vision therapy

[Guest guest]

>If anyone has been through this type of therapy, please let me know

>if it is something I should pursue or is this something that is

>developmental and he will outgrow? My son is currently 6.3 and in

>kindergarten. He will be expected to read at the end of May/June

>2003.

There was some of this within the DDAT Centre programme and my son

certainly saw an improvement. The exercises he did form part of a

longer sequence of cerebellum development, but I clearly remember that

some of the eye exercises were things like looking at the four corners

of the room in turn, or in a different order, then, when that was

established, doing it with eyes shut, opening them to see how accurately

he had targeted the spot. Then there were things like walking with eyes

forward, eyes right, left etc.

Many of the exercises that preceded this involved things like tracking

bean bags with his eyes as he threw them from hand to hand, so it was a

stepped programme and you'd certainly need advice on where to start.

I'd definitely recommend doing it, getting used to the sensation of eye

control, otherwise he might develop a sick feeling when he starts trying

to read and be put off reading because of it.

The physiotherapist commented the other day on how much better my son is

doing now at using visual information and integrating it with his other

movements, something that was always markedly lacking before. (We first

realised there was a problem when, at about the age of 4, he put a

bucket over his head and yet walked around the house with just as much

confidence as without it. He didn't even slow down!)

Best of luck!

Sara

--

Sara e

[Guest guest]

As an OT, I have not directly worked with a " developmental optometrist " , but

know many who have. Not sure if your son will outgrow this or not, but if you

can add it to his therapy, I know people who swear by it.

The therapy is usually fun, but it is tiring and requires a decent attention

span.

does your OT provide sensory integration therapy with suspended equipment

(swings)--this is often the perfect adjunct to vision therapy, and if she could

even come along to a session or 2 of vision, that would be even better for

cohesive treatment for your son.

----- Original Message -----

My son's saccadic eye movements were marked by the inability to fully

dissociate eye movements from head and body movements. Fixation was

inconsistent.

If anyone has been through this type of therapy, please let me know

if it is something I should pursue or is this something that is

developmental and he will outgrow? My son is currently 6.3 and in

kindergarten. He will be expected to read at the end of May/June

2003.

[Guest guest]

Ethan does vision therapy-- been doing it since May of this year.

He's doing great with it. About halfway through. His eyes have

divergent strabismus-- but it only happens when he focuses at near-

point, so it isn't anything we really " noticed " . But the vision

therapy has really helped him-- he is in his highest reading group

now in kdgn and doing what we always " knew " in our hearts that he was

capable of, but wasn't doing for some reason. I would definitely

look into it. It is expensive for us because our policy doesn't

cover it, but we have no regrets. We're spending some of his college

fund NOW, in the hopes that this will ensure that he GETS TO college!

W

--- In @y..., " howdiette " <mulholland34@c...>

wrote:

> My son cannot identify his letters and is having difficulty with

> right/left directions. Has anyone been to a doctor of optometry

who

[Guest guest]

Hi,

My sons eye turns in also. Would you mind telling me what the computer program

is that you use at home.So far no improvement after 49

visits of therapy. tHIS WAS TO THE TUNE OF 4100.00!

Thanks,

[Guest guest]

I am very interestedin this horizontal tracking issue. It sounds as if it might

apply to my daughter. How do you find out, whether this is an issue? We live in

the UK and don't have the same access to vison related practitioners. Can you

check this yourself? How did they check this with your child?

Dagmar.

[ ] RE: Vision Therapy

My 8 year old son just visited a Developmental

Optometrist (in Northern Virginia) this past month.

He is diagnosed with Asperger's -- very high IQ, quite

verbal, OCD tendencies, mostly behavioral and social

problems.

His near and far vision is excellent, but his

horizontal tracking and inability to use both eyes

together properly was a problem. The optometrist

suggested glasses with a slight prism in each eye to

align the eyes properly when he reads and writes. He

is NOT to use them except for desk work because it

will distort his near and far vision and depth

perception. Before the glasses, when my son read, he

covered one eye or rubbed it, skipped mostly small

words and became fatigued quickly. He's had the

glasses for about a month and almost all those

symptoms have disappeared. Now, he asks for his

glasses when he writes or reads at home, and remembers

HIMSELF to use them for all his schoolwork. This is

pretty astounding because my son is very disorganized

and absent-minded. So the fact that he remembers to

use his glasses means to me that they are alieviating

a lot of stress for him.

