Starting Vision Therapy, also techniques from Gift of Dyslex

Good Luck. I am another who had very good luck with VT for my son. In his case, he also had perceptual difficulties but that therapy has been done at home with a computer program obtained through the Optometrist. The in-office therapy was only for the “Eye Teaming” and focusing issues. He had the same problems you describe. It took 6 months of therapy but his CAT in Reading Comprehension was 47 National for 2nd grade, then 81 for 3rd grade during therapy, and this last one for 4th grade was a 91!!!!!!!

I had to take my ex to court because he refused to pay for half citing articles calling it “witchcraft” but in the end the judge agreed that he would rather err on the side of the child. It was very time consuming and he had daily “homework” that he had to do, but for us it was well worth it. I hope you have the same experience and the same end result.

Hi Beverly,
Although you mention your son had similar perceptual difficulties prior to vision therapy, do you mind describing them to me in detail? I’m really trying to figure out exactly if my son may benefit. My guess is it helps a particular condition.

Also, what particular areas did the computer program help remediate? Where did you get it? Do you know the name and the company that made it? I’ve been told that for therapy he’ll probably have to go into the office once a week (if not more), and I’ll also have to work with him at home (which isn’t a problem because I work with him on other things). But it would be nice to add one more element (such as a computer program!). Although I’d have to check if it remediates the areas in which he needs help. At our last appointment they mentioned that there was a problem with tracking, eye-aiming, poor nearpoint, poor binocularity (which, I believe is eye teaming) and poor focusing ability.

Tomorrow he’ll be tested with a visagraph and there will be some other testing. One area is form consistency.

Laura,

Since you mentioned that your son seemed to fit the profile mentioned in Ron Davis’s book you might want to check out the DavisDyslexia website and ask questions in their forum. They should be very helpful.

It might be that if your son has a strong visual-spatial ability he can also easily “disorient” and so visual therapy testing may or may not be accurately recording what he is ” seeing”. Exercising the eye muscles to improve tracking and convergence type issues may not help if those muscles are not actually weak but seeing from a disoriented perspective.

On the other hand VT seems to be a real blessing to those who are told surgery is the only option for amblyopia or “lazy eye”.

Have you been to http://www.childrensvision.com? Lots of good information there. The visagraph is supposed to be excellent (wasn’t available at our clinic when we did VT a couple of years ago).

In our experience, it is certainly possible for a child to have some excellent visual perception skills and still have severe developmental vision problems. When my dd was tested for vision therapy, her scores ranged from 1st percentile for fine saccades to 99th percentile for visual closure. I’m going out on a limb, but it seemed to me that all of her high scores were associated with intelligence (IQ) while her low scores were associated with physical functioning of her eyes.

People often think that vision therapy cures all vision problems, and it is enough for some children. However, it often gets a bad rap when there is little practical improvement in reading. The reality is that many children need cognitive training as a follow-up to VT in order to develop skills such as sequencing, directionality, short-term visual memory, pattern recognition, etc. — all of which may not have developed normally because of years of physical deficit (in our case, slow focusing speed, poor eye teaming, poor motor function — both gross and fine saccades, tracking, etc.). We did not reap the full benefits of vision therapy until we followed up with cognitive training.

We did PACE (Processing and Cognitive Enhancement, http://www.learninginfo.com), which is *excellent* but expensive. Audiblox (http://www.audiblox2000.com) is a much less expensive home program that has a rather good visual processing component. If VT does not provide all of the improvement necessary, I would definitely recommend a cognitive training program.

Mary

First off we noticed he would mix up “the” and “a” and other short connecting words. We also noticed that he would “create” words and we would later notice that the “created” word was a blending of the beginning of the word he was supposed to be reading with the next word, a word on the next line or a word several words later. He would mix up “saw” and “was” and other similiar words. He would decode a word on one page, and then not recognize it on the next page.

He was diagnosed with eye teaming ( yes this is binocular dysfunction) that in his case was concergence excess, his eyes would over focus together causing the left eye to focus to the right of where the right eye was focusing. He also had tracking issues, where his eyes would not go to the next word in the line. His Visagraph actually made me cry-his eyes were all over the page and he re-read things continually because he realized that something didn’t make sense. I couldn’t believe he had made it all the way through 2nd grade trying to read that way.

He completed the office therapy to resolve these issues and it was wonderful. He did have Visual Processing/Perceptual problems-his TVPS (?) scores were in the 17th percentile when tested by the Optometrist, however the school (who tested as well) refused OT services due to the fact that he didn’t fall that magic 1.5 standard deviations beneath the mean for his age on the sections of the test that they used. In his case, he has major problems with visual memory. He would see the shape or image when tested and then when he turned the page and had to pick out the same drawing, he couldn’t do it. Forget form consistency-he took a Bender Gestalt with a friend who is a school psychologist and after completing only the first 3 exercises in more time than it would take most children his age to complete the whole thing, she gave up.

