Guest guest Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 I have been wondering a lot about seeing a doctor for vision therapy. We had one speak to our autism group several years ago and I found his information interesting. Was it very expensive or did insurance help with any of it? Roxanna “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.†- Luther King, Jr. ( ) Re: Argh! You mentioned that your son has trouble tracking and trouble copying things. My son had these issues as well and it was a visual function issue. We did 6 months of vision therapy and it made a big difference. The schedule was visit the doc every other week and work on therapy 1/2 hr day at home. VT is tedious but it worked for us. The doc didin't recommend doing more than 6 mos of therapy without a break because it has a high burnout rate. After the break my son didn't need it anymore. Is it possible that your son has visual function issues and could benefit from vision therapy? Here's a site with more info on visual function and vision therapy. http://www.pavevision.org/ As to handwriting, the OT gave up on my son's writing improving after he started middle school. Then at age 12 a neuropsych eval revealed that he had dysgraphia. It explained a lot. We gave up on writing cursive except for his signature. Ironically he can write almost picture perfect single letters in cursive but gets totally illegible when trying to write whole words in cursive. We have worked with him on reading cursive because there will be times he has no choice but to read it. Whenever he can for school assignments he types instead of manually writing it. Here's a site about dysgraphia. http://www.greatschools.org/special-education/LD-ADHD/dysgraphia-learning-disability-writing.gs?content=860 Caroline > > > Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone! > > I am having a life here. My youngest ds has dyslexia. He is "aspie on the edges" but that's kind of a family trait here. He is 11 yo and in 5th grade. He's smart enough to get by a lot of things and that is one reason it was so hard to get his dyslexia taken seriously at the school. He was always spotted for extra help, tutoring, fast forword, etc. He was RtI'd to death. But then once he got some help, he'd improve that much and they'd stop helping, where he'd continue to fall behind from there. For instance, his need to learn to read only mattered until he got good enough to pass the state test (by 4 points!). Granted, it took three years to get to there. lol. Then he went from needing help to "being lazy." Finally, we pulled him out and e-school him since the first quarter of 4th grade. He was coming home screaming and throwing things as soon as he walked in the door. So we had to make a change. > > The problem I am having is with OT's. In theory, I love these people. They should have so many answers to so many of our problems! I haven't been able to find one to work with my ds. Partly, the problem is that he is "aspie on the edges." He shuts down when things get too hard. He's failed so much that he is more apt to give up and preserve whatever dignity he has left. But he will try until he decides you are making fun of him or calling him "stupid." That's natural. But he is more likely to shut down than the average kid although it does take a bit of effort to tick him off that much. > > The school OT's never helped. He got OT in school off and on. They could tell he had trouble tracking with his eyes, for instance, but never had any clue what to do to help him work on that. Then the last eval they did, the OT did not even use his correct age to determine his scores (which were already poor enough) and kept saying handwriting was not important. The e-school of course, has to contract to private therapists for kids who need therapy. So he has one hour per week of OT. The first OT we saw did the new evaluation and she wrote a really good report and really got the problems he was having. I was elated. We worked to get the new school to let us see this one specifically. I did not realize she was also a Naturopath. She spent the whole hour long session "healing" his inner self. Very little fine motor work or help with visual alignment issues. Just a lot of hocus pocus (hold these, snap, it's all gone). I went anyway because we really need help with some of this stuff. And maybe she could help - her report was great! She did have some good ideas as well. So I tried to keep an open mind to see where it was going. But it wasn't working. She had him in tears finally one day as she tried to "erase a bad memory" and it was just so not OT. He refused to go back and I agreed it was not going to help to keep doing that sort of thing. > > So we switched to another OT that the school found. She has been not so great so far. She isn't doing anything weird but she isn't doing anything else. She has decided he should "notice" he's not leaving spaces between words and that will fix the problem. Only that is the problem. He can tell his writing is a mess just fine. He just can't make it better. I thought that would be her job - to do activities to improve his skills in these areas so he could notice these things and improve. But instead, her method seems to be, "He should just pay better attention and he won't have that problem." she makes him write paragraphs from a book - he has the worst time copying from things and hates doing it - and then she goes through it and nit picks at everything he has messed up. It's really defeating for him. And then she says, "Should there be a space between those words?" and he visibly looks like he wants to throw up on her. I know he is thinking, "Duh!" and