Welcome Back!
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
Posted in President's Blog
45 Responses to “Welcome Back!”
Leave a Reply
Visual Processing Courses and Vision Development Multi-Matrix Game Recommended by P.A.V.E.
Visual Processing Courses and Vision Development Game Recommended by P.A.V.E.
Our founder, Marjie Thompson, C.O.V.T., was a a key advisor to the development of these courses on Vision & the Brain and conducting an educational Vision Assessment to understand compensation tactics and identify children who would benefit from professional evaluation, diagnosis and treatment. View sample clips from the video courses. With every order a generous donation will be made to Parents Active for Vision Education. Learn More Now
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?
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.
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.
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…
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!
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.
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!
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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!
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.
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.
Hi Jennifer, thanks for the website leads I have been checking into them and they have been helpful. I did not find out about my sons vision problems until he was 15 and he is angry and frustrated. He has been doing the vision exercises for a year but not consistent, he battles every step. He finally is willing to read without being forced but his grades are still very poor. I am hoping that eventually the vision exercises will make school easier for him.
Hi to all…I am new to this site and new to the whole Vision Therapy thing. I can say that I have seen so much in the last few months that it makes me want to cry. My daughter is 7 and she has been having tons of problems in school. In 1st grade the teacher noticed that she was having some issues, but she still passed. Then when 2nd grade hit, all the issues did as well. The reading and the writing, it was so hard on her that she cries all the time. Hatting the fact that she can’t see it right.
I have a 504 in place, but it really seems like the school or the teacher is not going to keep to it. We want to put her into the therapy but the price for it is killing us.
She has to have 12 weeks of the therapy and our insurance does not cover it. They say it is not a real issue, and that my daughter does not need to have it. I was so anger with them, that I about cried. What is said is that we just can’t afford to put her into the therapy. Her father and I both know she needs it, but the cost is mind blowing. She has to have 12 weeks of therapy 3 days a week. All of you I am sure have seen the prices…
WOW is all I can say…Is there any thing I can do to help her at home?
I was wondering if anyone had any luck petitioning the school board to provide vision therapy. So far I have been declined, even though the functional optometrist’s findings were exactly what the child study team found. I’m on to round two, although I’m not sure what that is, or if I’m banging my head against the wall.
I am new to this whole process as my son has just been diagnosed with convergence insufficiency and accomodative insufficiency. He has been going to OT for fine motor problems for two years but this is a new twist. I went to a meeting re: assistive technology last night. Amazing stuff! Does anyone have any experience with this? It seems like it could be pretty useful in addressing some of these visual challenges. Thanks! It’s great to have a place like this to go to!
Amy
My little guy is 6 years old and has been diagnosed with double vision, left eye suppression and convergence insufficiency. He has had glasses to help with the close-up vision for 3 days. He is reporting that after doing his reading program on the computer he has a horizontal black line across his visual field and can still see his glasses frames even after he has them off for 45 minutes. Anyone else have similar things? Also, I’m looking for classroom strategies for the teacher to use with him when reading as the words “jump” on the page and “move to the other page”-thoughts?