We knew from his mixing up words in Reading and the gap in his scores for Reading Comprehension vs Vocabulary/Spelling/Math that we had a problem. I had my friend do the testing before I entered the CST twlight zone. But she couldn’t diagnose the problem, only aim me in the right direction.

The home program involved many different sections and evolves based on his scores on particular tasks. He has completely finished all sections but the visual memory. In that sections, it gives him a series of letters (or letters and numbers) and then the screen goes blank and he is expected to type that same series. He has been working on this for almost a year and he usually scores in the 70’s, this past month he has been off his meds (did I mention he also has ADHD??) and has not scored above a 40.

This program was purchased through the Optometrist who did his VT. It is called “Computerized Perceptual Therapy” and was developed by Sidney Groffman and Rodney Bortel. I know I obtained some information (not much) from a website homevisiontherapy.com but the program can only be obtained through a Developmental Optometrist who performs VT. The doctor programmed my son’s information and he goes back every 6 months (I download the data to a disk first) for an evaluation.

I wouldn’t recommend doing it until after regular VT because it would just be too much. The regular homework involved reading with different lenses that had to be switched after every line that he read and would often give him headaches in the beginning. Then he had charts that he had to read outside to inside and concentric circles that he held up and practiced bringing them together and then separating. Between the 2 days a week that he was in therapy and the homework for school and therpy, he was fried. A weird side effect is that his batting average dropped BIG TIME when he was in therapy and then had to go to a private batting lesson this season to get his “batting sight” back-apparently his ability to hit well was caused partly by his overfocusing!!!!

I am sorry this ended up so long. If you have any questions that I missed, feel free to email me.

Hi Carylin,
Thank you for pointing that! At the exam today, they told me that they really don’t believe my son has dyslexia (even though he does a problem with reversals).

I won’t know the full results until I meet with the doctor at our next appointment. Which, unfortunately, isn’t until the middle of next month. That was their next opening! :-o

But I’m still going to try using the Davis methods in the meantime. Also, I will go over to that site when I have a few extra moments.

Again, thanks!

Hi Mary,

The Visagraph was very intriguing. After seeing how my son’s eyes jumped all over the place, and read, reread, and reread in places, I couldn’t help but wonder how someone else (like me or my daughter —both of us “readaholics”) would do with the same test.

According to the Visagraph my son is reading at a 1st grade level. He’s entering 3rd next year! :-o

Actually, I had my son tested for PACE and he was not considered a candidate. Nothing was less than a year above age level and some of his scores were exceptionally high (phonolgical processing 15 years!).

Thanks for sharing your experience. It gives me a little hope! Although I do realize there may be other therapies that might still be needed along with, or following this therapy.

Thanks for your long and thourough response! It’s reassuring to hear that your son did well with vision therapy. I’m hoping we’ll be able to do it.

Your experience sounds similar to ours. The Visigraph results were kind of upsetting to me as well…and I had to wonder what a “normal” Visigraph looks like. I know that the scores are compared and listed in the printout I received, but I would have been curious to see it on the Visigraph.

Interestingly, I’m pretty sure my son did exceptionally well on the form consistency and form completion visual perceptual testing today. (They wanted to retest form consistency because he only got 50%ile on the schools testing and this was quite low compared to his other tests). I was in the room watching from the side and he appeared to be getting just about everything correct…at least as far as I could tell. Those were HARD tests!

On the other hand, he had a reversal test (letters and numbers) and there were some errors. I don’t know the scores yet, but some of them were consistently reversed.

Interestingly, he had a problem with a motor test. It was that he lay down as if making a snow angel and move arms and legs in various combinations. There was one particular combination that he seemed to have some difficulty with (when moving one arm and opposite leg, he’d move both legs. This he did with both sides!).

I’ll be curious to learn the results of our testing next month!

Again, thank you so much for sharing your experience! :-)
If I do think of more questions I’ll email you.

Laurie, It will be interesting to see if your son truly has dyslexia. With phonomic awareness that strong, I’d be surprised. Usually pa weakness is one of the hallmarks of dyslexia. What ever the SLD is, it’s great that you are working so hard at addressing it.

Hi guys,
My son also scored very high on phonemic awareness on the Woodcock JOhnson (7th grade level, and he was in 2nd grade) but on the phoneme/grapheme score he was below grade level. Most people seem to concentrate on the phonemic awareness score as an indication that he’s not “really” dyslexic. Can anyone explain the significance of the much lower phoneme/grapheme score? One psychologist thought this was important.

Laura, the more I hear about your son, the more he sounds like mine (as we’ve discussed) The snow angel test sounds like a test for bilateral coordination, something my son has trouble with as well. He also has left /right confusion. We’ve seen it in many venues, including his IM evaluation.

Leah,
I’m not sure if his phonemic skills are still so high! He was tested with a local PACE provider after I did a month of PG with him (2 hours in the morning & 2 hours in the early evening).

