I am taking my son to his first visit with a developmental optometrist. I strongly suspect the doctor will find that my son has a vision problem, but I do not know anything about vision therapy. How can I evaluate this optometrist’s knowledge and skills? What should I expect, if he suggests vision therapy for my son? How long does this usually take? How do you parents/teachers feel about this therapy? Any advice you can swing my way is more than welcome. BTW, my son turns twelve tomorrow.
Nancy3
If vision therapy is proposed, ask if the doctor is willing to supervise a primarily home-based program to keep costs down. If the DO does only in-office therapy, I would try to find another DO.
Some conditions benefit from in-office therapy, but many conditions respond equally well to exercises done at home. With a home-based program, you come in perhaps once a month to be trained in the exercises.
Another option is to see if the optometrist is listed at http://www.homevisiontherapy.com , which means he/she is licensed to dispense the software. This approach does not address all possible vision problems, but it is pretty good for some of the more common ones. Parents who have gone this route usually report total costs under $300 for pre-testing, the software, and post-testing and are very satisfied.
If problems are found during the testing, you probably want to request a written report of the test results. This costs an extra $75 where we are, but is very helpful in terms of understanding exactly what the strengths and weaknesses are, researching on the internet, and knowing whether or not your child benefitted from VT. A child who has both visual efficiency problems and decoding skills problems may not show visible gains in reading after VT, but this does not mean the VT has been ineffective. It just means that other interventions are also necessary — an explicit reading instruction, perhaps, but also possibly a cognitive skills training program. Having the pre-test and post-test results in front of you helps you understand exactly how much a visual deficit has been corrected.
Nancy
Mava,
I don’t think any of us can tell you how to evaluate your doctor’s recommendations. One thing I looked for in choosing a dev. op. to refer students to was whether they would show the parent the vision therapy exercises to do at home. This would be a big factor to me, because the cost just wouldn’t justify doing the vision therapy in the doctor’s office. The exercises are simple to learn.
Janis