Just came upon this & was wondering if anyone knows much about it? I am looking for a reading program that will help my reluctant visual spatial learner,11yo., with her reading issues. While looking, I was reading about Developemental Optometrist who do vision therapy. Well I don't think I will end up taking her to such doctor but I have been looking for advice on how to do vision therapy at home. Got a few good ideas & foound a site www.eyecanlearn.com that seems to utilize most of the things that I read about for home v. therapy. Do I sound crazy? I feel like I do. Always grasping for straws. My dd was reading to her dad today & it didn't go so smooth on her behalf.Grrr! I cannot make him understand that much of her difficulty & lack of confidence roots from this visual spatial stuff. My dd fits the description to a T. My dh believes me that this her problem but when it's time to use a little understanding with her, he cannot grasp it. She is a slow reader, sounds words out very wack, cant remember the word again 2 sentences later, etc... I am searching for help but in the right direction. I was going to order some crazy expensive reading course for her until I found vision therapy. I truly feel that this would help her far better than a reading program targeted for troubled readers. Maybe I'm wrong. Any suggestions? BTW- this has nothing to do with sight like 20/20. Blessings!
My dd12 has a visual perceptual deficit (diagnosed by an optometrist). She went through 2 years of vision therapy (ages 6-7) with some improvements (tracking and focusing) but not cured. Vision therapy is an iffy thing. Some eye doctors won't even recommend it. Most insrances won't pay for it. (Ours did.) Although there was an hour session with a therapist each week, there was homework for every day at home. Most of the work was done at home. I'm not familiar with the site you mentioned, but there are many things you can do at home. Remedia has some workbooks for different types of perception issues. You can google visual perception activities and find some things, too. My dd is reading much better in the last year. Writing (not physically, but actually putting words/sentences togehter) is still a HUGE issue. It's a very hard diagnosis. Other people don't get it and wonder why a child that seems so "normal" can't read and write at grade level. My dd is a competitive swimmer and the spatial issues can cause problems. It took me MONTHS to get her coach to understand that she CAN NOT visualize the wall. She just kept saying she didn't know any other way to explain it. Seriously... she can count strokes. :roll:
Thanks for confirming that I'm not crazy, this stuff truly does impact their daily lives. She won't be seeing any therapist or doctor over this I wouldn't think. I may question her doctor when we go for an eye exam but I won't be expecting positive feedback. I will visit the site you suggested, thanks so much. Blessings!
My son is in VT right now. He just started, but already I can see a huge improvement! (We were referred by an educational psychologist, by the way.) I don't think you're crazy at all. He also has 20/20 vision, but that's not the issue. I didn't understand fully until we started doing the homework. Like... on exercises where he's supposed to cross his eyes, one eye would cross, but the other would drift. The movements in his eyes were physically sickening at times. (Like, people think it's gross at halloween to see kids roll their eyes back in their heads on purpose... same idea, but NOT on purpose.) He's been doing VT for 6 weeks, and yes, it's expensive, but insurance is covering 70%. Totally worth it. Look for a book called "When Your Child Struggles" by Dr. David Cook. It won't tell you what to do at home, but your dh should read it, because it explains why a child with 20/20 vision may actually have terrible vision.
Faythe has had Vision Therapy. There's a really good person in Hilliard, Ohio that is highly recommended in the central Ohio homeschool community. The eye doctor REALLY likes working with hs'ers, because they actually do the exercises (meaning they don't have to come in to have it done and have it cost more!), and (because they do the exercises faithfully) it is successful, and makes her look really good.
My daughter's eyes never drifted. Her brain just doesn't correctly process what her eyes see. Does your ds have a "lazy eye"? My dd9 has amblyopia but hasn't done VT, but patching and eye drops. I would try to get a confirmation. Visual perception is made up of many areas (spatial perception, visual memory, visual form contancy, tracking, focusing, etc). If you can pinpoint specific areas, any VT (home or not) will be more successful. My dd was tested through a school of Optometry (in Memphis, we lived in TN at the time, not sure where in TN you are). You could also use an educational psychologist. The more you know, the more you will be able to help your dd. Just being an informed advocate for her will help. People who are unaware of perception issues really don't get it.
That would probably be focusing, maybe some tracking. That's what VT did help my dd with. I can't remember how many areas perception is broken down into, but my dd was below average in all but 2.
Eye insurance doesn't usually cover it, though, but sometimes medical does. I think Faythe also had tracking problems.
No, he has (wait... let me get his dx sheet...) 378.83 convergence insufficiency 368.33 fusion w/ defective stereopsis 379.58 smooth pursuit mvmnt def 379.57 saccadic eye mvmts def Um... yeah... that. :lol: I know what the first one means, at least! Like everything else in his life, he seems to have an easy time with the hard stuff and a hard time with the easy stuff. His percentiles on each of the subtests showed that, which is common for visual-spatial LEARNERS, but I didn't realize it would also be that way specifically for VISION! :shock:
We have friends who have had both their boys in VT and it was amazing how it worked for them. Went from struggling readers to fluent, loving to read boys I highly recommend it if it's recommended as I've also seen it work for others that we don't know as well as the friends mentioned above. Good Luck
