Hmmm. My son receives vision therapy so I am getting a lot of experience in this area these days! I'll give you some of my thoughts and experiences so far. Hope they help you.
First, my insurance (Aetna) covered all of my sons vision evals and tests with the behavioral optometrist (and he had hours of it) and covers the vision therapy; although, I have a somewhat high specialist co-pay. So, don't automatically assume it is not covered. I automatically assumed that last year and wasn't as persisitant as a result and lost of year because I kept hearing "insurance doesn't cover that."
Secondly, just as an overall comment on it, so far - I have definitely seen a big improvement in my son as has my son's OT. His OT (completely different place than his VT and not related in any at all) has been doing periodic assessments on his tracking and visual perception, etc. - there are significant improvements documented. It brought tears to my eyes last week when his OT showed me how far he has come. I should add though that he gets visual stuff incorporated into his OT as well. Also, most heart warming my son has noticed a difference. One basic physical improvement I have noticed is less complaining of eyes hurting and his eye rubbing while reading has dropped significantly.
Thirdly, I have known people to go to a practice near me (they are complete eye doctors - treat all ages, sell glasses, do the behavioral optometry things, too) and be told there is no big issue (no diagnosis or whatever) but they get told vision therapy can always help this that or the other thing and that it would be beneficial), etc., etc... My son, on the other hand, was actually diagnosed and the options are VT or surgery or both. Like, there is difference between - "yeah this could help anyone. Your child can certainly benefit" and "your child's eyes are crossing (or one is wandering or whatever) and VT is option and/or surgery" YKIM? I think you could tease that out with a good, above-board doc.
Fourth, I was able to observe the evals and tests. I could see my son's vision fall apart. It was really obvious in certain tests. So, I have so far never felt like I was being 'tricked' or being sold on something he didn't need.
Another thought I have is to take her to an OT *AND* one of the respected behavioral optometrist for two sperate opinons. With my son, not only could I see a problem with his vision, his OT could as well (actually two of them - different ones from different practices who did not know each other). My understanding is that there are evals OTs can give that can indicate problems with visual motor integration, tracking, visual perception, etc.
Just as a warning re pediatricians, I have heard that pediatricians completely discount Vision therapy. With my own pediatricain, my son did have problems with the exam - he had 20/20 but he complained his eyes hurt during the exam, he became temper-tantrumy, his eyes began to water, etc... the Ped simply put it down to behavior. I didn't discuss/question it or anything but I did file the experience away in my head as odd and added to it as I noticed various problems my son seemed to be having with vision. I have no idea what my pediatrician would have said but honestly I just don't ask their opinion about this sort-of stuff. My ped knows very little about hypotonia (he admits that himself). I have heard peds say the most grossly erroneous stuff about breastfeeding, etc... I just don't trust them for most issues other than like illness issues (like kid has a major sickness). YKIM? Another woman I was talking with in the VT office whose som has same diagnosis as mine said her pediatrician just pushed surgery to fix her son's eyes but she wanted surgery to be a last resort particularly b/c surgery really doesn't have a high success rate despite the fact that surgery doesn't have a high success rate he pushed that and discounted VT. So just my experience and some food for thought.
All in all I don't know yet if my son has dyslexia and the VT doctros told me VT will not "fix"/treat dyslexia. It will treat his crossing eyes though. So dylexia/dysgraphia is still currently on the table to be looked at for my son. However, I soooo wish I would have considered and tried vision therapy earlier. I truly, truly do... It is one of the biggest regrets so far I have with my son - seriously.
Hope all this helps you somewhat!
