Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Vision therapy for dyslexia

I think that we crossed posts. I also wanted to mention that we paid about $90 per session -- I seem to remember that there was a break if you paid for 10 sessions at the same time. We went once a week and had a lot of exercises at home. BTW, those exercises were a huge battle to get done. Anyway, I think that ours was less expensive and we are sort of in the same market. You may want to shop around re price if you decide to go that route.

See, so both the places I have gone make pretty clear that VT doesn't treat dyslexia. I feel pretty lucky, I must be goign to pretty decent/upfront places.


I am sure it depends on what type of problem and the severity. I am sure your daughter's issues, while perhaps similar, are not the same as my son's.

Our VT dr was also very up front about this, as well as our regular eye dr. However I think it's worth noting that I've "met" several parents online who's children are dyslexic and who have benefited from vision therapy; I think that what happens is that it's not unusual for some children to be dyslexic and also have visual challenges - so VT isn't curing the dyslexia, but it is helping the children with another area of challenge. It's been quite a few months since I read Dyslexic Advantage, but I think that the Eides mention that issues with visual tracking are common among people who are dyslexic.

I personally wouldn't feel comfortable with a business that tried to claim VT will solve *everything* but for instance, our VT office will tell you this: They tell you that VT does not cure ADHD, but it can eliminate behaviors that *look* like ADHD, and this was true for our dd - before VT she never sat still in a chair, she had to eat standing up and she was always on the move. Her pediatrician was convinced she had ADHD because she literally bounced off the walls at her yearly dr appointments, when really she wasn't "bouncing around" due to ADHD, she was bouncing around because she couldn't focus her *eyes*.

I can understand your (Cricket's) dh's concern that anyone who goes in for an eval might come out being told they have convergence issues, but that's not going to happen with a reputable dr. And it's probably going to be hard to find someone who's been for an eval and found not to have an issue simply because most people don't go for this type of eval unless they have had some other professional refer them or had some reason for a parent to be concerned that there was an issue - i.e., the people who are going in for evals are likely to have something waiting to be found. If your dh is really concerned about it, and it's only a $10 co-pay, I'd seriously consider having another family member who you're *not* concerned about also go in for an eval

Re cost, our dd's VT (2 years ago) cost $3000 for 6 months of once-per-week office sessions (1 hour length). It was our choice to do once-per-week, we could have paid the same amount for 3 months of twice-per-week office sessions and the end result was supposed to be the same.

Someone above mentioned VT doesn't last - and we're finding that to be true for our dd - she's starting to have vision issues again, but my gut feeling is if we could get her to do her exercises she'd not have the loss of muscle tone and wouldn't be dealing with regression in vision. While it's true that the exercises are work and have to be done daily (our dd had to do them twice daily for quite a while) - they aren't *that* horribly terrible and some of them were even fun for a child.

polarbear

Yes, this is what I was told by both places I went to about my son's VT and what I was also told by an aquaintance who is a special tutor for children with reading challenges and dyslexia.

This really concerns me. I plan on asking about VT in conjunction with surgery to help maybe prevent this? I have no idea as I have not asked yet ... I touched on it briefly with one doc and she said we could talk about that (ie explore the idea of surgery in addition to the VT) but we haven't yet. Polarbear or anyone else - do you have any info on how to truly "fix" (aka get lasting results) the problem of strasbismus? Is surgery and therapy a way to get that or is this it? Is this a challenge that will keep coming back to haunt DS?

I gave a call to one friend who has done VT for her child to get her opinion and she felt that the dr we were considering initially was very aggressive and that she wouldn't recommend that route. She did also say that she's seen the same thing as above with the impact fading over time and her child needing to go back for more VT repeatedly. OTOH, she was generally positive and would recommend VT just a different doc (whose name I am going to edit out from above - lol).

marytheres, I don't know what we'll ultimately do for our dd - we're taking her back for another VT exam later this fall in hopes of convincing her it's worth it to keep at her exercises. What she'd need to do each day to keep her eyes "on track" really isn't a huge time-consuming deal, just a few simple exercises she could do as part of her schoolwork or when she's reading.

Some kids (and adults) with strabismus correct it with lenses. One of my nieces has pretty strong strabismus in one of her eyes (nowhere near as subtle as our dd has - in her case her eye is obviously pointing away from the other eye when not corrected). When she was in elementary school her dr gave her parents the choice of surgery or corrective lenses and they stuck with glasses (I can't remember exactly why).. and then when she was a teen she got a corrective contact lens, and it works *GREAT*.

polarbear

eta - in spite of my dd's vision apparently taking a step backward, I am still a firm believer in VT and would recommend it to anyone in the same position in a *heartbeat* - I have no regrets about the time/$ we spent for dd to go through it. It made a HUGE difference in her vision and even though she's losing some ground now, she's nowhere near in the same place she was before starting it.

Thanks for this polarbear. I really needed to hear this - good to know.

It's been three years for us and so far DD has not lost any ground as far as I can tell. I whole-heartedly agree that it was worth the time and effort for my DD. Prior to VT, getting her to sit down and read was a huge fight. Not a big surprise, since it gave her major headaches and eye-strain/fatigue. It's still not her first choice activity, but she doesn't hate it anymore. Occasionally, we even see her tuck herself in a corner with a book.

Oh this is good to hear. Thank you for sharing!