feeling like she is talking down to him. He's not stupid and he knows this is a problem. But spacing is a problem he can't seem to figure out on his own....hence the OT!! Then the more she talks to him, the worse he feels, the more he refuses to cooperate or even speak to her and the more she decides he's just being obstinate and could do it if he just wanted to, so she talks more and pushes more, repeating this awful ugly circle for the whole hour long session. This week, for instance, I have a card I am supposed to place next to him when he writes things. It lists the 3 things he needs to "fix" with his writing and I thought, "If all it takes to fix this problem is to nag him about it, I can do that on my own!" lol) I guess I thought she would have exercises to do to improve his skills. > > I told her I didn't agree that this was something he could fix if he wanted to. She explained to me that when we hurry when we write, it comes out sloppy and that is what he is doing. I didn't even agree because I can write quickly and neatly at the same time. So I am not seeing how this "theory" holds water. But I said that was not really a problem he has. He's always had these issues of spacing whether he takes his time writing or writes quickly - and so do my other two ds's. I don't feel it's just laziness on his part. But she really implied that it was. I asked if there were not activities we could do to work on these skills (i.e. something even FUN?? Dare I say fun?) and she didn't answer me. She just repeated that he needs to "pay attention" when he is writing. I get the idea that OT is going to be a long dreary hour of making him write and then telling him it looks awful. Even if her method was a good one, it isn't working with my ds who is missing the point. > > This takes 3 hours. I drive almost an hour to get there, an hour in the therapy, an hour home. Then he is so ticked off he refuses to even speak to me. So any more schooling on these days is impossible. It's a wasted day. > > Somehow, I feel defeated. How many OT's do you have to go through to find one that is even passable and can work with this kid? I have a short list to discuss with her this next week in the hopes of salvaging the situation and have already read two books on visual perception to try and educate myself more about what he needs. But I'm not feeling confident that this is going to go well. I hope I am wrong. We'll see. Do you think the school will think we are just nit-picky people if we have to find yet another OT to work with him? Or should I give up and just figure out what things we can do on our own? Aren't these people supposed to be trained to work with kids just like this? WAAAAAAAAHHH!!! > > Has anyone else had to go through a series of therapists like this? How many did you go through before finding a real one? And is it worth it to take the kid to so many with so many failures? I am feeling like he is not going to even go to a new one at this point, he is so done with this nonsense. And frankly, I AM TOO!!! > > I am probably just venting here. It's just so frustrating to get to this point where I should be seeing my kid get help and not getting help. And wasting another year. Argh!! > > > > > Roxanna > “Our lives begin to end the day webecome silent about things that matter.†- Luther King, Jr. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 Yes, I actually have several of the workbooks for Handwriting without tears. I honestly should have just put together the program for him at home and worked on it. I guess I was going to have the OT's work on it and felt they would know better. Now I think I might just figure it out on my own. Roxanna “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.†- Luther King, Jr. ( ) Re: Argh! Have you heard of or tried "Handwriting without Tears"? It was created by an OT and has been a very successful program for kids who have trouble with writing. I actually went to the training seminars and looked at the "science" behind the program, and I really think it is worth looking into. If you go to the Handwriting without tears website, you may be able to find a professional that has been trained in the program in your area. Some are OT's, some are teachers. It is different from all other handwriting curriculum, and is being adopted by a lot of school systems and private schools here in Atlanta. Anyone that tells you that handwriting is no longer important is misinformed! Just thought I would mention it. Good Luck. North Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 23, 2011 Report Share Posted February 23, 2011 I know this is definitely not common but Conor had the same school OT (male) from ages 4 - 11. Pam In a message dated 2/6/2011 11:13:38 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, susanonderko@... writes: My complaint of OT's is that they try to cover too many areas in one short 45 minute session. For us having the OT (any OT) focus on bi-lateral coordination only for 30m minutes and then give our daughter as a reward 15 minutes to pick what she likes to do (jump in ball pit, swing etc) made a noticeable difference. We only went to OT from age 5 - 9 and only in the summer for 8 weeks (this reduced her opposition to going).The OT's pointed out so many deficits it was just too muchand I spent so much money on vision therapy, listening programs,fine motor skills, brushing programs etc. I think the money spent on working on large motor skillswas worth the money. But we had to follow up with swimming,biking and roller skating (all bi-lateral skills). Pam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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