Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Therapeutic Listening/ Listening Therapy

I really would like to a Cogmed or a PACE program for DS, I think. That's expensive and time consuming, too, but I think that would be good for DS.

Glad the VT is working for you. DS had some regression with VT too before he took two steps forward it seemed. I've seen a similar situation with neurofeedback - one step back and then two steps forward. I think it's common.

Totally agree about the VT. My son had 5 years of ot, including 4 at a ot sensory gym. At the end of the day, however, he needed the VT. OT can only help to a point if visual deficits are present. That was our experience - especially when you're dealing with damage to neural pathways or parts of the brain.

It makes sense when you consider that 80% of what we process on a daily basis is through our visual senses. Even if you're blind, you still use visual system for imaging and visual memory, though I realize this might not make sense to people who are unfamiliar with what visual processing entails. And, of course, that's really the problem - everyone associates visual processing with visual acuity (near - and far-sightedness) and yet this is a tiny fraction of our visual processing systems.

I don't understand why VT is controversial or seen as flighty. It's not and neither is neurofeedback. When you've got celebrities, business leaders, Olympians and other athletes seeking VT and neurofeedback for peak performance then it's not hocus pocus. What is infuriating is that EI and SPED should be covering VT and neurofeedback. I think that's more controversial and scandalous.

My son did vision therapy for a couple of months when he was seven after he was tested by an educational psychologist. He didn't test beyond a 5th grade level at seven only because his eyes got too tired to continue. He could read at a much higher level at home. I mentioned this and the fact that his eyes always seemed to tire so quickly any time he read more than a paragraph to both the doctor and the educational psychologist so they recommended vision therapy.

When my son learned to read on his at 2 1/2 he could not read for very long without his eyes getting tired so he would have to look away, but if I spelled out the words for him in the rest of the paragraph he could tell me the words and it seemed almost like his disability caused him to be better at some things--like spelling. I think his hypotonia had something to do with his eyes tiring more quickly. I remember hearing something about "accommodation" issues. When he read from a Time magazine in the doctor's office he frequently lost his place when he was not allowed to keep a finger underneath the words as he read.

Vision therapy did help and luckily, our insurance paid for this. I used to feel bad that my husband and I could not afford all the therapies that everyone told us about. We had to homeschool so we were doing without a second income. We had to live within our means. If insurance would not pay for some things like OT (my son only got six weeks of OT in his entire life and he is 14 now) or sensory integration therapy he could not get it. We were told to read books like the Out of Sync Child Has Fun and do some of those activities. Later we were told that we had trouble with getting insurance to pay because he didn't have a real diagnosis as if having hypotonia was not enough. When he was 11 he was given a diagnosis of developmental coordination disorder/dyspraxia and dysgraphia even though he is only uncoordinated when his muscles get too tired--just like I get when I work out too hard and try to do something that requires good motor skills. For example, I am more likely to drop or spill things when my muscles are overly tired. I don't have problems like this at any other time. I also have some dyspraxia symptoms with migraines, but I don't think I have dyspraxia.

My son had a migraine when he was given an all day test by a neuropsychologist. I think migraine plus hypotonia and fatigue equals what looks like developmental coordination disorder but at least it was a diagnosis.