[Guest guest]

Dagmar,

My son also has these issues. One thing I initially noticed was that he

would be reading, and start off great, but then start reading some real

clunkers

of words. He would say " we " everytime he saw " I. " Or " checkers " for " catch. "

His decoding is excellent, so it was really difficult to figure out what was

going on. Also, watch her eyes when she is reading out loud. My son's eyes

were scanning back and forth, back and forth like crazy. Now that's been

eliminated.

Have her read a line and count all the " a's " or whatever letter you want.

See how accurate she is. I could easily tell you what exercises we did, but you

really need to know what area of processing is affected before you start

doing any exercises.

Hope this helps,

[Guest guest]

Does anyone know of a good behavioral or developmental optomertrist in the

phila. area?

[Guest guest]

> I am very interestedin this horizontal tracking issue. It sounds

as if it might apply to my daughter. How do you find out, whether

this is an issue? We live in the UK and don't have the same access

to vison related practitioners. Can you check this yourself? How did

they check this with your child?

>

> Dagmar.

Hi Dagmar,

I wish I knew how to check on your own!

I just looked at my " doctor " page:

http://home.earthlink.net/~moriam/HOW_TO_find_doctor.html

and looked at the section on sources of behavioural

optometrists and vision therapists -- I checked on of

the lists and it include people in the UK. So it may

be worth checking all the lists out. The one I looked

at is: http://www.healthy.net/oep/OEPSearch.htm

You can select " by country " .

good wishes,

Moria

[Guest guest]

> All I can say is he is really moving forward and I

> have such high hopes that maybe one day we'll be able

> to be listed on Dana's " Recovery Page. "

Most of the children on my Recovery page are not fully recovered, they

are " in the process " . However, when I read *improvement* stories

posted on my message boards, I look for certain aspects. If the story

has one or more of those aspects, then I ask the person posting the

story if I can include it on my site.

But yes, I enjoy reading stories of children who are improving and/or

recovered. And it sounds like one day your child will be in the

" recovered " group!

Dana

[Guest guest]

Thank you!

Dagmar.

[ ] Re: Vision Therapy

> I am very interestedin this horizontal tracking issue. It sounds

as if it might apply to my daughter. How do you find out, whether

this is an issue? We live in the UK and don't have the same access

to vison related practitioners. Can you check this yourself? How did

they check this with your child?

>

> Dagmar.

Hi Dagmar,

I wish I knew how to check on your own!

I just looked at my " doctor " page:

http://home.earthlink.net/~moriam/HOW_TO_find_doctor.html

and looked at the section on sources of behavioural

optometrists and vision therapists -- I checked on of

the lists and it include people in the UK. So it may

be worth checking all the lists out. The one I looked

at is: http://www.healthy.net/oep/OEPSearch.htm

You can select " by country " .

good wishes,

Moria

=======================================================

[Guest guest]

Thank you!

Dagmar.

Re: [ ] RE: Vision Therapy

Dagmar,

My son also has these issues. One thing I initially noticed was that he

would be reading, and start off great, but then start reading some real

clunkers

of words. He would say " we " everytime he saw " I. " Or " checkers " for " catch. "

His decoding is excellent, so it was really difficult to figure out what was

going on. Also, watch her eyes when she is reading out loud. My son's eyes

were scanning back and forth, back and forth like crazy. Now that's been

eliminated.

Have her read a line and count all the " a's " or whatever letter you want.

See how accurate she is. I could easily tell you what exercises we did, but

you

really need to know what area of processing is affected before you start

doing any exercises.

Hope this helps,

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

During our last phone consult with Dr. Goldberg, he suggested looking into

vision therapy for our son (he has been a patient for 3.5 years) due to the

fact that he struggles terribly with his vision.

Dr. Goldberg warned us that we would need to be careful in selecting a

vision therapy provider. This is something new to us and I'm wondering if

any of you could share your experiences in this area... positive or

negative. I am also interested to find a reputable practice in our area.

We are in central Indiana.

Caroline

[Guest guest]

Caroline,

try www.covd.org/membership.php

This is something I'm still struggling with, too.

