Re: eye exam

[Guest guest]

My 8 year old son, who has HFA, went through testing with a developmental

opthamologist last spring, after complaining that he sees " two " of

everything, and that things " move " when he looks at them. He was tested for

convergence issues, and also given a variety of prism lenses to try out. No

visual problems at all were found during the testing, and, given a choice of

glasses with different kinds of lenses, he chose the pair with clear glass as

the " best " . The doctor said he is just perseverating, and maybe he just made

things up because he wants glasses. So frustrating! He still says he sees

double. Is there any other way to find out what his visual problems may be?

We are in the Boston area, would appreciate a referral to any doctor you'd

recommend. Has anyone had any experience with the Irlen center?

[Guest guest]

> Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 17:19:33 EST

> From: rmcv123@...

> Subject: Re: eye exam

>

> My 8 year old son, who has HFA, went through testing with a

> developmental

> opthamologist last spring, after complaining that he sees " two " of

> everything, and that things " move " when he looks at them. He was

> tested for

> convergence issues, and also given a variety of prism lenses to try

> out. No

> visual problems at all were found during the testing, and, given a

> choice of

> glasses with different kinds of lenses, he chose the pair with clear

> glass as

> the " best " . The doctor said he is just perseverating, and maybe he

> just made

> things up because he wants glasses. So frustrating! He still says

> he sees

> double. Is there any other way to find out what his visual problems

> may be?

> We are in the Boston area, would appreciate a referral to any doctor

> you'd

> recommend. Has anyone had any experience with the Irlen center?

>

>

I'd see if another dr could examine your son, one that specializes in

children with special needs. The reason I say this is my son saw 2

ophthamlogists when he was younger and both gave diagnoses that didn't

make sense. Both were supposed to be pediatric ophthamologists; one he

saw obviously did not care and did not relate to children well.

was on his very best behaviour that day and the dr just was

not a caring guy. After I learned about vision therapy I learned that

optometrists do it. I'd previously thought ophthamologists were the

experts but have a feeling they are good at some things like injuries and

optometrists are better at some other issues relating to vision. Finding

a dr who likes kids is important, but finding one who is qualified to do

VT would be the first criteria probably. If they are not familiar with

how it can help various problems, they probably don't know how to help

diagnose problems. Some people would say that going to such a dr is to

invite the need for therapy but it's not fun for the dr, I don't think

one would do it unless they really felt the child needed it and cared

about the child enough to help them. They have to really like kids to

want to work with children who may have communication problems, not be

good at following directions, etc. I apologized for 's

behavior the day after he ate all the fresh picked raspberries I had

planned to freeze, and the dr's wife commented he was not bad, as she'd

seen him many times and worked with him some of the time. She said, " You

wouldn't believe what we go through. You're one of the few parents who

stays with your child. That makes a Big difference. " I couldn't believe

parents didn't stay with the child so they'd know what to do the next

week but I guess many parents drop the child off and pick them up later

and leave most of the work to the drs. That is probably why they

questioned me when we went in for testing, asking if I'd be attending

sessions with him if he needed VT.

Carol in Oregon