I tend to be skeptical about non-traditional ideas and also of people who make a profit off of those ideas, but fwiw, vision therapy actually has a good reputation and a long history of success for people who's vision difficulties are related to muscle weakness. Vision therapy for our dd was first suggested by a neuropsychologist (board-certified, highly respected neuropsych). My dh and I were still beyond skeptical because it sounded like hocus-pocus to us, so I did the very most next logical thing - asked our family eye dr, whom I happen to also respect
She *totally* surprised me by saying, yes, the claims are true - traditional eye dr exams do not test for the types of vision issues that behavioral optometrists test for, and that as long as the reason for the vision challenge is related to muscle weakness, vision therapy can be very successful. It's also respected enough that our eye insurance covers it. Soooo... with both of those things in mind, we moved forward and in our dd's case, had amazing results. The caveat from both our eye dr and our neurospcyhologist were that vision therapy is sometimes sold as the cure-all for educational challenges that are really neurological challenges, and it *doesn't* work for those challenges - so that's where it can get a bad rep. But not all kids who are struggling in school have neurological issues - our dd looked ADHD and struggled like crazy to learn to read, with signs in her oral reading that looked like dyslexia to teachers and to us as parents - but her neuropsych testing showed that she didn't have other symptoms of either ADHD or dyslexia, and a vision therapy intake evaluation revealed severe challenges that were related to weak eye muscles. She did have to go to vision therapy for over a full year and she did have to work on vision therapy exercises at home daily to see improvements, but it was by far the best investment we ever made in any therapy for her
I'm also reminded of something that also happened with our same dd - she developed a chronic medical challenge starting at around 2 years old. At first it fit a typical pathway of progression but eventually morphed beyond what her drs were used to dealing with. Thanks to the internet we had the opportunity to network with other families who were going through similar challenges, and I remember when one potential testing/treatment route was being discussed online I mentioned it as something we were interested in to our dd's dr and I was lectured (in a not-so-friendly manner lol!) that it was *NOT* proven medical science and had *NOT* been through the route of tried and true clinical testing approved by the AMA etc.. and that even if the testing started "today" it would take 20 years to get through the full evaluation before anyone would be able to for sure guarantee that it was a viable protocol. There was NO WAY this dr would condone one of her patients trying it and would never ever consider it for her own family. Everything our very well-respected dr said made good sense, but one thing nagged at me - in 20 years my dd would be grown up - and have gone through a very difficult childhood! What was the point in not trying something that wasn't going to harm her if it offered up the possibility of help? I only mention it because within 5 years, so many of the patients her drs were seeing for the same condition were suddenly also having the same challenges she did, and all of a sudden... the very same drs group who lectured me on how inappropriate it would be to try it.... were in fact... advising their patients to do parts of the very same protocol. DD's pediatrician and specialist ultimately collaborated on research into one aspect of it, they started recommending it to patients, and guess what - it really *did* help my dd. Yikes, I am getting way off on a tangent here, and I apologize... but the gist of what I'm trying to say is, we can't knock everything that hasn't been thoroughly researched *yet* or that isn't widely accepted by the medical/educational/whatever community *yet* simply because it isn't widely accepted yet. We have to be careful not to be taken in by people trying to take advantage, but we can also sometimes benefit from having an open mind
Best wishes,
polarbear
