After 5 months of therapy and exercises, Rachel had her recheck today. The results? She went from a 6 to a 9 (which is perfect) on her binocular vision, and has normal tracking. The Dr. said to stop doing exercises until she goes back in December to see how she maintains the improvements over time.
One of her favorite vision therapy exercises was using this website. It was nice to have some variety by mixing it in with other things we were doing.
I knew there was a change when I took Rachel to the grocery store with me a couple of months ago. It was the first time she had been there in quite some time. As she looked around at all the food, something must have looked different, because she went on and on about how much better she could see. This is not a 20/20 thing (in fact, her prescription changed from last time) but certainly is a difference in how she is able to use her eyes.
Every week, I have noticed improvements in her school work and handwriting--things that go beyond the normal maturity and learning you would hope to see in the same amount of time.
We're so excited!!
Showing posts with label vision therapy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vision therapy. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Thursday, March 29, 2012
vision therapy update
Last fall I posted about our discovery that Rachel needed vision therapy. We were able to schedule 4 sessions after Christmas. I dropped her off each week for a 1 hour session with C. and prayed for progress.
Just two sessions in, Rachel began to tell me it was getting easier to read. A few weeks later she went to the grocery store with me for the first time in a long, long time. "Mom!" she exclaimed, "everything looks so clear!"
It's hard to know how much different her world now looks, but I am seeing the results myself in her daily work. Look at this, a handwriting sample from last fall:
Compared to this past week:
When I showed her the two papers, she giggled and said, "vision therapy." It is much easier to keep her handwriting between lines that aren't jumping around when she looks at them.
It will take time to realize all the benefits; time to build vocabulary, improve reading skills, and see how things go from here. We have about 10 minutes of therapy to do every day--which isn't always easy to fit in but we are so motivated to keep a good thing going. Recently, I found this website on another mom's blog: http://eyecanlearn.com/ which is a nice break from the usual activities every once in awhile.
Another mom gave recently recommended this for vocabulary development. Rachel is such a visual learner (in spite of having visual problems), I'm hoping it will be a great way to boost her vocabulary. Micah and I laughed so hard when looking at the samples, he asked me to get the SAT book for him.
Just two sessions in, Rachel began to tell me it was getting easier to read. A few weeks later she went to the grocery store with me for the first time in a long, long time. "Mom!" she exclaimed, "everything looks so clear!"
It's hard to know how much different her world now looks, but I am seeing the results myself in her daily work. Look at this, a handwriting sample from last fall:
When I showed her the two papers, she giggled and said, "vision therapy." It is much easier to keep her handwriting between lines that aren't jumping around when she looks at them.
It will take time to realize all the benefits; time to build vocabulary, improve reading skills, and see how things go from here. We have about 10 minutes of therapy to do every day--which isn't always easy to fit in but we are so motivated to keep a good thing going. Recently, I found this website on another mom's blog: http://eyecanlearn.com/ which is a nice break from the usual activities every once in awhile.
Another mom gave recently recommended this for vocabulary development. Rachel is such a visual learner (in spite of having visual problems), I'm hoping it will be a great way to boost her vocabulary. Micah and I laughed so hard when looking at the samples, he asked me to get the SAT book for him.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Friday, October 14, 2011
vision therapy
There are times as a mom when you see something going on with your kids, sense there is something amiss, but just can't quite put your finger on it. I had one of those moments this summer as I observed Rachel during a violin lesson. She was playing out of a book that had several lines of music, and kept losing her place. Her teacher was very patient, but I could tell even he was perplexed at how often she skipped down a line or two while playing.
I thought about things like trouble with cutting, illegible handwriting, skipping words when reading, and lack of comprehension of things she had read. After doing some reading and hearing others' stories about vision therapy, I began to suspect these things may have a visual component. We made an appointment with a developmental optometrist, and waited for 2 months to get in.
Yesterday was that appointment. It was intriguing to watch the testing. Some of it was what you would see at any eye appointment, along with other vision tests. The most telling was when the Dr. did some muscle testing. She had Rachel follow her finger with her eyes, and I could see them jump rather than stay fluid in their tracking. Sure enough, her diagnosis involved a tracking problem that can be addressed with a few sessions of vision therapy followed by a home program.
When Rachel reads, she sees one word and then skips to the beginning of another further on or perhaps even a line or two down! This means that she skips shorter words, and spends so much effort and energy on making sense what she sees, there is little left for remembering and understanding. The handwriting, cutting, skipping words are all due to this eye muscle difficulty. I find it amazing that even with this vision problem, she has stayed mostly on grade level with her reading and spelling and still enjoys learning. Comprehension is my biggest concern for her. I'm not expecting vision therapy to be the whole solution, but at least it is a place to start.
I wish we had known about this when Rachel was younger! I post it here hoping to raise awareness that when there is a reading problem, there truly may be more going on than meets the eye.
I thought about things like trouble with cutting, illegible handwriting, skipping words when reading, and lack of comprehension of things she had read. After doing some reading and hearing others' stories about vision therapy, I began to suspect these things may have a visual component. We made an appointment with a developmental optometrist, and waited for 2 months to get in.
Yesterday was that appointment. It was intriguing to watch the testing. Some of it was what you would see at any eye appointment, along with other vision tests. The most telling was when the Dr. did some muscle testing. She had Rachel follow her finger with her eyes, and I could see them jump rather than stay fluid in their tracking. Sure enough, her diagnosis involved a tracking problem that can be addressed with a few sessions of vision therapy followed by a home program.
When Rachel reads, she sees one word and then skips to the beginning of another further on or perhaps even a line or two down! This means that she skips shorter words, and spends so much effort and energy on making sense what she sees, there is little left for remembering and understanding. The handwriting, cutting, skipping words are all due to this eye muscle difficulty. I find it amazing that even with this vision problem, she has stayed mostly on grade level with her reading and spelling and still enjoys learning. Comprehension is my biggest concern for her. I'm not expecting vision therapy to be the whole solution, but at least it is a place to start.
I wish we had known about this when Rachel was younger! I post it here hoping to raise awareness that when there is a reading problem, there truly may be more going on than meets the eye.
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