Hi Incog,
I'm also wondering about the reading. What does your daughter like to listen to? M
y son was saying all the letters and their sonds at age 2, and didn't start reading even at the level of "magic tree house" books until 1st grade. I was paniced over it but didn't know what to do. Everyone else was like "oh, they learn to read when they learn to read - you can't push it"
I felt so misunderstood. I didn't care when he learned to read, but the gap felt so weird! Also the gap between what he conversations were like and the non-reading. Now I have heard many many stories of children with vision problems, both the regular kinds and the kind the Behavioral Optomitrists test for. For example, my DS11 has a 7th grade Geography test today. Contour Maps are one of the topics. Last night he went throught and put a check next to each topic that he knew well. He checked a dozen topics but left off "Longitude and Lattitude" and "Contour Maps."
For L&L it was just a matter of looking up which is which, and then making a memory device. But his feelings about Contour Maps were totally different.
Me: ok - Contour Maps, what don't you understand about them?
DS11:I just don't know about them.
Me: Tell me what you know.
DS11: They tell elevation. They have a lot of tiny lines on them that are hard to read. Each line is at the same alltitude. Every 5th line is darker so you can count more easily.
Me: Sounds like you know a lot about them. Do you know that when the lines are close together there is a sharp incline or decline, and when they are far apart the land is flat?
DS11: Oh I know that. That's easy.
Me: Does it hurt your eyes to follow the lines around the map, or try to count them.
DS11: ((big smile and relieved look)) It sure does! I guess I do know everything about contour maps, now that you mention them.
I think that contours maps are challenging for everyone to read, but I do think my son has some subtle visual tracking problems that make it a bit harder for him. I think he thought that he "wasn't good with contour maps" because of all the effort he has to put into using them. He has come so far over the years in being able to catch a ball and read textbooks, I haven't pushed to actually do the therapy, but if he were 3 or 4 again, and I knew what I know now I certainly would pursue it. It would have given him a completely different view of his athletic ability. It would have helped him feel less like "an alien." Perhaps his handwriting would be better, and I know that he would have been easier to teach. In 2nd grade he was in a gifted reading cluster without my knowledge. Problem was that he was also given worksheets that matched the reading level of the book (5th grade)! The other boys were mostly a year or more older through a late start to kindy, and they were able to look up words in a dictionary, and fill out those worksheet papers. My son knew he was running circles around the other boys in terms of understanding what he had read as evidenced by group discussion, but the other boys make it clear that he was "holding up the group" with his age-level ability to find words in a dictionary and handwrite full answers to the worksheet questions.
So, I would get her to a Behavioral Optometrist just to check out the vision aspect.
Love and More Love,
Trinity
