Why Did I Ask about Vision Therapy?

What caused me to bring up vision therapy in the first place?

Honestly, if I wasn’t working with my child daily as part of homeschooling, I don’t think I would have. Child #1 might be referred to as an “auditory” learner. She loves to be read to, but complains bitterly at having to read anything herself. It is “too hard.” She can read at a second grade level, but her comprehension is very low. I have been known to ‘bait’ her by reading to the end of a chapter that completely leaves one hanging. Then, I will carefully close the book while she BEGS for me to read “just one more page.” I hand it to her and tell her she can read the next page herself. She desperately wants to know what happens next, but appears to be more than she can get herself to trudge through to find out.

If she were in “regular” school, I would probably say she was lazy.

Her (manuscript) handwriting is horrid. She can’t color within the lines without giving herself a headache. She absolutely hates writing anything with a pencil on paper. (I have started calling this her “pencil phobia.”) She will write using markers on the white board, however. She loves to use side walk chalk outside.

Compared to her peers, she is only about half as accurate at hitting a ball with a bat.

So, I questioned. Is there anything we can do to help her learning be smoother? Is she having issues totally unrelated to motivation or ability – something physical or mental (related to her eyes) – that is causing her to have to work harder to achieve the same results as other children her age?

Update: Vision Therapy #2

Child #1 completed her first visual perception / acuity testing session at the doctor’s office. I did not get to be present as I had to watch the other three children in their waiting room. The room Child #1 was in was more of a closet than a room. She described having to read, stand on one foot while crossing her arms, stand on one foot while crossing her arms with her eyes closed, drawing, matching, and other such activities. She pointed out that it was hard work and that they made her have a headache.

The doctor’s office indicated the testing would be “about an hour.” Child #1 took one hour and fifteen minutes. The extra time was explained by the fact that some of the tests are timed, but “some are not.” This was code word for “Your Child Took A Long Time To Do Them.” I understand. I’m her teacher, remember? Isn’t that one of the reasons we are here?

We have one more of these visual perception testing sessions and then a three week wait for our debrief meeting with the doctor to discuss a game plan for possible vision therapy.

I did get a chance to speak to a couple other parents in the waiting room about the process. There was a five-year old with intermittant (in his case, happens when he is tired) exotropia (eyes turn outward) who had just started his therapy. It was too early to see much difference, his mother said. Another mother came in with an eight year old who is 33-weeks into an estimated 36-week therapy. He is in the home stretch and she expressed much happiness with his progress.

Update: Vision Therapy Evaluation Appointment

I wrote previously about my oldest who was diagnosed around the age of three with accomodative esotropia. After a horrid experience at a “pediatric ophthalmologist” in the big city, our local eye doctor has successfully treated her by changing her prescription to cosmetically make her eyes look aligned while the lenses do the work of focusing, allowing her eyes to relax. At a meeting about the progressive lenses, I brought up the question of whether vision therapy would help her. After listening to my concerns, he suggested we go to an expert who deals with pediatric patients and vision therapy and get evaluated.

We had to wait almost a month for the first of four possible evaluation appointments. The first appointment was an intense eye exam. All the usual tests were done – with and without Child #1 wearing glasses. Her eyes were dilated and more testing and looking was done with all sorts of interesting devices. Child #1 was quite the trooper. The only tough part was when the doctor put on a kind of “miner’s helmet” complete with bright light. It was too bright for her dilated eyes and she couldn’t get herself to keep her eyes open. (I’ll admit that we ended up all (Child #1, doctor, & me) praying that she would have the strength to look past the bright light for three solid seconds so the doctor could get what she needed and move on.) It was tough, but she did manage two seconds of not rolling her eye up her head and we were able to move on.

The doctor (specialist) indicated that the prescription is exactly right, but that she does not believe in progressive lenses for children. She would rather have seen Child #1 in a bifocal. She also admitted that it might be a moot point for what we are doing. She pointed out that Child #1 sees JUST FINE close up (which is what I thought), but that her eye turn is HUGE when doing so. Our local eye doctor is trying to lower the eye turn by using the lens to take some of the focusing/strain off the eyes. The specialist said the eye turn is so large that it really doesn’t matter either way.

Another thing I learned is that Child #1′s esotropia is “constant” – in that it is always there and . . . here I didn’t take notes, so you’ll have to forgive me if I get this wrong, “intermittent” (or was it “alternating”?). Basically, Child #1 uses one eye at a time – but alternates between which one she uses. Her eyes don’t work as a “team.” There’s a term for it, but I can’t remember what it is (monocular?). (My spouse’s eyes don’t work together, either. He doesn’t remember them ever doing so. He compensates just fine.) The specialist said that if we wanted to have her eyes learn to work together, now is not the time to try it because of the emotional maturity needed for the treatment.

However, she wanted us to continue with testing at two future appointments. We are, in effect, skipping a visual evaluation appointment (#2 of 4) and continuing with Visual Perception testing (#3 & #4 of 4). After those, we will have an hour or more consultation with the specialist on what she recommends going forward. The next two appointments are in the upcoming weeks. Our consultation won’t be until near the end of October due to my spouse’s work schedule and the specialist’s schedule. I’ll let you know how it goes.