Vision Therapy: Help, Opinions Pls!

I had my son tested for visual problems, it was found that he had visual perception problems, along with visuomotor problems and visual spatial problems even though a regular eye exam tested him at 20/20. Vision therapy was suggested by the optometrist that did the testing but the problem was that no insurances cover the cost of vision therapy and the therapy my son needed would have cost around $7,000 for the entire treatment. I think the government should make the insurances cover the costs of vision therapy because sometimes a diagnoses of ADD or ADHD is given when they really have visual problems. I just thought you might want to check with your insurance to see if the cover the vision therapy. If you find a insurance company that covers it will you let me know? Thanks Teresa Sewell

Thanks, Teresa, but I have no insurance! This is why I am wondering if I should spend the 250.00 to do the testing. It sounds like they are not providing therapy, but will make recommendations for things that might help, home activities, etc — I still have to talk to the Opt. in charge of the program, who is the senior in the practice.

WE are making progress with assisted reading at home, and want to do some phonographix work this year (struggling with math homework tho, and reading is not a problem right now), so I am torn…

I HAVE heard of 2 people getting therapy (Davis Dyslexia Correction) via their medical doctor writing a letter saying it is required, thru insurance — have you tried this route? I heard it was done thru their major medical, same as payments for psychologist or registered massage therapist, etc. Good luck if you are able to try this!

I have been to 2 developmental optomotrists so far. The first one did not do therapy but recommended he go. She did give him glasses that didn’t help. (His eyesight is 20/20) The problem is that if I want him to go to one who does therapy they have to do their own testing and I have to pay again.
The second one was a PACE provider. They evaluated him for PACE for free. Pace is a program for improving all types of cognitive processing. As part of the evaluation they did a vision screening and said he had binocular vision problems. Of the 4 tests they did he passed one, failed 2 slightly and failed one with a very low score. They said he probably could go right to PACE but that they might have to deal with the vision problem at some point.
To clarify there is a difference between binocular vision type problems that affect tracking etc and visual processing problems. Processing is what the brain does with the information when it is received. If the child has a severe vision problem, I was told you should address that first. If the brain is not receiving the signals correctly it can’t process the information.
We are scheduled for a visit with a third developmental optomotrist in January. This one does more full body balancing work which I think my son needs. My insurance (cigna) should pay for the exam. I don’t think I will get the therapy paid for. I plan on starting off with them but I will insist that I watch all the sessions. Then I will develop an at home program based on what I see them do.
I have been doing exercises that someone posted on this board. I think they have had a major impact on his tracking abilities. Before, he had headaches and said that after awhile the print moved. He says that it has gotten easier to read and I know the exercises have gotten easier for him.
The exercise that I feel did the most good was the circle ‘e’s. I typed up a few pages of random letters. He has to track the letters with a pen and circle just the ‘e’s. I started with the 20 size font and we are now down to 12.
We also do a fixation block game that I found on www.balametrics.com.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to whoever posted this info originally.

Sensory integration OT does basically the same thing as the vision therapy. My daughter’s handwriting improved tremendously as well as her ability to copy from the board - still needs limited board copyoing on her IEP, but still improved.

Hi last year I placed my son in vision therapy.Our optometrist in Brookfield Wi is wonderful. At first I was very afraid they just wanted the money. But it was money well spent. I arranged monthly payments. I did not want to waste money foolishly. I planned to quit if it did not help.Within 6 weeks of starting vision therapy I saw progress. At the time I was homeschooling. Prior to homeschooling the situation at school was not good. He was extremely depressed. He returned to school this year. He is having an awesome year. It was not my teaching that helped him, it was vision therapy.Check out PAVE on the internet hopefully it will lead to a good therapist in your area. In kindergarten my son was teacher diagnosed as ADD. Then diagnosed as NVLD by a neuropsychologist. That was a waste of money,$1000 spent on a diagnoses and no help. Recently the LD teacher at school sent me a letter informing me he is working indepently. I owe it all to vision therapy. PAVE lists the signs and symptoms of vision related problems. My son’s outlook on life has completely changed. He is doing well in school. His headaches and stomaches have gone away. We use to spend 2-3 hours nightly fighting over homework. Now he completes his work at school. As far as insurance goes I beleive it is billed as a medical diagnoses and should be covered. I wasn’t sure if it would be covered. But I made up my mind it was worth pursuing. I am glad I did. 2 years prior I took advice from someone who beleived VT was not useful.Finally I tried it. It worked!

The vision therapist at this email may have information on how to obtain insurance coverage for vision therapy [email protected] . In a recent newsletter they let parents know that a mother won a battle with insurance and they were willing to share that info. For more info on the optometrist who helped Dave. Look for http://stopstruggling.com a link to the above email address is there. I cannot praise this Doctor enough. annette

My son was diagnosed with Eye Teaming and Visual Processing issues in third grade. He went through 8 months of in-office therapy and one year of home therpy. He is now in fifth grade and reading and comprehending at an eigth grade level, when his level in thrid grade was first grade-fifth month.

It was the best thing I ever did for him. His handwriting still stinks-it is large and resembles that of a first grader. The school hasn’t really cared too much until this year, but he was turned down for OT in third grade therefore they really can’t make an issue of his handwriting. I would recommmend it, I did however get three opinions before starting therapy.

8 years ago my son was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome. He had sensory integration therapy and vision therapy. I think BOTH were tremendously beneficial (and expensive). One thing to keep in mind is that you may get help from your insurance, but it may not be very likely that you can get full reimbursement.

When he was 7 and learning to read, we got him started on comic books. I noticed, much to my dismay, that he could not follow the boxes from left to right, top to bottom. I said to myself: “how in gods name is he ever going to learn to read those little sentences if he can’t even follow the boxes???” He HATED the vision therapy (cause it was hard to do). And of course, keep in mind that both sensory integration and vision therapies are “experimental”. They’ll tell you that there is no research proving that these therapies help. I think the truth is that the therapies help for certain sub-types of executive function and attention problems, and not for others.

The cost is brutal, and you just have to decide on your priorities. But you should be able to tell yourself, at least at a prmitive level, by watching your child try to read, whether or not he/she has good visual motor control.

Dan