For Rod: Informing Parents

My son’s first grade teacher made it very very clear to me that the school can not solve all his problems and that I had to get involved. Her daughter was ld so she had really been there. She never recommended any program specificly but just kind of pushed me to get in the game and help teach him myself. It encouraged me to investigate all the options available for him.

I think that was the nicest thing anyone ever did for me.

Hi Andrea,

Yes, you see the problem as I do. Schools are understandably reluctant to refer to a “therapy-like” service because they might end up paying for it. To be clear here, I’m asking about the school in general, i.e., the administration and its policies, and not looking for ways that teachers can “get around” the obstacles they perceive when trying to suggest a parent take further action for their child.

You also mentioned that you would refer to a “traditional optometrist” or an ophthamologist first.

I have a couple of things to point out so that everyone understands what they are likely to encounter when seeking professional advice from either an optometrist or an ophthamologist.

First, a behavioral optometrist is a traditional optometrist. They do all the usual optometric testing to determine the need for glasses, health of the eyes, etc. Many behavioral O.D.’s simply have added vision therapy to their regular practice. Of course, due to the controversial nature of the therapy, some of the behavioral OD’s can be pretty controversial themselves, particularly within their profession. They understandably find themselves “on the soapbox” in a lot of situations, since they see something that appears to be of obvious benefit to many of their patients, yet find that others in their industry are reluctant to consider it, or even to refer for it.

Second, you should be aware that the opthamologists, as a profession, actually have a formal policy statement disavowing the efficacy of vision therapy. While I will grant the possibility that they know what they’re talking about in this regard (only the possibility…I obviously think they’re barking up the wrong tree on this one,) it’s important to realize that an ophthamologist following the policy will never find a problem requiring vision therapy. Therefore, if a child actually does need VT, sending his parents to such an ophthamologist will effectively be a waste of their money, because, by policy, they will not find a problem.

I’m not saying they shouldn’t see an ophthamologist, of course. And some of them have even departed from policy and are willing to consider the efficacy of vision therapy. Only that if the purpose of seeing one is to get a second (or first) opinion on the need for VT, their reason for not recommending it will not be based on objective testing, but rather on existing policy. The ones adhering to policy necessarily will perform no test that would show the need for VT. I hope the logic of what I’m describing is clear….it’s a pretty convoluted situation…Rod

Rod, I think perhaps you misunderstood me. I was interested in hearing from teachers about how they resolved the issue of referring parents for various services knowing that it would cost the district money. Do they refer the child for a special education evaluation anyway? Do they speak privately to the parents? Have they found other ways?

I wasn’t asking teachers (or parents) to discuss referrals for “therapy-like” services. I know that your interest is in visual therapy, but my post was a request for input about referrals for all services, and that could include visual therapy or not. I wouldn’t actually expect a school district to pay for services that were considered unproven and would assume that if parents wanted those services they would probably have to pay for them themselves, but I’d be curious to know if that’s true or not. And again, as part of the larger question of how teachers deal with this difficult issue of trying to get services for children in districts that don’t want to pay for them. I wasn’t interested in starting another thread about visual therapy.

I do not make referrals for which my school district does not wish to fund. I don’t discuss alternate therapy (such as vision) because there is nothing concrete to discuss. I don’t have any reliable evidence on exactly what it is, how it is diagnosed, and what treatments are shown effective. (So far, my questions on this board have not yielded much in the way of additional solid data.)

If a parent wishes to discuss alternate forms of therapy, I have to be honest and say that I don’t know much about them. I will, in that case, tell them something similar to what you said about experimenting with new ideas and judging their effectiveness. I’m always interested in hearing how things work out for them.

Thank you for your patience in dealing with this topic. It seems to have slogged past a normal life span without saying anything of substance.

Though you might be frustrated with the number of times you must communicate the same idea, your value here is great. Just like your mentor, Dr. Chall, you bring a “Where’s the evidence?” tone that keeps information more accurate in an opinion-laden zone. You keep me on my toes, for sure!

Andrea,

You have asked a very timely question. I cannot give my name this time as it is my real name and I am about to say something that could get me in trouble. The parents I work with are very trusting of me and the schools. They rarely question what we recommend. However, because of a budget crunch, some of these kids are not currently getting what I consider to be minimal appropriate service (and it may be worse next year). I am NOT talking about questionable or experimental therapies here. So I have connected them with an outside expert source who can give them some good advice. I can already tell there will be problems and resistance because of this, but I personally answer to a higher authority than my boss. I have to do what is right.

Hello,

Thank you so much for posting. Yours is just the kind of response that we need to hear. There are so many students today who are not being well served and in many, perhaps most, areas of the country the situation is getting worse instead of better. I knew that caring teachers like you were silently helping these children.

The truth is that most parents do trust their schools to do what’s best for their children and sadly, the schools often don’t. You are to be commended for referring them to outside help. Unfortunately, it’s the parents who complain the most and call in bigger guns that get what their children need. I hope that all this doesn’t catch up to you personally and that the parents don’t tell your boss who referred them. If they do, you at least know that you are the one who was acting honorably. And at the basic level, parents are allowed to know what their rights are and although this could get unpleasant for you, you shouldn’t be in jeopardy of losing your job. Good luck with your efforts and let us know how it’s going.

I informed my boss that I had given the parents some information about some free evaluation services by this outside expert source as I knew my name would inevitably come up. I was told not to give that info out to any more parents until the boss had checked this person out. But I had already given the parents the info and they had already called the outside source. This person is NOT an advocate by profession. This person is an expert in the particular area of special ed that my children are classified and works in a capacity where free evaluations and advising can be offered. But this person certainly knows what minimally appropriate services are and will recommend them.

It will be very, very interesting to see if this person gets resistance when he/she tries to make the arrrangements to come see the children. I’ll try to let you know the results!

The schools where I worked had a great track record of not providing adequate classroom-type services so outside services or anything beyond what a classroom teacher would do rarely came up.
If it had, I’d answer much as Andrea — but primarily, I’d be sticking to trying to get those kiddos the kind of instruction they needed and deserved… all the vision therapy in the world won’t make up for the lack of good instruction.

“…all the vision therapy in the world won’t make up for the lack of good instruction.”

Hi Sue,

While I agree with your statement above, I would also say all the good (reading) instruction in the world won’t make up for the lack of vision therapy in cases where it is needed….Rod

When my son was in special needs preschool is teacher after a few weeks of observation had ideas of what was going on with him. He was in the class with a dx of language delay. One day when I went to pick him up she had a few books she said she would like me to look over. After I was done reading them she wanted to know what I thought. The books were on autism spectrum disorders. After reading the first book I finally understood why my son was the way he was. I returned the books to her, thanked her, and then set out to help my son. Armed with this new information I knew what questions to ask and which experts I wanted to see. Another time this same teacher advocated for summer school for my son and a few of her other students. This action unfortunately lost her her job as she did not “tow the line.” We parents felt really bad about it, I even wrote a letter to the district. Their response was they could not keep and employee who could not follow the rules. I talked to this teacher after everything happened, she said she would do it again in a heart beat. We were all glad to hear she got herself a much better job in another state. Her lending me the books was her way of conveying to me without coming out and saying what she wanted.