What I’ve noticed since, is that because of vision (or sensory integration?), he can still read and decode well (at times). But his ability is not “steady” and he doesn’t seem to be progressing (if he is, it’s very subtle!).

I need to join this club too ;)

My son had bilateral motor coordination issues. Did both you sons have trouble with mixed handedness left and right hand dominance for different things? There seems to be link to this.

My son also has visual perception/processing issues. He tested very low on block design on the wisc. Has always had trouble with puzzles, spatial page managment when writing etc. We went to a developmental optomotrist who diagnosed him with saccadic eye movements and pursuit eye movement. She said that we could go with therapy or glasses. She said glasses would solve 70% of the problem. She didn’t test for visual perception but recommended a name of someone I could go to for that. ( I am really trying to save my money for therapies as I don’t feel like taking another ride on the diagnosis roller coaster but if I don’t see an improvement I will have to go there)
He just got the glasses last week. It is a little too soon to tell how much they will help. When she first put them on him she asked him to read the bottom line. He read it perfectly. When he took them off I asked him to read it again. He read the 3 as an E. He really doesn’t have a problem with reversals now (he did in first grade) when writing his letters but maybe some other strength his helping him compensate.
He also occasionally gets the small words wrong. I will listen to him read closer to see if the glasses have helped this problem. I can’t say for sure yet. The optomotrist said that the missing of the small words was related to the pursuit eye movements.

My son also has very good phonemic awareness. He did phonographix and this was really the skill that got him started reading. At first he was slow and deliberate sounding out each and every word. Overtime he became a much faster and more accurate reader. I really think that it was just practice that helped develop the fluency.
He now reads a 60 to 100 page chapter book a week with very good comprehension. He is entering 3rd grade.
I also read that the best exercise for tracking problems was reading. So for now we are with the glasses the reading and a few exercises I do for him that I have found in a couple of books.
My son also has sensory integration with some dyspraxia. I have been told that they IM we will be doing in August will help those issues. The occupational therapist also said that the IM should help the bilateral motor issues which are connected to the dyspraxia.
Lets continue this discussion. Perhaps we can all figure out the link between visual perception and bilateral motor issues.
There certainly seems to be some sort of link here.

It sounds like we are all on the same track - we are doing IM starting this Thursday!! I truly believe my son is a beat off in life - call it motor planning problems if you will. He evidenced some visual delays but we haven’t looked into this area. I think you can only do so many things at one time. Will keep you all posted on how IM goes for us, but my hope is that it will get at the root cause of all of these processing issues.

Karen

Please do! We are starting in two weeks. It seems like the perfect program for my boy’s problems. My son is very strong and looks like an athlete. Then you see him do something like swim or go off the diving board and although he can do it there is just something off about his timing. Just one beat off like your boy.
I will also let everyone know how it goes.
Further input about the glasses. I would say they have helped my son only slightly. I think it is just a little easier for him to sit and read for longer periods of time. No great shakes!
I am doing a program involving a geoboard with him for visual perception. He seems to have improved somewhat from doing this but it is too soon to tell. We are doing handwriting without tears cursive as well. HWT has been really great for him.
Maybe all these things together will work.

Linda

My son too. He is very physical, runs fast, plays tag with the other boys etc. (thank goodness, its a saving grace for him socially!) . You see him on the basketball court and he looks like he’s going to just tip over, arms flapping and yet he gets to the end and makes a basket. He also rode a 2 wheeler in one day when he was 6, much earlier than many of his friends . ( we live in a city so alot of the kids are delayed for bike riding - not enough opportunity) But even though he got up right away he had trouble starting and stopping smoothly. There’s just something off. Its not severe enough to spend the time in OT, except that I am convinced that the motor planning is also at the root of some of his academic issues. Let’s keep our fingers crossed on the IM!!

Interestingly, my son has unusually good visual perception and his block design was also very good. He does well with just about any puzzle and enjoys visual puzzles and games.

However, I have to guess that my son’s spatial page management when writing is very poor (he runs out of room at the end of a line and squeezes words in rather than starting on a new line). His handwriting resembles a Kindergarteners (he’s entering 3rd grade too).

According to our initial vision exam which was about a month ago he had trouble with tracking, eye-aiming, poor near point (sees double within 8”), poor binocularity and poor focusing ability.

Similar to your son, I’m pretty sure he still has Sensory Integration issues as well. It’s interesting how many of these similar issues manifest slightly different in each of our children. I’m very interested to hear how the IM goes for both your and Karen’s son.

BTW, until we can start vision therapy, I’m using a pretty good book in the meantime. It’s called “Developing your Child for Success” by Dr. Lane. I really like it. There’s a good variety of exercises vision/motor/ocular etc… and they are really good. Quite a few of the exercises use a metronome and have different levels so you can increase the difficulty as the child’s skill increases.