques. The glasses we have also noticed a significant difference in his ability. Good luck to you!
October 26, 2008 at 10:35 pm
I have an 8 year old daughter who is in her 5th week of vision therapy. I am also a 3rd grade teacher. It’s been frustrating watching my daughter struggle and everything I’ve tried fail. I can see her exercises and eye focusing getting better, but I don’t see her attention getting better yet. Her teachers want her on medication and seem to view the vision therapy as only a stepping stone to the medication. I am doing an after school intervention with eye tracking exercises on a program called First Learning Readers Training or FLRT for short. I have 22 students who do it twice a week after school for 35 minutes. My daughter’s vision tracking is so poor that she can’t even pass the first level of counting shape changes. This has inspired me to get all the training I can with this. I see so many students who struggle with this, that I know we could help by doing simple eye exercises daily right from the beginning of their education. Does anyone have any suggestions about when or if her attention will improve or where I can get trained to be a vision therapist?
Devon
October 31, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Help!!!! My daughter is in her first semester of 2nd grade and was just diagnoised with this vision poblem, unfortunatly…… im totally clueless and all we got at the doctor was a pamphlet…. Im reaching out to all and any information I can to help her…. Where do i start… she has glasses but seems its not getting any better… what is my next step where do i go… I feel so helpless… all these web sites have great information but not for dummies like me who have no clue where to start or turn to even help out her own child…… Please help… Michelle
November 3, 2008 at 8:41 pm
My Fourth Grader was just diagnosed with Convergence Insufficiency. The third “specialist” recommended pencil push ups…but something about his treatment didn’t sit right in my gut. I did more internet research, checked out the findings just issued October 2008 by NIH on vision therapy and have now gone to 2 more specialist and begin a treatment session tomorrow.
My pediatrician, don’t agree, nor does the insurance company, but I’m ready to fight for my daughters right to treatment, these are her only set of eyes, I will do everything in my power to help her resolve this issue. My gut tells me, to forge ahead, interact with all parties, look to support groups, fight the insurance claims and most of all show my daughter that I will never give up on her.
I’m still in the early stages, but I believe the focusing problem and attention can be rectified.
November 7, 2008 at 4:57 pm
I’m updating from my Sept. 30th post. 7 weeks into VT (1x a week + about 20 minutes at home of exercises 5 times a week) and the change is noteworthy already. My son is now coming home and sitting down to homework without a complaint. His reading has gotten more fluent, although not at a 5th grade level yet. I read the piano post above and have to add this: my son plays clarinet and our 1st indication that things were getting better was hearing him practice. Songs are actually flowing! It was an unexpected bonus. To Michelle – find a developmental/behavioral optometrist who has a staff vision therapist in the office. I found ours thru the covd website and love them – The Hunterdon Family Eye Center in NJ. To Lisa – I’ve found the same response from insurance. I’ve decided to get him treated now and argue later. I figure i’ll pay for braces to have his teeth straightened one day. Getting the eyes to work together is worth more than that.
November 10, 2008 at 2:14 am
I am coming into this from the back door. My 14yr old daughter has ADHD and NLD. From researching on my own, I learned her vision problem is associated with these disabilities. I cant believe the doctors that diagnosed her did not tell me or recommend to me vision therapy. She was diagnosed with Amblyopia in the second grade and we made initial attempts to correct it with drops, patching, the usual. She would never wear her glasses. She would conveniently lose them. Anyway, years went by and more and more symptoms emerged and finally diagnosed with disabilities. While doing research for the disabilities I came across vision therapy and it hit me like a lightning bolt. I just know this is something she will benefit from. But what I would like to pass on to you other parents and readers just looking at vision problems (especially those accused of having behavioral problems) to have your child tested/evaluated. You dont even have to walk in the door with an idea of what they might have. Just talk to the doctor(physchologist) and tell him symptoms and behaviors and he will know what tests to do. But if your curious, google ADHD and/or NLD. NLD is not very well known about. I had never heard of it, but when I read the symptoms, behaviors and characteristics I almost cried because I knew that was what she had. I read your stories about your vision problems and some of you sound like me back then but I had no idea of what to do at the time. God Speed.
November 10, 2008 at 2:17 am
Has anyone ever heard about children seeing color while reading? I’m a teacher and a tutor and am currenlty working with a girl who says the words sometimes get covered by colors. In addition, my niece has been recently diagnosed with convergence insufficiency and she made a comment about words often being outlined in yellow. I have been teaching for a while now and never heard of this. Does anyone have children with similar issues? Thank you.
November 11, 2008 at 11:20 pm
My son was diagnosed with vision problems (visual motor integration, tracking etc. etc.) in the second grade as he struggled with reading. He was tested and I was told I should put him in a Resource Room in a public school as he had learning disabilities and would do better in that environment. He was attending private school.
