It was interesting to say the least. They did 2 hours of tests. My son scored low on balancing, picture completion, picture comparison?, and high on auditory sequential memory and writing speed. That was just the verbal summary I will be getting a written report. The doctor said, “His writing speed is good but I can’t figure out how he is doing it with all these other issues.” I wonder if it was IM because I know he at least couldn’t sequence before that.
One thing he was very interested in was how my son responded to other remediation attempts such as exercises at home or OT at school. I told him that he does well. He was looking to see if he improved on specific tasks when he did the specific exercises. I told him he definitely did. He seemed to see this as very important at predicting his success.
He also thought my son’s IQ would go up with vision therapy. He said this was not something he saw in all children but through his testing he could really see some specific areas that were holding him back. He said, “It is just something I know because I have 45 years experience.”
One fascinating thing about this doctor was that he diagnosed my dh’s vision issues without examining him. He said, “You have this and this, and obviously your contacts irritate you because they don’t fit properly.”
This doctor, was pretty impressed with all I knew. I just kept throwing things out to him and he just kept shaking his head. He said, “wow,” a few times.
In the end, he said, “Your son will succeed at this because he has you as a mother and you as a father.”
It looks like 36 weeks of weekly visits and homework to be done at least 5 days a week. This doctor does more than flat vision therapy, he really gets at the balancing, vestibular issues as well. Thanks Beth for that suggestion. It was a great one.
Re: Just got back from the dev optomotrist.
I live in New Jersey. I called all of the therapists in my area. I was looking for someone who dealt with vestibular issues (balance work) as well as eye muscle and visual processing issues including visualization.
Most don’t do the balance work because it competes with occupational therapists from whom they get referrels, (One VT actually said this to me.) I really wanted someone who used an integrated approach that addressed alot of issues.
Re: Just got back from the dev optomotrist.
You can find the board-certified developmental optometrists in your area at http://www.covd.org. If there are several, call or email all of them. Sometimes this gives you a good feel for who to eliminate and who to follow-up with.
Re: Just got back from the dev optomotrist.
Hi Linda,
I’m planning to start my son in VT too. It’s interesting to learn how long your son would need to go. Our doctor recommended 8-12 months so maybe that’s a typical duration of treatment (?).
Thanks for sharing what you’ve learned. It’s very interesting since it looks like we’ll be starting VT soon.
How’s Audiblox going?
Re: Just got back from the dev optomotrist.
Funny you should ask about audiblox. The doctor kept asking me specific questions about what we were doing at home. He seemed very puzzled by my child. I went into the specific exercises in audiblox. He said they do alot of the same exercises like the arrows chart and other things that were very similar. When I explained what we had been doing I think it explained for him why my son was such a partially remediated, mixed picture. He wrote down the audiblox website address because he had never heard of it.
He got a kick out of me and I got a kick out of him getting a kick out me.
Re: Just got back from the dev optomotrist.
I had the same experience with the vision therapist we visited regarding IM. He was very surpised by how much I knew (thanks to everyone here!), and he also felt my son was an enigma (surprisingly high scores with some things and very low scores in other areas…very typical for my son!).
He kept telling me he wished more parents were like me. He said there’s a lot of parents who come in wanting him to “fix their child” without having to put parental effort or work into it.
I would like to know how you found a developmental optometrist and what state do you live in? Thanks Teresa Sewell