I don’t post here too often but happened to check in and saw your post re: the vision therapy.
Your instincts about the vision doc you saw are probably correct. Here in a NYC suburb (very high COL), our exam cost under $200 (no report though) and the therapy less than half of what you were told. Also, our doc worked with us to lower the cost even further by spreading the visits out and giving us work to do at home.
Some practitioners are rip-off artists…happens in every field. I can’t say vision therapy is the answer for you, but we did it and it helped my child. He also was prescribed reading glasses. Finally, I did cognitive skills training with him to work on his memory, which was affecting his ability to learn to read.
It all helped and fairly quickly, too. We saw a difference in a few months and by the time we stopped, ds was above grade level. I still feel he could use more work because he still fatigues when reading and some of the tracking mistakes still pop up when he’s tired.
A book that was highly recommended to me was [i]Integrating Mind, Brain, and Body Through Movement”[/i] by Etta Crowley. You can get it at http://www.oep.org. It is not expensive.
I hope that is useful info. for you.
Donna
Re: bgmom....re: vision therapy (m)
The vision therapy drama continues. I sent an e-mail to homevision therapy and they asked me what doctor I went to. I responded by have not gotten another e-mail. I contacted my developmental optometrist and they said that they could not prescribe the homevision therapy at this time but my son could come in 1/mo. or everyother week to get a foundation and then they could re-evaluate him after two months and determine what software would work for him. In the meantime I contacted another optometrist listed on the home vision therapy website. He is not a developmental optometrist but he could examined my son and prescribe the vision home therapy program. Cost of $175 for exam and prescription. Home vision program cost of $220 and then I would follow up in two to four weeks cost of $40.00 for examination. Has anyone done the home vision therapy program and did it work?
Re: question re: vision therapy
Hello. I am new to this website and I am very interested in finding out more about vision therapy. My friend just mentioned this to me as I have never heard of it before. Can someone tell me how to get started with it? Do I contact my child’s primary care physician or is there a resource I can go to? Any info to help me get started would be great. I really want to get my daughter tested.
Thanks.
Re: bgmom....re: vision therapy (m)
Look at the topic “computer programing to increase vision”. It has a lot of information regarding vision therapy.
Re: bgmom....re: vision therapy (m)
bgmom,
It’s impossible for someone on this forum to say whether or not the home vision therapy software would help your child. The software addresses several of the most common problems, but it does not address all possible developmental vision problems. What I would recommend is that you call or email Dr. Stephey in CA (he is listed at the home vision therapy site) and ask his advice. He is very generous about helping parents who want to help their children. Give him all the information you have in terms of test results, your observations, etc. He would be the best one to give you some direction.
It really seems to me that your original developmental optometrist is one who is in it for the money, and may be stalling on the software for that reason. On the other hand, it could be that your child’s particular combination of problems would not be particularly responsive to the software. What makes me very suspicious is the once-a-month office visits — unless this means that the optometrist is designing a home program of vision therapy for you to carry out on a daily basis, and the monthly visits are just to check progress and train you on the new procedures. (I know several people who have done it this way.) Judging by the costs you were quoting, though, I suspect this is not the case. Monthly visits without daily exercises would, frankly speaking, do nothing for any kind of developmental vision problem.
Before making a decision, I would also wait to hear from the software company.
Good luck! It’s heartening to see a parent pursue vision therapy and not give up. Please keep us updated, as I would be very interested to hear how this all turns out.
Nancy
Re: bgmom....re: vision therapy (m)
parent444,
For information I recommend visiting http://www.childrensvision.com and http://www.page.org for starters.
Developmental vision skills are *not* evaluated in regular eye exams, whether by opthalmologists or optometrists. You can find board-certified developmental optometrists in your area at http://www.covd.org . A typical eval usually takes about two hours and tests a wide variety of vision skills including convergence, accommodation, saccades and tracking, which are not tested in regular eye exams.
Nancy
After Nancy3 suggestion, I check the home vision therapy website and found out that my doctor was listed. I called their office and asked if they could provide the software since I already had paid for the examination. They are taking this up to review with the doctor. I did mentioned that my insurance does not cover vision therapy and that I am a stay at home mom and I could provide the therapy sessions for my son. Of course they mentioned that he could probably come once per month but that it would probably be as much because it would involve four weeks of therapy. I’ll let you know what happens. In the meantime, my son is getting a complete LD evaluation within 90 days. He is currently finishing up earobics step 1. Think good thoughts!