Has anyone used vision therapy for their child? I found out today that my 8 year old has some issues going on with his eyes and he wll be getting no line bifocals next week. The developmental eye doctor said with the glasses along with vision therapy he should only need glasses for 1 year. I would really appreciate your feedback on vision therapy. Thanks in advance
Thank all of you who have responded so far. We seen Dr. Stendig in Garland, Tx yesterday and he did the testing and wrote his prescription for his glasses. I ordered his glasses and I should get them next week. I think I am going to go ahead and schedule with another developmental eye doctor for a second opinion before we commit to the vision therapy. If the 2nd eye doctor feels like my son will benefit from the therapy then we will go with it. Should I make the next appointment after we get his glasses or ASAP??
Get a second opinion... I work in an elementary school and know of a few kids that have received vision therapy- we saw no improvement at all.
Like TinaT said, check with a pediatric opthomologist. Good luck!
My friend did this with her son. They had some glasses that reminded me of the ones Nicholas Cage used in the National Treasure movie to read the clues to find the treasure. The glasses had different colored lenses that flipped up and down, they had several different positions they could go in. She would have him read out loud and while he was reading this page she would flip the glasses at certain times or change the colors.
This trained his brain to receive the information he was reading in a different way. He went from having reading issues and nearly flunking out of school to being able to finally enjoy reading and being a much better student. They were so happy when he started getting into reading. That next year all he wanted for Christmas was books.
Another friend, an adult, told me about something she discovered while in junior high school. She had always had trouble reading and when she found her "cure" it was actually by accident. She has some "cool" sunglasses that had an oddly tinted colored lens, sort of a rose color. She was in school one day and the overhead lights were glaringa bit, they had to read a book so she put the sunglasses back on. The words on the page were suddenly clear, not moving around like they were vibrating, and they suddenly made sense. She told her mom how easy it was to read stuff with these sunglasses on and her mom took her to the eye doc. They did testing. She got a color sheet to put over any book she was reading. When she did the testing that next spring her test scores were through the roof. She had a genius IQ! Due to her reading problem and finding the solution she was able to graduate early with high grades.
When my grandson went into foster care my bff did all the stuff to get certified so she could take him in. She quickly realized he needed to have his eyes examined. He could not see the chalk board from any place in the room nor could he read any book she put in front of him.
They eye doc did all the testing and told her that my grandson's eye sight was so bad in one eye that his brain had completely stopped processing anything that eye sent to it. Technically, he was functionally blind in that eye. The other eye was not perfect either.
He started them out doing nightly exercises with a tool that had 4 circles on it. The lenses were different colors. As he would read my friend would flip them around and do different combinations. This was like my first friend did but the devices were very different looking. Maybe they did the same thing.
My friend did this therapy every night with my grandson for the entire time he lived there, about 9 months. She took him to the eye doc very often to be rechecked to track the progress. His vision steadily changed. His brain started processing his information towards the end in a much better way.
When he moved to another foster home they didn't do any of the exercises and lost the lenses. He moved back to my daughters house and when he started school they said he needed an eye check up. The same doc saw him and his eyes had regressed some.
He taught my daughter how to do the exercises. She did them sporadically at first. When she saw the eye exam results and how his vision improved she realized she had to be more proactive. After she did them with him for another 6 months or so his scores were as good as they could possibly be. He wears glasses still but his brain and eye's have been retrained to work together.
He can go with out his glasses and do fine. He can read, play sports, go to the movies, all without wearing his normal glasses. His eye that was nearly blind was fixed in my opinion.
I think if your eye doc is saying do this that you should jump on board and be relentless. Do the exercises every day exactly how he says. If they aren't working talk to the doc to see if there is something in the exercises that needs to be adjusted. But give it a chance to do what it needs to do.
Get a second opinion! I took my son when he was about he same age and they told us he needed special glasses and therapy that would cost over $2,000! We dropped the cash on the glasses but hesitated on the therapy.
Our ped was skeptical and recommended we get a second opinion. We took him to a highly recommended pediatric opthomologist (by both friends and the ped). The second doctor could find nothing wrong with his eyes! He is 10 now with no issues!
If you are interested, his name is Dr. David Stager, and his number is ###-###-####? His website is www.drstagerjr.com (his father was also a ped opthomologist if I remember right)
My son , that has significant special needs, receives vision therapy through our school district. I haven't seen any benefit to it but my sons needs are complex. When I have mentioned the therapy to his docs , they have seemed indifferent about the treatment.
