Glasses / eye exam / Vision Therapy

[Guest guest]

Hi

My DD may need some Vision Therapy. She can't seem to focus on one

thing and instead uses her peripheral vision so she has problems identifying

shapes, for example. Before we knew about the autism, she knew the

alphabet and could name colors, but never knew shapes. Earlier in the

week we noticed that she doesn't cross her eyes when something gets

very close.

Are these the kinds of things VT can help with and, if so, are there any

recommendations for someone around San /San Francisco who could

help?

Thanks

Margaret

[Guest guest]

Yesterday my 9 year old high functioning autistic son got bifocals. In

the past he'd memorize the chart while waiting for the dr to come in so

he'd tell them what they wanted to hear and yet I'd ask him to identify

letters on charts elsewhere and he never did well on other charts. So

this time I explained ahead of time that the test isn't about his ability

to name letters, but if they are fuzzy to tell the dr. Finally this time

the test was more accurate. He's enjoying so much seeing everything more

clearly and wore them for 14 hours without wanting to take them off until

bedtime. It's sort of bitter sweet -- I'm so glad he now can see so much

more clearly but wish he had been able to all this past year as the

reading glasses he got last winter never worked out well for him. He

finally admitted 3 weeks ago that they no longer hurt so he didn't mind

wearing them now but he'd NEVER once mentioned in the past that they hurt

even though I had suspected that and asked about it the first weeks!

For those of you with children less capable of expressing themselves, I

wonder how accurate their eye exams are? Some of your children's

outbursts may be that they don't see well. The mom of a 14 yr old

autistic son encouraged us to seek vision therapy as often autistic

individuals' binocular vision doesn't function properly. (I can't

explain binocular vision accurately but it has to do with the muscles

working properly so we can focus as various distances.) We went through

the gruelling marathon of VT last spring and summer and it did help

TREMENDOUSLY with his school work. Ophthalmologists don't do it, but

certain optometrists are qualified to do this. Contact an optometrist in

your area to see if they can tell you of an optometrist who does it if

you think this will help your child. They have pamphlets that explain

which children are apt to benefit from it more than others. Basically,

those with learning disabilities often have vision problems that an

ordinary vision exam doesn't identify and these are the kids who VT helps

the most. I'll warn you, the other mom mentioned it was the hardest

thing they'd ever done (as the exercises need to be done daily and are

Boring), but that it had made such a difference in her son's school work

it was worth it. She also homeschools so could see the difference

clearly as I could. I had pondered her comment about it being so hard

until we got into it. It truly was a gruelling marathon but one well

worth the energy poured into it. has either a photographic

memory or the knack of memorizing that which he cares to, so certain

exercises were basically futile as he'd memorize things or knew what he

was supposed to be saying so would say he saw a y rather than an x, etc.

We constantly had to be coming up with variety to the lessons to enable

him to benefit from the exercises. Mazes are good eye/hand coordination

exercises you can do for your kids and we were constantly seeking more

challenging ones for him as that was one exercise he excelled at. Rhythm

was part of his vision therapy (spelling his name while bouncing on a

trampoline or clapping). Depending on the child's needs, the exercises

differ considerably. The exercises took a couple hours a day for us to

accomplish even though I think the dr thought they would only take about

30 minutes.

Basically VT helped him be able to do school work with less constant

movement from every portion of his anatomy. Before VT he was perpetual

motion, so reading was impossible as not even we can read when things

move a whole lot. Removing salycilates helped a lot with hyperactivity

but the VT helped his eye muscles focus more clearly so reading began to

emerge and writing improved considerably. This Christmas he enjoyed the

lights so much. In the past he'd get angry when we'd be driving along

and point out some and we finally concluded it was because he couldn't

see them clearly. This year he was able to enjoy them so much more. But

now that he has lenses for distance viewing, he'll enjoy them even more

in the future.

Carol in Oregon

[Guest guest]

Margaret,

My daughter, (now 10) went through VT for not being able to cross her

eyes. That was 2 years ago. We went 3 times a week for several months. We

also did daily exercises (using a pencil with a string tied to it and a bead

to follow w/ her eyes). She just had a very extensive optical exam by an

opthamologist and we had to follow up with a neurologist. I asked about the

eye-crossing and they said there is no trace of her having a problem. Now,

the eye problem is an enlarged optic nerve in one eye. The two doctors

can't seem to agree on why that is. She has heterochromia (2 different

colored eyes) so one thinks it may be " normal " for her eye, the other wants

us in every 6 months for Glaucoma testing. The type of VT she went through

entailed special glasses and a computer screen. The glasses were sort of

like 3-D. Then she did some visual field work. I can't recommend in your

area, but we have been through it with success. She wears glasses for

reading and close-up work.

Peace.

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