My son was diagnosed with something. The optomitrist gave me a booklet and circled that my son has either focusing and eye-teaming problems or eye movement control and visual tracting, or a combination of both. I am so scared. She did not tell me whether or not he would eventually go blind or what. In the back of the booklet it gave this web address. I am so thankful that the vision therapy is working for others, but still I am so scared. My son has already fallen behind in reading and writing and he is only in Kindergarden. At first I just thought that he was a little less cooperative with the learning process because he is an only child and wanted to play with kids his own age and he missed that at home. His teacher actually noticed some things wrong with his vision first. That was last Thursday and by Tuesday he was seen by a pediatric optomitrist. When we went in I thought that my son was actually faking some of it because he kept saying that he wanted glasses just like one of his best buddies, but now I am scared to death about all of this. The optomitrist has prescribed corrective glasses for him and she wants him to try them for 6 weeks and then see him again. At that time she wants to do a lengthy evaluation and see exactly what he has and if the glasses are working. In the booklet it did not explain anything of what vision therapy is, what it does, how long it takes, if it is something that I can do at home, what the cost of the therapies usually run, what my options are, how and what to actually research, and where to turn for answers. I am not sure that the next evaluation should really wait that long. I don’t understand if and what I should or should not ask his teacher or what would help him. If anyone has suggestions please let me know
Hi all – I wanted to throw something out here in case all of you might be dealing with the same – my daughter was diagnosed as gifted but learning disabled. These children are called twice exceptional. They are gifted from an IQ standpoint, but something is causing them to read slower. I had my daughter (she’s a freshman in high school now) looked at by an optometrist and the optometrist could not find any major issues with her eyes… so I had the school test my daughter for giftedness and LD and we were able to find a processing error in her reading fluency. The school immediately put her on an IEP. Hope this helps a bit…
My 3 year old daughter turns her head and looks out of the extreme corners of her eyes when looking at a distance. She seems bright as she knows her numbers, letters, shapes etc but she often falls, is often car sick and will not walk down stairs. She is hesitant at sports and will not run around in a group of children. The opthomologists say nothing is wrong. The optomotrists say she has exotropia, although her eye does not seem to float around. She turns her head and move her eyes to the corners.
We are starting vision therapy because we have nothing else to try. Has anyone else had a child with an unusual head turn. Any information is appreciated.
My 10 yr old daughter was diagnosed last year, and we have seen an amazing improvement, I am a believer. Now my 9 yr old has a diagnosis that is more complicated will take longer and comes with a bigger price tag. There is no insurance coverage as it is “out of network”. I am trying to figure out how to finance this $8000.00 (their figure) diagnosis. What have others done?
Okay I was referred to a vision therapist through a learning specialist. I met with him and am hopeful that vision therapy will help my 7 year old son. He is very bright in school, in every subject except for reading, and has no behavioral issues. My pediatrician does not believe in vision therapy, he says it is not accepted by the medical profession and therefore is not covered by insurance. I am very frustrated and do not know what to do. My pediatrician recommends more testing and evaluating and stated that I should look into a tutor. I read with my son every night and he has improved in reading I don’t know if a tutor would do much more. My gut tells me to do the VT; but my husband wants me to look into something else. I need to hear from someone who has completed the VT and hear that without a doubt this has helped their child, when nothing else worked.
My daughter was diagnosed with amblyobia and astigmatism 2 years ago. She was referred to vision therapy. I was disabled and unable to afford the treatment. She only had med-i-cal and that wouldn’t cover the treatment. Med-i-cal referred her to a different spaecialist who recommended eye patching. We tried researching to find other avenues to get her the treatment she needed with no luck. The only resource we found and resorted to was finding our own games that required alot of visual tracking. We patched her eye and begun our own visual treatment. All was going good as per her specialist until she moved out of town and we were back to square one. her glasses didn’t seem to be the right perscription and again there was nothing we could do. She just had her eyes examined again and we were right the perscription was incorrect, she’s getting a new perscription! Again she’s been referred to vision therapy and We cant afford it, she still has med-i-cal but also has insurance and neither one covers it. please if you know were we might get some assistance please help. I’ve called children’s servives through the health dept., I’ve tried the school, I even tried disability and no one can help as she wasn’t behind in school, she started school highly advanced now she’s barely making grade level. Please help!
My son was just diagnosed with CI and I am trying to find out more about reputable optometrists in my area. What qualifications should I be looking for?
quite interesting article. keep up the good work.
My son is 13 yr old, who is on the honor roll. Behavior is good. However, he get poor standardlized test scores. I questioned his school about him having all A’s and B’s with low standardlized test scores. I was he may have a perpetual eye disorder. I took him today to get check out and I discovered that he need VT. I am taking my surprise because he is very smart, and plays sports very well. Did anyone here ever get a second opinion? Have anyone ever heard of a situation of this kind?
