Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Words "Disappearing"

Hello!
DS8 (grade skipped, in fourth grade) has had a significant drop in reading MAP scores, which wouldn't be concerning if it was isolated, but I feel like his real-life reading ability has decreased as well. Last year, he read the complete LOTR trilogy. This year, he's having trouble with words like "chimpanzee."
He wears glasses, and has since he was two, so my first thought was that his eyes were getting worse and he needed new glasses. We took him to the eye doctor (the only one in our small town), but he didn't find a reason to change his prescription. Now DS is saying that the trouble is that the words "keep disappearing."
The school is supposed to be doing an evaluation for visual processing issues due to ongoing writing concerns, so maybe they'll find something there, but I'm not sure how long it will take to get that done.
Has anyone dealt with something like this before? Do you think I need to take him to a different ophthalmologist? Could this be a sign of a visual processing issue? Possibly neurological?

I suggest finding a pediatric ophthalmologist. DS was fitted for glasses at age 3. After we moved, we took him for what we thought was a normal exam with a doctor who happened to be one of our state's leading pediatric opthalmologists! Turned out DS's prescription was only about half of what he needed.

There might be something else at play, but starting there would be a good beginning.

Yes I have known at least one person where words "disappear"
My stepfather who is a retired minister, told me that it often happened to him. Written words would "disappear" or simply turn to gobbltygook (technical term) He didn't know until late in life that he suffered from severe dyslexia. He said that he often could read for 10-20 min. and then suddenly it was as if words would melt off the page. Thankfully for him, he also had a photographic memory which went a long way toward making up for the severe dyslexia.

I'm not necessarily saying that this is the case for your son, however, it's worth looking into.

You may want to have him evaluated by a developmental optometrist. https://www.covd.org/

Hmm... Thanks everyone!

I looked this up a couple of years ago for a friend whose son complained of "the words falling off the page", and while I found lots of self-reports, I found nothing remotely credible in the way of explanations.

An optometrist who specializes in visual processing issues identified accommodation and some convergence insufficiency, and suggested he start by trying prism glasses (yeah, I didn't think that was a real thing either, but here's the first explanation I found just now: http://glassescrafter.com/information/prism-in-eyeglasses.html). Though they helped, child wouldn't wear/ kept losing (very expensive) glasses. Optometrist suggested vision therapy was plan B: a harder fix but a more permanent one.

The VT did fix the "words falling off the page" and the child did start reading a lot more, and a lot less reluctantly. However, he is still not an eager reader: whatever his barriers were, VT provided a notable improvement but not a magic fix. (It did seem to be magic for his drawing, though).

Sorry - wish I could offer better than n of 1 anecdata!

Is there anything to do to help him if it's a eye dominance issue?


The optometrist in town mentioned VT when we pushed him, but he doesn't feel it would be particularly helpful in DS's case. I would try it, except it would likely require at least three hours of travel for us (one way). If it's the kind of thing that needs to be done frequently to be beneficial, it would be quite difficult. The joys of a small, rural town!

I'm mainly worried about the seemingly new onset of symptoms. Why would it suddenly start now?

VT is a pretty fuzzy concept still - almost anyone can do anything and call it VT, so it's good to see your optometrist not leaping in without thought. You really need to do your homework and check credentials on this one.

There is some evidence (but only 1 trial) for VT with convergence insufficiency. There is some practice in using it with accommodation insufficiency and it seems helpful, but this not been properly tested in a trial. Last I looked, there was no research on using VT to help much of anything else. So if your son's issues aren't convergence insufficiency, or at least accommodation insufficiency, there's no evidence for VT.

I can understand why you find the sudden onset unsettling. For what it's worth, kids eyes do change rapidly around this age, and many friends have told me that their kid's prescription needs strengthening every year for a while. So perhaps it's just normal rapid change in visual acuity has exacerbated a problem previously compensated? We found DD's visual issues around 9, and I remember the optometrist shaking his head in amazement explaining that he could tell when testing her that she was seeing double images, and then through sheer force of will making them merge into one after a delay - he'd never seen a kid manage to do that before. (It has been suggested that DD is a tad - - - determined.)

You may be able to work with the VT to develop a program where you only go in for sessions once every two or three weeks. We had to travel two hours each way (with two kids spread over 2.5 years!), so I feel your pain.

At the very least, I'd have him evaluated.