Vision Therapy Update and questions

the test is Spatial Relations Test of the Primary Mental Abilities.

I like the I Spy memory game. It has real pictures that are somewhat interesting. The pairs also are not exactly alike—two fish that are in different positions, for example. I enjoy the game, unlike most memory games.

Beth

One thing that works for me is to try coming at this from another angle. A traditional drawing class or even better a technical drawing class where you have to pay very close attention to visual detail *for a purpose* can be one of the best things you can do. Taking machinery apart and putting it back together again (ie learning to repair bicycles or lawnmowers or clocks) is also excellent for *using* visual skills.

Interesting thought Victoria.

My son’s weakness is visual memory - holding an image in his head. He is actually quite strong at manipulating the image of something as long as its in front of him. (He is off the charts on measures of figure/ground and surprisingly high on visual/spatial) So I think putting things together would easy, but I like the idea of technical drawing b/c of the attention piece. Hmmm.

Have you considered Audiblox? It does quite a bit of work with visual memory. http://www.audiblox2000.com

Reverse spelling works on some aspects of visual memory. This is an oral game where you spell a word and your son tells you what the word is. Start with simple two- and three-letter words and gradually work up to longer words. Example: you spell c - a - t (about one second pause between letters), he tell you the word is “cat”. This is an easy one to do for just two or three minutes at a time several times a day. You might think at first that it is working primarily on auditory memory, but actually it requires holding visualizations of the letters in memory. Children with visual memory problems have trouble with this exercise at first, even with just three-letter words, but most children find the exercise fun.

Nancy

Nancy, thanks, I like that one.

I have looked into audioblox, but I need some “quick and dirty” games we can play. We don’t have the time to do a program like that at this point in his life.

When he did Seeing Stars at LMB he did a similar exercise and surprised me at his abilitiy to visualize the letters in his mind. I’m really puzzled b/c he has marked strengths and weaknesses within these closely related tasks. So let me run this by you…is it possible that he’s having an input problem? The biggest weakness seems to be when he has to look at something relatively quickly and retain it. Once its in he seems to be able to “see” it in his minds eye, if that makes sense. His visualization skills as they relate to reading comprehension are very good. But then again he’s a terrible speller so in that case he’s not retaining it correctly. Confusing to me….

It’s very possible.

It’s as if the photographic lens doesn’t keep a lot of the image - but if he has time to tap into the much stronger processors of information, and give it meaning, it will stick.

This would be somebody who would score at a lower percentile for immediate recall than delayed.

Karen,
He may be like my son. When he’s given time he can visualize a series of shapes quite well, but when a set of shapes or letters are flashed quickly he almost completely loses his visual memory. (Poor dynamic visual memory)

For general visual memory simple “memory” board games are good. I used to play those a lot with my son when he was little. To help develop dynamic visual memory Audiblox would be good. Another idea might be index cards with either letters, numbers, shapes or pictures which you’d flash quickly and which he’d name or describe.

Actually, I really should be working on this too! But we’re quite busy with day camp right now.

I’ll have to see if I can detect if there is a difference. There was one test he had where he was show several unusual shapes, and then was asked to recreate them. He was so anxious about it he just kept getting worse each round. His actual ability to do it was hard to detect. But now I have a name for his definite area of weakness: dyanmic visual memory. Cool, thanks.

Karen,

My son was really bad at what you describe also—although unlike your son, he wasn’t any better with greater time. What was interesting to me is last time he was at the developmental optometrist (last summer), he scored normal on rapidly presenting information (I had a hard time with it!) Why I find this interesting is that we had not done any exercises directly to improve eye functioning but rather more vestibular integration with Neuronet.

Beth

Karen,
I just looked up my son’s testing to get the definition. One test he had was called Visual Sequential Memory (ability to remember a series of images, letters or numbers). My son scored well with this (99%ile).

But then, oddly, on a laterd test which was called Dynamic
Visual Sequential Memory he totally “lost it” and scored in 1%ile (big swing!). This second test was done with a Tachistoscope. You might want to ask your VT about this. Perhaps your son has a similar difficulty? Although I’d imagine anxiety can really skew test results.

I’m wondering if this might be a brain-based processing difficulty which only adds to the problems of someone with a reading disability. And maybe, like Beth has found, there’s a vestibular connection here. That’s something to consider….

Karen and Laura,

I am not even sure what a Tachistoscope is so I know my son didn’t have that test!! What was the difference between the two tests? The one he had flashed a series of numbers on the wall and he had to recall them. Much more like what you describe as the first test your son did. That is the test we found vestibular integration helped with.

Beth

I think he did use a tachiscope (whatever!). At least the computer program had a title that had that word in it.

The first test flashed a series of numbers sequentially and he had to type them in . The string got longer and longer, and he did really well.

The second test flashed a string of numbers simultaneously… like 1, and then 17, and then 176… and so on. anything more than 3 diigits was difficult for him.

My understanding is that the first allows you to tap your auditory memory and the second is more purely visual.

Laura, can you describe the 2 tests, or has it been too long to remember? I’m not sure if my son’s first test is a seqential visual memory or dynamic sequential …

Karen

For what it is worth, the test my son took was actually the second you describe, Karen. It was a series of numbers that he had to recall like 176 and 4132. Vestibular work helped this improve.

Actually, the two tests my son had were much more dissimilar (although both test visual memory). The first one, if I’m recalling it correctly, was a series of shapes like this:
++0000+++00+

He would be shown each one for a moment, and then had to pick the correct one out of a combination of three sets.

The one with the Tachistoscope had a series of numbers flashed together very quickly on a wall similar to the testing you’ve described. This was extremely difficult for my son too (he lost it after three). He just couldn’t process all the numbers quickly enough.

ah, our original testing had a test like the first one you describe. I think he did well, and I remember discussing with the doctor that it also allows you to use auditory memory b/c you can recite the sequence to yourself. (the period of time to look at it was long enough…) But if it were just flashed quickly then I know my son wouldn’t be able to do it at all.

I’m sure we all have these strengths and weaknesses, but we just haven’t been tested to within an inch of our lives!

Hi Karen,
You’re right! I hadn’t thought of that test as auditory. My son seems to have strong visual-spatial skills (good with building, patterning, understanding mechanics, etc..) so I assumed he approached it visually.

You are also quite right about how we ourselves have these same strengths and weaknesses I happened to be nearby during my son’s testing with the tachistoscope and those numbers flashed so quickly that I too had a hard time processing them. It was like if I blinked I completely missed them!