Please help…anyone know of doctors in the Phila area…
Hello, thank you for all your comments, I feel now there is a community that understands and has even been through this before. We have a an interesting situation where the behavioral optometrist describes oculomotor dysfunction and accommodation insufficiency, but the opthalmologist tells us her vision is normal. Somehow I believe the optometrist, because everything she has said makes sense and correlates with my daughter’s neuropsychological testing. We have been referred to occupational therapy for visual-vestibular OT to begin her therapy, and then to see if this improves her vision. We have been at it for 7 months, and we have seen small improvements. This is frustrating because of course I want it to get better right away. But I have tempered my expectations because my daughter is doing the best she can. Very complex: I can say that I am going in with faith that this will work, because it seems to me I have no other choice. How could I take a bet with my daughter?
My daughter is going into the second grade and she has been diagnosed with CI. We have been going all summer long to eye therapy and there are improvements. I was wondering if there was a program available at home that we could use to help. When I ask the Dr., he doesn’t really answer me. If anyone out there has any suggestions, I would be very greatful for your help. Thank-you, Margaret
Cool site, love the info.
just starting out with this, it is hard to know who to trust. I live on Long Island and it seems that Vision Therapy is the new “it word”. It also seems that all the Optometrists want to hang a slate, and tell you this will solve all your childs problems. How do you know who is good and who has taken a three hour course in Vegas only to make money. This is expensive and most insurance companies will not pay for it. They ask all the right questions, and have all the right answers.
Our story, my daughter when she was 3 yrs old told us words ‘split’ on a page when we read to her. A recommended opthamologist prescribed pencil push-ups, and two years later told us she was cured of her convergence insufficiency. Now 10, she struggles with school work, dislikes and/or is disinterested in reading, and makes silly mistakes on tests. After researching these symptoms, she was re-diagnosed by a behavioral optometrist that did not accept insurance. Further research led us to another behavioral optometrist that accepts our insurance, and has almost twenty years of success treating individuals and children with this diagnosis. Our insurance company, under the medical plan, accepts VT (we have a PPO). We are committed, hopeful, and excited to have a partner in helping my daughter have the opportunity to learn how to use her vision.
Thanks Jennifer, I will check out the website you mentioned. My son graduates this year from the School of Architeture. His dream is coming true thanks to the eye therapy he had.
I wish your son all the best in his journey to become an Architect.
Susan
My son is only 2 years old and has had poor eye contact from day one. He was diagnosed with intermittent and alternating esotropia at 14 months of age. We were prescribed prism glasses, which he wore consistently for six weeks, but then refused to wear them. I would like to begin vision therapy for him, but I don’t know if he is too young or if prism glasses are required to incorporate vision therapy? Also, if someone lives in the Philadelphia area and can recommend a good developmental optometrist and vision therapist, I would be incredibly appreciative. Thank you!
Never give up…… My daughter was 16 when she started therapy. She was an honor roll student and has 20/20 vision, but could not pass the standardized tests. She worked so hard every day it was sad. We got her at tutor just to help her keep her head above water and she was sinking fast if we did not find out what was wrong. The school was not worried at all. They stated she was fine!! Don’t worry! Well, I knew something was not right. No student should have to work that hard when she was that smart. SHe would fail comprehension tests on her reading books. As a last resort I took her to a local doctor who does visual testing. We found she had major visual problems. After finding out about all her problems I understand some of the odd things she would do. However, I did not pick up on the clues. I am a loving an caring mother and educator!! How can this happen to my daugher. Well, it did and can. We need to do a better job of screening our students for visual problems even if they have 20/20 vision. She did 25 weeks of visual therapy and has pass both of her comprehension book tests with 100% on each. Also, she is back to normal levels of testing now. Her self esteem has improved so much! She is a better driver and everyone is so happy!! I thank God everyday for our doctor and the therapy Lynn did with them. They changed her life!!!!! The educational systems need to be informed and educated so we can help struggling students.