Becky

Re: Vision Therapy

>

> Hi all,

>

> During our last phone consult with Dr. Goldberg, he suggested looking into

> vision therapy for our son (he has been a patient for 3.5 years) due to

the

> fact that he struggles terribly with his vision.

>

> Dr. Goldberg warned us that we would need to be careful in selecting a

> vision therapy provider. This is something new to us and I'm wondering if

> any of you could share your experiences in this area... positive or

> negative. I am also interested to find a reputable practice in our area.

> We are in central Indiana.

>

> Caroline

>

>

>

>

>

> Responsibility for the content of this message lies strictly with

> the original author(s), and is not necessarily endorsed by or the

> opinion of the Research Institute.

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Caroline,

Yes, do be careful choosing one. Vision Therapy can be

expensive and practitioners can vary quite a bit.

In the meantime, there's a couple of good books I can

recommend. One that I've used with my son is Dr. Lane's

" Developing Your Child for Success. " It has a huge amount

of great vision/body exercises which are wonderful.

Here's a website for more informaiton:

http://www.lanelearningcenter.com/index.html

Another good book that covers some visual problems

as well as other learning disabilities is " Helping

Children Overcome Learning Disabilites " by Jerome

Rosner. You can get this pick up this book at some

book stores (like and Nobles), or you may

be able to find it at your local library.

Good luck with this! :-)

On Jul 9, 2005, at 8:33 PM, & Caroline Glover wrote:

>

> Hi all,

>

> During our last phone consult with Dr. Goldberg, he suggested looking

> into

> vision therapy for our son (he has been a patient for 3.5 years) due

> to the

> fact that he struggles terribly with his vision.

>

> Dr. Goldberg warned us that we would need to be careful in selecting a

> vision therapy provider. This is something new to us and I'm

> wondering if

> any of you could share your experiences in this area... positive or

> negative. I am also interested to find a reputable practice in our

> area.

> We are in central Indiana.

>

> Caroline

>

>

>

>

>

> Responsibility for the content of this message lies strictly with

> the original author(s), and is not necessarily endorsed by or the

> opinion of the Research Institute.

>

>

[Guest guest]

and Becky,

Thanks so much for your links and comments regarding Vision Therapy! I have

already printed out quite a few pages to share with my husband in our

efforts to understand the vision issue. I had not found either of those

sites before so everything was new to me. There was one page I just loved

(can't remember which site it was on) that described vision issues in autism

in a way that made a lot of sense and gave me a much better perspective.

Caroline

[Guest guest]

Ezzie,

Thanks for sharing your experience about Vision Therapy with me (and

others). How old is your son? Is the therapy that you are doing

done at home or else where? Was your son resistant to the therapy

at all? How long did it take for him to see that it was helping him?

[Guest guest]

Hey, just wondering if anyone out there has heard of or tried vision

therapy. If so, what results? Who should look into it?

Thanks so much

April

[Guest guest]

Hello April,

I am just a lurker here usually. My child has dx asd, not following nids

protocol, just interested as he has history of multiple virus infections.

He does however have no binocular vision, both eyes work adequately, just

independently from each other, so he has an alternating squint, with a problem

with depth perception.

We felt that it affected his confidence, and contributed to some of his asd

behaviours, as his main stim was visual. After much searching, we eventually

came across Dr. Melvin Kaplan (dr of optometry not medicine). He is based

in Tarrytown New York State. He has done research into effect of visual

problems on behaviours in children with asd.

In UK, we had been told there was no link between the two, and that nothing

could be done but the surgery. We made the expensive decision to see Dr.

Kaplan in US.

Kieran now has prism lenses which seem to provide him with some depth

perception ( he is more willing to catch ball / play football for instance.).

His

school work has advanced in last few weeks, more willing to put pen to

paper, paint etc. His confidence generally has improved as well as his

language.

Apparently this was an unexpected effect of the lenses and vision therapy

when it was first researched. It would seem that once the kids are no longer

overwhelmed with processing confusing visual information, their brains are able

to use some of that capacity to processs language better (some kids I think,

not a guarantee).

I would search for Melvin Kaplan on the internet, he has also published a

book (unsure of title), but it is published by Kingsley (London) - and

this would give you a good idea.

