Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Vision issues uncovered

I've posted previously about the issues my DS7 has been having in school. He had strabismus surgery over a year ago but we assumed everything was OK since the surgeon said he was "cured." Well, after investigating possible reasons for him struggling to complete work at school, we decided to take him to a developmental/behavioral optometrist for an evaluation to make sure his eyes are working with his brain.

We went yesterday and it was so very helpful. My son still does not have very good binocular vision and is working very hard to maintain what he has. He also has a fixation dysfunction which means he doesn't always even know which way his eyes are looking. No wonder he gets tired and disengages from his work! I saw him rubbing his eyes, sometimes covering one eye, turning his head while he was reading - things I've never noticed at home I guess because he doesn't do as intense work at home.

The DO also said he suspects DS may have sensory processing issues and he recommends an evaluation from an OT first before going through vision therapy. He said DS needs to go back and fill in some developmental building blocks first. My son doesn't have a very good awareness of where his body is in space. For example, instead of just knowing which eye is his right eye, he goes through a system of identifying his right hand and then makes the connection that the right eye is on the same side so it must be the right eye.

I feel relieved to uncover an answer but I'm kicking myself for not taking him sooner. The opthamologist is not really keen on vision therapy and told me his eyes were perfect (sure they are nice and straight now but they are not working together without a lot of effort on my son's part).

So I guess it's off to an OT for an eval. My son does have some sensitivity to tags (only really scratchy ones), jeans (they are too "hard"), long sleeves (he always pushes them up), and he absolutely hates water in his eye and is terrified to put his head under water (therefore he can't swim). Doesn't like getting his hand covered in dirt or clay either. He also just figured out how to swing himself on the swing set and used to cry at the top of a slide at the park. He can go down them now.

I'm sure all of these things are related to him having undetected strabismus for almost 6 years. He had double vision that whole time but compensated by turning his head.

Now I'm in a whole new world of things to research. I really thought most of the issues were just his giftedness. Even the DO said DS blew away other 7 year olds (he was reading 6th grade vocab in one of the eye tests). His intelligence has helped him mask some of the vision issues (he still has great comprehension even though he was skipping or substituting words). This also explains why his processing speed was really slow on the WISC.

Anyway, just an update. Will post more after we seen an OT.

Bronalex - I have been thinking fo you b/c I remember your posting about your situation. I was concerned that despite the fact you were told your son's vision disorder was "cured" by the surgery the testing results looked to me like it had not been! The vision therapy has helped my DS tremendously! I will see the impact it has on his WISC scores this May but I am happy we did it. Also, he seemed not to be making progress for awhile and I realized that it was his iphone usage that was really causing stagnant progress and relapse... My son "Over-converges" so things like iphones only execerbate the problem. We got him a computer with a big screeen that we make sure he sits a good distance from and I plan on getting an Ipad for the portable games and reading etc. So, just a heads up if you son has an over-convergence issue - be careful fo the Iphones! I'll let you know how mu guys WISC scores look after almost a year of VT when I find out! Also, I got our school to cover some of the VT - however it has taken so long to do that and much beaucratic red tape ( It will finally be approved at the end of March after 6 months of trying to get it through!) Good luck I am so pleased for your son - it should make a world of difference for him!

So glad that you got some answers. Now, you can work on them. I know that it doesn't work for everyone but VT helped my daughter significantly. School becomes much more tolerable when it is not a constant source of eye strain and headaches. Good luck!

Great news Bronalex! I hope that VT helps your ds - as I've mentioned before, it was an amazing help for our dd.

Good luck as you move forward!!!

polarbear

Thanks all - the VT is very expensive and we are going to be buying a house in the next couple of months. Yikes. Since he is in private school, there is no option there. We did apply to have him go to the public gifted school next fall but I have no idea what they can cover.

Mary - I don't think he over-converges. He is working hard to get them to converge in the first place LOL

Bronalex, my insurance covers VT - I have Aetna (they are the best for VT). My co-pay is kind of steep, though (specialist co-pay of $44). If you have Aetna you may be in luck. And, hey maybe an Iphone would be GOOD for him!

Bronalex, our dd's vision therapy was also covered by insurance - and yep, we have Aetna too marytheres - lol! Our school system also covered VT for one of dd11's classmates - but she clearly qualified for an IEP based on behind-grade-level achievement... my dd11 was going through VT with the same dr at the same time and was struggling tremendously with reading (prior to VT).. but she wasn't anywhere near struggling enough to qualify for an IEP and also doesn't have any type of LD... so she didn't qualify to get VT paid for through the school.

polarbear

I have to say I am not quite sure how I got it for DS! He was never behind grade-level in reading. I said at a meeting that the school 'should' after all they provide OT, PT, ST, Behavioral Therapy, etc. Then I looked and found some cases that ordered schools in our state to provide it b/c said student was not progressing in reading and it was determined that the lack of progress was due to eye/vision problems. I sent them the cases nd they said "okay" )I suspect this may have been a battle hard-fought by someone before us who paved the way)... however, it has taken so long! It think they dragged out hoping I wouldn't use it/need it by the time we got it. DS may take a break from VT but we are definitely using it... whether he is pretty much better or not! LOL

We have Anthem - I'll look into it but I'm pretty sure it won't be covered. We can do flex benefits but we have to commit to the money in April during open enrollment and I don't think we'll have all the necessary OT and VT evaluations done by then. We don't even know if he will get into this school yet so I guess we need to proceed as if he is staying in private school. I want to get him started sooner than later to give him the best advantage.

I hope you have "finding a new opthamologist" on the radar. Patching the stronger eye for two hours a day was the therapy for strengthening/correcting binocular vision for my son with astigmatism/amblyopia. He started patching at almost 6 and continued for a year. We didn't use a therapist, but two hour/day patching was recommended as the therapy of choice by our opthamologist.