Trying to understand how vision therapy fits in ...

My son seems to be the flip of your child. His lowest score was block design 4 but all the scores having to do with visual perception were below average.

He scored very high in comprehension and vocabulary.

I am doing visual perception exercises from Rosner’s book. The pretest showed him to be at the kindergarten level. He now is at the second grade level. It is strange but watching him try to draw those shapes made me understand the deficit a little better. I see that he has trouble finding where to start and where to end. He has trouble analyzing the shape and seeing the pieces from the whole. I think these exercises have helped. He is more willing to do things that are visually oriented. Today he actually sat down and traced a picture. He has never wanted to do this on his own before.

When I tested my friends son he had difficulty with the shapes as well but did not have trouble analyzing the pieces. He just didn’t finish. He would stop before the shape was complete, leaving lines out. When I asked him if he was done he looked at it and said, yes. It seemed obvious that he wasn’t looking at the whole picture. Conversely, my son always seems to know if it isn’t complete. It was strange to see that the same skill could be difficult for a child with different areas of deficit. I believe the exercises would help him as well. My friend is waiting for her geoboard to begin.

Karen,

We did vision therapy a couple years back with some benefit. My son was able to do worksheets without confusion afterwards. But he has had continuing vision problems which we are now addressing in Neuronet therapy.

I know another Mom here whose son saw the same vision therapist with the same mediocore results. Her son is now seeing a different vision therapist. Her comment to me was how different the two approaches were. (She went to this vision therapist on the recommendation of the same Neuronet therapist—different problems. Can you believe we met through this bulletin board?). But anyway, my point is there is a range of talent out there.

My observation is that some, like our vision therapist, mostly use “flat” approaches. This is probably enough for kids with simple problems that aren’t tied into sensory integration. The other therapist uses much more active approach—kids are doing things all the time. I think there is much more OT type activities incorporated into it, from the description I have.

Both were COVD certified so that doesn’t necessarly tell you much.

How did the IM end up working out?

Beth

Well, we seem to be stuck in IM purgatory. He was making great strides thru the program, but is having difficulty getting his feet to what they need to . So we’ve had to digress from the program, slow the tempo, and then work back up to the right rythem. In the end it will be about 28 sessions in total. I’m frustrated, poor, and worried about finally seeing some results (we haven’t yet!)

But at least I understand motor planning and why IM should help. I don’t understand the differences between all these visually related terms and skills. And I’m more suspicious of VT b/c of feedback from folks like you.

Karen,

What a pain. I have no doubt we would have ended up in similar straits had we not done Neuronet first. Hang in there! Remember it still is a efficient therapy in terms of inputs and outputs.

Some people have achieved wonderful results with vision therapy. I think it depends on the problem and the skill of the person. I have no doubt that the optometrist I and my friend’s kids saw did a fine job with certain types of problems. Our kids are more complex though, and I know yours is too. I think you want a recommendation from someone you really trust plus you want to go and ask lots of questions. I had my son retested after the first guy (for the Neuronet therapist) and one big difference I noticed between the two optometrists was in the types of tests they did. The second guy did a greater variety—some with blocks, more OT like (I have had a SI evaluation) and he tested with cognitive stress. In other words, the first guy insisted my son could track fine, and he could on his tests (after therapy). The second guy concluded that his tracking faltered with cognitive tasks. The second guy’s testing was much closer to reading, especially for a child with CAPD.

We are still doing therapy for vision but the Neuronet therapist feels she can handle his remaining issues. She sent us for retesting because she wanted a complete report by someone she trusted to be sure of that. As I said, she sent my friend’s kid to another vision therapist for therapy, in addition to Neuronet therapy.

Compared to IM, vision therapy is less standardized and thus harder to “purchase”.

Beth

Karen,

My son also has hit a bit of a block as well. He is not progressing as well as our therapist would like. Watching him do the exercises I can really see just how bad his dypraxia/motor planning is. It is worse than I could have imagined. Interesting he also has trouble with the feet. He looks like he is doing an Mexican hat dance sometimes, can’t find his rythym. She said the feet come last. They are much harder.

The therapist dropped the bomb on me the other day and said that after about 6 months she would like to do it with him again as she thinks he will not get down into the optimal low 20s. One other thing she said that when she has people take this break she actually seems improvement during the time period after IM. She said that improvements in timing continue even after IM is done.

Despite all of this bad news I have seen one area in which he has improved. He could not do most of the exercises required for football when he started. He can now do some pretty complex things with his feet. Also he is much better at football in general. He plays middle linebacker; he has to watch the play and make the tackle. This is pretty complex. He is actually able to make some plays; he even knocked the ball out of the air during a pass.
My son has always seemed a little out in left field at practice. He would walk instead of run. The coaches expect enthusiasm.They want to see the kids respond quickly to requests. The other day when they were calling out the roll the children were responding with a quiet “here”. When it was my son’s turn he yelled, “HERE COACH.” The coach said, “Thank you Chris.”

I am wondering is your son doing any sport or other activity where an improvement would be apparent.

I could have sworn that I read in one of the brochures that low 20s was guaranteed. Perhaps that was for people doing it who are not ld. There are different programs.

Well, I guess low 20’s IS guaranteed provided you go for as many sessions as possible. My son has been getting his scores into the 20’s on the hand exercises, so I feel we will get there. But as I said it ain’t 15 sessions, or even 21 which we had anticipated but a whopping 27 at best. This therapy (which I don’t think my insurance is going to cover b/c we are getting it from a speech therapist and they don’t do speech) will end up costing over $3200. egads.

He hasn’t returned to any activities where I could measure his progress. He swims all summer, but is already pretty good. I’d be able to tell if I saw him play basketball. Frankly, I’m watching the table manners and praying for an improvement in fine motor, body awareness at the table.

I am praying for my son to stop teasing his brother. It is this impulsive act he can’t seem to stop. He gets in his face and screams. (He doesn’t do this anywhere else to anyone else)

If this stops, I will know for sure that IM has truely changed him. Maybe I have my goals set too high.

You may be expecting miracles here!! What is a brother for anyway!!

Beth