I was looking for answers and happend to see an article in the newspaper about a behavioral optometrist, Dr. Mary Carroll who described in the article the same problems my son had been experiencing. I took him ito be tested by Dr. Carroll and he started eye therapy for 6 months. All I can tell you is that it works. He went from struggling to being on the honor roll by 6th grade. We also sent him to a reading tutor so he could catch up. I never took him out of private school. He graduated from high school with both an academic and athletic scholarship.
He is now in college in the School of Architecture and on the Dean’s Honor List. The eye therapy worked and was a small price to pay to give him a chance at the future he deserved and worked so hard for.
My husband had his doubts but I persisted and it paid off big time. I told him we had to give it a chance. I shudder at the thought of what his future may have been without the eye therapy. I am eternally grateful to Dr. Mary Carroll and her staff for all they did for our son.
Susan Gonzales
Las Vegas, NV
November 23, 2008 at 3:35 am
My 7 yr old daughter was just diagnosed with tracking and blurred vision. We first saw a VT who was not on our insurance, and today saw a second. It’s very eye opening to find an answer to all the problems. Also today the DR found that she also has a Vestibular Reflex problem. That is what is causing all her wiggling and agitation. You can google it for definition. I was very impressed by her knowledge! We have 2 more tests that she would like to do before we start vision therapy, but we did order glasses to help her in the class room. She is excited to get them thank goodness! We will also be working with an occupational therapist, who refered us for the vision testing, to help with the vestibular reflex issues. I am very relieved to know we have some direction to help her. She has in some miracle been able to keep on track in 1st grade! I am amazed that she is not farther behind considering all that she has do to keep herself on track. The OD that we saw today recommended this as a site to check into as well as a few others. It’s so good to see that others are in the same boat! I will post as we progress and would like to hear how all of you are doing as well.
November 25, 2008 at 5:53 pm
I have to respond to Susan from NV and hope you read this. I found a website called OnTrackReading. There is a part called “Building an Architect” under the “Vision Piece” on the right of the home page. This is just the guy’s theory about children with vision problems, but WOW – my son (who is 10) says he wants to be an architect all the time. When I read this I got the chills. Looks like your son also supports his theory. Please check it out.
We are headed into week 10. My son commented last week that prior to VT cars driving by were just a blur and now he can see what they look like as we (or they) drive past on the highway. Scary to think he could have been driving and unable to judge moving cars. Homework gets better every week. I’m still waiting for the reading to show more improvement, but with everything else going right, its all worth it. And (gulp) he now wants to try baseball again in the spring. I was secretly hoping that sport would go away, but he is confident now that he can hit and catch better and wants to try it out again. Play ball!
December 17, 2008 at 1:00 am
Update from Sandy –
We are over 4 months into therapy and I have noticed that my son is able to print better, sit and copy from one page to another easier, understanding math etc. He is repeating grade 4 and it is almost as if he was never exposed to the grade 4 curriculum in the past. It is like he is seeing it for the 1st time. However, in combination with a good teacher, dedicated parents and a great Visual Therapist, we are seeing great strides in our son’s abilities. He has a better sense of self and is really coming into his own. We have certainly had our nights of frustruation and tears. I had hoped by now his reading would be quite a bit better than it is however I am seeing improvements in other areas. We will be at this likely for a year or more, it is expensive, but I can’t think of a better way to invest my money than in my son’s future. He is giving me everything he has and knows that we are doing this to make his life easier.
We work with metronome.com to help give him rythym, as he really does not have any. It is working and I am sure he will thank me in the future at those high school dances
We live in Canada and there are only 2 licensed Therapists in the Country and only 6 Optometrists that diagnose this. My biggest frustruation is that people do not give it the credit it deserves as a real problem in learning. My piediatrician called vision therapy”hocus pocus” as did my own Optometrist. It was very disconcerting to hear these professionals discredit the only hope I had. There is so little known about it here and I am trying to educate as much as possible. ADHD is so easily accepted as a diagnosis, it is frightening.
My world changed when I heard about this because, I as another parent above, was so happy to know I was not “nuts”. I just knew my son did not have ADHD. I will continue to educate as many people as possible but most importantly, the teachers every year as they learn to help my son through.
My VT had to deal with my recent melt down in my frustruation of not knowing when to expect to see greater strides in reading….what I am learning is to temper my expectations and celebrate the successes I have see in my son. He is a happy boy that is giving 110% to trying harder and that is all I can ask.
January 24, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Hi Sandy. I had the same frustrations a few times. This is a long process. I too was looking for more reading improvement or a set date when it could be expected. I found a website paulharrisod.com It has Notes to professional educators and there is a part in it about reading improvement with VT, why it takes time and how cyclical the strides are. It eased my mind and has held true. Even though the reading fluency is still not ideal, all of the other improvements have remained constant. He’s even made honor roll 2 marking periods in a row. What a change from last year.