The vision therapy training programme is hard work, it is in the form of

games, but it is still difficult to get my son to comply, and we have to be

very

animated, lots of cajoling and rewards. We have to send a video of him

intermittently for review, and take him back after 6 months for re-test and new

lenses.

This is a major expense for us (flights and accomodation on top of costs of

treatment), and if we could get it done in UK, then we would, but I have not

found anyone who has same approach as Dr. Kaplan.

We are using Dr. Kaplan for a quite specific problem (monocular vision), and

obviously this is not applicable to all children whose parents access the

site - just our own experience. Good luck with your search for info.

Sue (UK)

[Guest guest]

I remember when my boys were younger the vision therapy was just starting out at

Children's Mercy Hospital Specialty Center in Overland Park, KS. (We lived in

the area back then). My boys were doing speech and physical therapy when the

therapist came in and tried the vision goggles for a session. My boys were there

to see if we could decrease their oral defensiveness (we couldn't even get a

toothbrush in their mouth and their diet was very restrictive). That was over 8

years ago so you may want to get more updated info from Children's Mercy if you

are trying to research things. My info is outdated. I looked up the contact info

for you. www.childrens-mercy.org phone (913)-696-8844.

Re: vision therapy

Hello April,

I am just a lurker here usually. My child has dx asd, not following nids

protocol, just interested as he has history of multiple virus infections.

He does however have no binocular vision, both eyes work adequately, just

independently from each other, so he has an alternating squint, with a problem

with depth perception.

We felt that it affected his confidence, and contributed to some of his asd

behaviours, as his main stim was visual. After much searching, we eventually

came across Dr. Melvin Kaplan (dr of optometry not medicine). He is based

in Tarrytown New York State. He has done research into effect of visual

problems on behaviours in children with asd.

In UK, we had been told there was no link between the two, and that nothing

could be done but the surgery. We made the expensive decision to see Dr.

Kaplan in US.

Kieran now has prism lenses which seem to provide him with some depth

perception ( he is more willing to catch ball / play football for

instance.). His

school work has advanced in last few weeks, more willing to put pen to

paper, paint etc. His confidence generally has improved as well as his

language.

Apparently this was an unexpected effect of the lenses and vision therapy

when it was first researched. It would seem that once the kids are no longer

overwhelmed with processing confusing visual information, their brains are

able

to use some of that capacity to processs language better (some kids I think,

not a guarantee).

I would search for Melvin Kaplan on the internet, he has also published a

book (unsure of title), but it is published by Kingsley (London) -

and

this would give you a good idea.

The vision therapy training programme is hard work, it is in the form of

games, but it is still difficult to get my son to comply, and we have to be

very

animated, lots of cajoling and rewards. We have to send a video of him

intermittently for review, and take him back after 6 months for re-test and

new

lenses.

This is a major expense for us (flights and accomodation on top of costs of

treatment), and if we could get it done in UK, then we would, but I have not

found anyone who has same approach as Dr. Kaplan.

We are using Dr. Kaplan for a quite specific problem (monocular vision), and

obviously this is not applicable to all children whose parents access the

site - just our own experience. Good luck with your search for info.

Sue (UK)

[Guest guest]

I did for both my girls both NT

had problems focusing and doing sports type stuff

also had problems tracking from one side of a line to the other

check and see if there is a school that teaches vision training for an

evaluation to make sure both eyes are working together

having a bit of email problems but would be willing to talk off list

at P_Dutkiewicz AT msn DOT com

Pat

vision therapy

>

>

>> Hey, just wondering if anyone out there has heard of or tried vision

>> therapy. If so, what results? Who should look into it?

>>

>> Thanks so much

>> April

>>

>>

>>

>>

>> Responsibility for the content of this message lies strictly with

>> the original author(s), and is not necessarily endorsed by or the

>> opinion of the Research Institute and/or the Parent Coalition.

>>

>>

[Guest guest]

Well, my son had vision therapy to address some

vision deficits. The school district paid for the testing and

for the therapy. I believe he got ten sessions, then got

follow up testing to see if he was ready to be discharged.

Liz

On Mar 1, 2006, at 4:16 PM, Tammy wrote:

> Is any one on this list currently using vision thereapy for special

> needs? Who's child is NOT vision impared?