Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Vision Therapy -Not seeing any differences

FWIW, DD13 went through VT when she was in second grade. The school psychologist recommended having DD's vision evaluated. We went to our optometrist who said that DD's eyes did not work well together close up. She prescribed reading glasses and referred us to a vision therapist. She said that this particular therapist seemed to have more consistent positive outcomes.

We did not see significant results with VT until DD had been going for almost eight months. Then something just clicked and her reading improved significantly. The therapist closed us out that month. DD had convergence and tracking issues. After things clicked, DD said that the words no longer "ran off the page" and almost seemed concerned that she only saw one image. Once her eyes started working together, her headaches that she had from reading disappeared. Once again, she seemed surprised that reading no longer made her head hurt. Six years later the results have stuck. Was it VT or something else developmental? No way to know for sure but I believe that the VT helped.

ETA: DD is still dyslexic. Anyone who tells you that VT will cure dyslexia is definitely in the snake oil category. For DD, it was much easier for us to work on helping her learn how to compensate for her dyslexia once the vision issues improved.

Thanks all for sharing your experiences. you helped me to adjust my expectations and be calm and patient.

DD's working the block string this week. I tried it myself and found it tough! She is better at it than me, but I know I have eye issues....
I am still trying to grasp the VT concepts myself, but for my daughter, she rarely noticed the vision issues, which is part of the reason it went undetected so long. It was brief double vision/blurring a couple of times of week.
I've been told that one eye was doing most of the reading/tracking, and the other was handling dynamic vision. I can see the difference in the eyes when she is patched for exercises.
I had a friend whose son completed 40 wks of VT. She saw improvements in reading speed/fluency and hand eye coordination, plus much less mental/eye fatigue, but she did say his handwriting did not improve as much as she hoped.

Maybe ask the VT what improvements you should see first and which assigned exercises will help with his handwriting? I just expressed a continued concern about letter/number reversals, and they incorporated specific exercises to address this issue.

How many weeks of therapy was recommended?
So glad we have each other to compare notes. I only have one RL friend who has been through VT.

This forum and DITD list are only places I ask these kind of questions. It seems that my RL friends don't really deal with similar problems. I do realize that I have children with very special needs.

DS is pretty good with block string, not so smooth with wall charts and near -far exercises. The VT said his left eye will suddenly move away as he does the "bug on a string" exercise. I have seen it once, but not really that bad. So I am not sure how much he is improving. I've asked the question but was told it's only the fifth week and every child is different in how quickly they responds to the therapy.

Our first "phase" is going to be 12 weeks, with progress check at the 8th week. We will see what differences at 8th week.

I feel much less irritated after reading responses from this forum.

Lets keep comparing notes as we move forward.

Just when we were about to lose patience in the process, DS for the first time since he started reading, read half of " BFG" yesterday. It was also the first time in the morning, I saw him reading along side his older brother quietly. In the evening after dinner, he told me that he was going to keep reading his book (instead of decorating his room for Halloween) and he read quietly for almost an hour. In the past, he would put his book down after about 10-20 minutes, depending on the material.
Since it is just the start of some good signs, maybe it's too early to say it's working, maybe it's just a favorite book.. he has always liked Roald Dahl's books... but I just want to share it with you guys. Hopefully this signals a good start.

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!