Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Prism glasses

I had started a thread using Process glasses but have come to discover that they are prism glasses. I am wondering if anyone out there has used them and found them to be of use? or what experience anyone has with them. My DD12 was prescribed them by a vision therapist who had a hard time expressing himself verbally and I am still waiting for the written report. I took the prescription to where I get my lenses and the fellow there informed me that the vision therapist had been around for a long time and knew what he was doing and I should trust his judgement. uhm..... still would love to have stories from "real" people.....

Flower,
Can you explain the glasses a little more?

My dd had glass prescribed by a behavioral optometrist which are essentially bifocals -- clear glass on the top (she has 20/20 vision) and a special lens on the bottom to help her focus her eyes. She is to wear them for "up close work" like reading, writing or math. The doctor explained that without the glasses the words and numbers were jumping around on the page for her.

Her teacher described them as "prism glasses" which is the only time I had heard the term. Does this sound similar or is it a completely different vision issue?

Hi Irisheyes, they could be similar. My DD sees 20/20 also so there is only the prsim in the glasses. Here is a link that I have found that describes what they supposedly can do..

http://www.drwylie.com/our-services/yoked-prisms.html

My daughter does not complain of letters jumping around, but dyslexia runs strong in my family. When she was in 1 - 3 grade she was always underestimated in her reading skill. I found out that they tested her by having her read out loud. I knew from listening to my daughter that she had a really hard time to read out loud and hated it. She would skip the little words, the, an etc. and change words. I always tested her for comprehension which seemed alot more important. After I found how they assessed reading I spent hours having her read out loud to me and working with her. The biggest one was helping her not to skip lines or re-read lines. So supposedly the glasses can help this kind of tracking. She is an avid reader. She read Harry Potter in 2 grade with full comprehension. I could ask her for some details and what happened and she got it right.

Has your DD gotten benefit from her glasses?

The doc. says she will only need them about a year. He said it was an impressive jump in reading effiency as demonstrated by these goggles that counted her eye movements.

Most behavioral or developmental ophthalmologists tend to love to add minute prisms to glasses. Prisms add a curve that should change the way eyes track together, and are used when the two eyes don't work well in conjunction with each other. That said, I took my son to one that used to be the Secretary of COVD, and he was annoyed that the previous doctor had used prisms, because they don't fix the problems...they are just adaptations, like wearing glasses to see far away.

The question is, did he also give you any kind of vision therapy along with the glasses?

I had them when I was younger. I even went to therapy to attempt to stay focused. I stopped wearing them when I needed glasses (contacts) for distance, but picked them up again in college due to the heavy amounts of reading. I'm not sure they were called prism glasses back then, but they were definitely helpful, thinking back.

Flower, my dd is quite a bit younger than your dd (she was 5 at the time of the glass prescription, and has since turned 6).

She was an early reader who reads quite a bit above grade level (her kindergarten teacher just assessed her as reading at the 5th grade level). I took her to be evaluated because, at the time, I knew she *could* read and comprehend books at a much higher level (she loved to listen to them on cd) but almost never chose to do so. There was something about the process of reading that was proving challenging to her. She would complain of, "too many words on the page" or her eyes being "tired."

The doctor explained that in my dd's case, she had a tracking issue and a focusing issue. The prism glasses would help with the focusing - getting both eyes to work together. For the tracking, the doctor said we could eventually do some vision therapy, but thought some of the problems would resolve themselves as dd's eyes matured. The doctor said she has seen this problem before in gifted readers -- if dd was a ND kindergartner, we would not have noticed the issue because she wouldn't be asking her eyes to do rows of tiny math problems or read pages of small words.

Already, in the 6 months since we got the glasses, I have noticed dd needing them less and less. I really think the glasses helped her get over the hump and convince herself she could read longer material.

I used to work with a woman who said she had prisms in her glasses. She said her eye turned in if she didn't wear them. (I guess that could cause a tracking problem?) She said she couldn't wear contacts because they cannot be made with prisms (or something like that).

Hi, yep the glasses are suppose to help her eyes work together better. We got the report from the dr. and that is what he reports. We have the glasses and she is using them. She says it does seem to make things a bit bigger and that makes them a bit clearer. She read for awhile in them and then said her eyes hurt. I am thinking that should go away as she gets use to wearing them. GDC said that they have had clients who have used them and found benefit. So we will see. She loves to read but I have noticed that she likes to read books with larger print. Her vision has been tested yearly and no need for prescription glasses that way so I am curious to see what will happen. Thanks for your replies!