Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Vision therapy, fitting it all in

Dd 6 started vision therapy in Nov., and since then we've had the usual holiday rush, and after Christmas still trying to figure out how to fit in the therapy, and all her activities. She is supposed to go 1x per week and then 4x per week do exercises.
I finally decided to pare down to just girl scouts, since it's her favorite and also just 1x per week. Dance and tkd seemed to be waning in interest also, so probably time for a break anyway.

Have others here been on a similar regimen for pt or vt? I mean I guess when we signed up I thought once a week, no big deal but if we do anything at night (ballet, or whatever) I/we don't seem to be able to fit in the time for also exercising her eyeballs. Sheesh.

Well a couple month break is good, and then if feel like we've got a rhythm going, maybe we'll try ballet again, but I definitely don't see the point of spending all the time and money on therapy if we're not going to go whole hog; also thinking in terms of how all this will *help* with all these physical activities in the long run, it doesn't feel like she's 'falling behind'.

Not sure exactly why I would ever think a 6 year old would be 'falling behind'. Sigh.

Oh, yeah, and I guess it'll help her reading! Duh. Guess that's important. Trying to keep our eyes on the ball, literally.

Well, we've been through VT when she was in 2nd grade for my dd who is now 11. She went through a full year of once-per-week VT appointments (a 45 mile one-way trip from her school, which was already a 20 minute drive from our house). Plus she had exercises to do at home at morning and at night, eventually those dropped to once per day. A few thoughts for you to mull over:

Our VT exercises were not supposed to take more than 20 minutes at a time. Perhaps my family is a bit nuts when it comes to activities after school, but 20 minutes wasn't that tough for us to fit in and still have time to do ballet or whatever. Especially when my kids were in early elementary - there wasn't much homework on any given night except a 2-3 times per year when they had a big project to do, and those projects were usually more fun than "work".

Our dd's VT exercises changed a bit over time as her vision improved. I had to be involved of most of the early exercises, but after about 6 months or so there were more and more exercises that she did on her own. By the end of her program a large part of the exercises was via a computer program which I didn't have to be a part of at all.

The impact of vision challenges is different for each individual, but fwiw, I don't think that you could tell with my dd that she had vision challenges from things like dance etc. She didn't dance back then, but she is taking ballet and another type of dance class this year. She's doing fine with both. AND her vision is regressing - there's no doubt about that, she's seeing double vision again and now that she's older she recognizes what's going on. The impact for her is in close-up work. She can deal with it for tasks that require a longer visual field (and not too much peripheral vision). Reading, schoolwork, reading piano music are where her vision bothers her the most. *NOTE* that doesn't mean she isn't seeing double vision when she's looking farther away and/or her brain isn't shutting off the processing in one eye to compensate and/or her peripheral vision isn't severely compromised... it's just that she's dealt with that for so long that she compensates and can do things like sports etc and no one would have a clue that she doesn't have acceptable vision.

The difference VT made for our dd learning to read were beyond amazing! We didn't find out about her vision challenge until she was in 2nd grade and had already struggled with learning to read. I so wish we'd realized what was happening sooner and had her in VT much sooner - so my advice is to encourage you to stick with it through the end of your dd's program. It's a ton of work but soooo so very worth it! Also, please do not be discouraged because I mentioned my dd's vision has regressed - I feel strongly that a part of the reason her vision regressed is that she tired of her program toward the end and never completed it. In the years since we have encouraged her to keep up with her exercises and she has always refused. I think, even though she fought us on that, having gone through it once, having seen the difference it makes, knowing what type of exercises help etc - that was all very worthwhile. I suspected her vision was starting to slip about 6-8 months ago and she insisted all was fine. Now that it's regressed enough it's bothering her, she's matured enough to realize it does matter and she does want to do well in school so if she has to do VT again I suspect she'll be more invested in it this time around.

Hang in there - I know it's a long haul to get through!

polarbear

Totally agree with Polarbear!

DS had over 2 yrs of VT between 4 and 6 yrs old. He was born with visual deficits that related to hand-eye coordination, fine/gross motor skills, perception, body in space (vestibular), sensory, attention, and some other issues. Before VT, DS barely scribbled, despite 4 yrs of OT and other therapies.

We saw the behavioral optometrist every two weeks and got a series of daily exercises to do specifically designed for DS and his needs. Most of the exercises took 15-20 minutes to do. At the time, we did them after school, I think. However, some days DS didn't want to cooperate and the exercises took considerably longer to do. I admit that the exercises were a slog some days, but we were persistent with them because we wanted DS to write and since we were paying out-of-pocket for it! Still those initial exercises could be very tedious and laborious - hand over hand tracing stuff.

We had huge success with VT over time, but it took 6-8 months before we had the first big breakthrough with VT. Until then, we did wonder at times what to expect.

Before we did VT, we had no idea that DS was eg/pg. We knew DS was bright but not eg/pg. Well, that changed with VT. If we hadn't done VT, I shudder to think about it. DS would be very frustrated, angry, and depressed.

VT really is amazing. It completely changed DS's life and ours. With VT, you're re-wiring the messages between the eyes, brain, and body.

In our situation, DS is now finishing neurofeedback therapy - a year after finishing vision therapy. This seems to reinforce what happened with VT more. Between NFT and VT, it's really amazing!

Chris1234, My DS7 is doing vision therapy too... He started in the summer when he was 6. It has been wonderful! But I do hear you on fitting stuff in. My DS doesn't even do that much extracurricular but he needs a lot of down time/alone time - where he plays imaginary games on his own. I cut a lot of activities for awhile - his OT and VT are so important. He is doing an indoor soccer clinic right now (it's only once a week on mondays) and in Feburary he will be in an after-school art club - so it may be gettign too hectic, we'll see.

What helps: (1) I have his VT and OT scheduled for Saturdays now, which makes a huge difference. DH just left with him for OT - then they will go to eat and go to the hobby shop and then go on to VT. The other thing that helps is I got a computer program for at-home exercises. That helps because he likes the games of the prgram and each exercise is only 7 minutes. Other than that it is definitely a challenge.

Hi Marytheres,
Is the computer program for VT that you use commonly available or did you have to get it through your therapist?

My DS7 recently on testing showed his visual processing is still a couple of standard deviations off of everything else. I was contemplating finding some computer-based VT, even something like Lumosity to see if those skills can be improved for him.

Thanks

HI Zen, the particular VT computer program we are using is not like luminosity. It's called CVS Computerized Vergence Exercises. He wears special red blue glasses. I did have to get it through the vision therapist. I know they other programs but I am not sure what those entail... my kid has convergence issues so this was the program recommended for him... they may have other ones more along the lines of what you need but I am just not aware of them.

Thanks, that makes sense; of course, convergence would need help in specific ways whereas amblyopia would need a different sort of training (if anything beyond the patching we finished.)

Thanks all, that does sound like where we're at....even with removing almost all other activities still seems really hard to fit this in, but also she is tired from it sometimes, more than I'd expect. We have to fit this in in smaller bits in order to keep a good attitude. At least there are a couple things she can do on her own that are pretty fun.
.... they do keep most of it pretty fun.