Hi,
My 16 year old daughter was just diagnosed with convergence insuffiency. She also has depth perception issues, is short sighted in one eye and is far sighted in the other. She is a very strong student but has always needed to spent a great deal of time on her homework in order to succeed. High school has been very stressful for her. Her optometrist said her strong work ethic and persistence have masked her underlying eye issues for all these years. We knew that she was a slow reader but we had no idea how slow. She recently started getting accomodations (extended time on tests) at school and this has reduced her stress level remarkably. She needs to take the SAT and/or the ACT in the spring and I am thinking of petitioning for extra time. I understand that it is a very slow process and since it is already November I wanted to see if anyone could offer any advice on how to most effectively move forward.
I read the above entries. Unsettling memories were brought back. The son I took to vision therepy and for eye testing was in the 6th grade he is now a grown man in his early 30′s. We had little to no medical insurance support for his vision therapy sessions. He had a miserable time in elementary school. He was our “mild mannered reporter” family member, yet begining with his 2nd grade teacher he was pulled away from the other children and assigned a seperate desk farther away from the chalk board. He had an IEP that promised us 1 year’s growth within the school year, yet he was 2-3 years behind in different academic areas. Finally we told the gathered board for the IEP we would take our tax dollars elsewhere and pulled him from public school. Oh that we could have really taken the then $5, 500.00 per student California tax dollars and put it into vision therapy and home centered learning. He received a perscription for reading glasses but at 6th grade refused to wear them. He did do his vision therapy exercises at home after we had to cease vision therapy sessions as too costly for our one income budget. He used to skate board, continues to surf, snow board, rock climbing and travel. He shied away from attending collage, as he remembers still the challenges of public school and lables. He has learned on-the-job doing and developing his artistic talents creating unique designs on one of a kind mosaic patio tables, pool and tile work, landscaping, furniture moving and displays. He saves up to travel to such places as Hawaii, Yucatan, etc. He is happy, enough he says. I see him still as being wounded by the system that now says, No child left behind. Pooh! Wasted tax dollars. Vision therapy should be part of the curriculum. Even just pencil push-ups would strengthen vision in our young children starting in Kindergarten!
Its so moving to read these parents comments. I understand and appreciate your worry and frustration in obtaining useful information. You are to be commended for your efforts to find answers to help you children.
I want to inform everyone of our efforts in Missouri to bring vision tutor to schools. Learning Insights is a not for profit agency that trains school personnel to screen for vision issues and then tutor those with challenges in school. While we cannot use all the tools and techniques that are available from a doctor we can and do offer a tutoring program developed by a team of COVD doctors.
We hope to be able to offer many activities and ideas of what parents can do to help their child on our web site, http://www.learninginsights.org bby the summer of 2010.
Good luck with your children.
HAY I HAVE A FRIEND WHO HAS A 9YO BOY THAT THE FATHER PUT ON SLEEPING PILLS , HE GETS ONE @ 5PM WITH SUPPER,CAN YOU ALL HELP ME WITH THIS I MYSELF HAVE A 12YO BOY THAT IS ADHD THE SAME AS MY FRIENDS 9YO BUT NEVER HAD TO PUT ON SLEEPING PILLS , IS THIS THE NEW THING ? I WOULD NEVER PUT MY SON ON IT
My son now 14 started Vision Therapy Feb. 2009. After 10 months of therapy he is a different boy! Confident, happy, he went from depressed & anxious and struggling in school making C’s and D’s to enjoying school making A’s and B’s. Vision Therapy “changed his brain” as he says. It has changed his life as well! We are forever grateful to Dr. Scott and Vision Therapy.
I am in Southwest Missouri and am trying to start a PAVE chapter for this area. Anyone in the area want to join me? Let’s get the word out and change lives!