Children Who Have Had Vision Therapy

Different diagnosis, but d.s. did have vision therapy, so I thought his experience might be helpful for you and others... My son was diagnosed with a binocular dysfunction (eyes actually moved in a jerky fashion when looking near to far- theoretically it tires the brain) Symptoms were not enjoying reading, reading with head tilted, high reading comprehension test scores high- 95%/low-25% (? something else-forgot what it's been 8 years!) Vision therapy consisted of many physical exercises over a few months. Evidence of success: a happy reader! Also then cleared for the gifted program after just missing on initial testing.

Hi Kathy, I had vision therapy myself when I was a little girl. My eye turned outward. My parents put me in vision therapy and I used glasses for a while, and they both helped. My eye still goes out every once in a while when I'm too focused on something, but I can correct it myself. I learned to "control" it. But the vision therapy did help a lot. I remember I did the exercises at home as well. Good luck!

My son started therapy about 1 year and a half ago. While it progress is slow, we have not been diligent with the excercises and there certainly has been marked improvement. He has been going to Dr Wallace Reagin in Decatur. He's been doing vision therapy for 50 years and recommends monthly reevaluations and we really like him. We don't usually go every month but every time we do go he gives new homework.

Hey Kathy, I don't have children who have had to have vision therapy but when I was little I myself did. I had an eye that turned inwards (lazy eye) and the combo of therapy and glasses did the trick. Sorry I wasn't more help for you, I just thought I would let you know that it worked for me.
S.

I had this when I was little, my problem was the the optic nerve in one of my eyes just never developed. This wasnt discovered until after the 3rd grade. They tried bifocals, and a patch and it didnt help. They now know that it HAS to be corrected when the child is younger, before the nerves are fully developed. Get her checked ASAP! My therapy was too late for me. I have good vision in one eye now but I am legally blind in the other. My daughter showed some signs of this at 2 yrs also but she checked out fine. At 6, something is going on with the nerves. Just dont delay the treatment, the vision she has now is what she could have forever. I also had to an eye operation when I was 3 due to 'lazy' eye. Best of luck!

My daughter had stabismus and amblyopia--(the technical terminology for far sightedness and lazy eye) which go hand in hand with each other. I researched as much as I could and also learned from her pediatric opthamologist that when there is a vision deficiency as with her far-sightedness, one eye will take over and the other goes lazy. Her eye kicked in (crossed). We started noticing her squinting that eye at about 16 mos. and then when she looked at something up close, it would start to cross in. She had surgery on the muscles in her eyes and started wearing glasses at 18 mos. We also patched her eye until she was about 4 1/2. The patching started out aggressive (about 8 hrs. a day) and then dwindled down to where we were only doing it for 2 hrs. a day at the end. She is now almost 13 and her vision is almost normal. She doesn't need glasses to see only to sharpen her vision. This was an agressive approach but; I would do it again. You may already know that vision is controled by the brain and the earlier you get it fixed the better chance you have of correcting the vision. With her wearing the glasses it trained her brain to be able to see clearly (this is how the Dr. explained it to us) and with patching it-we strengthened the eye that had become lazy. Anyway, we had great success and I always recommend that people go aggressive with vision because it really can be corrected if it is taken care of at an early age. It sounds like your child may have a very mild case and so maybe you don't need the surgery. However, I recommend that you stay on it because you really can fix it. I remember when we found out about our daughter and it broke my heart. It was scary having her have surgery at such a young age and the patching was a struggle at times but, we got through it and it has all been worth it. If you have to do the patching...buy some really cool stickers and be ready to praise your child for enduring it because it can be tough on them. I was so happy when the Dr. finally told us that we were done with the patching. We had a great Dr. I think that was key. Our pediatrician recommended us right away to ped. opth. and at that point he (our Dr.) thought it was nothing but, said he would rather be safe than sorry. The pediatric opthamologist scheduled the surgery right away which fixed the crossing immediately. We then just had to work on stregthening the vision. Sorry this is so long...I just have had a lot of experience at this point with this and have a lot to say. :) Stay on it...it can be fixed!

We have had our child tested and fitted with glasses for a very similar problem. It helped a lot at first now he doesn't want to wear the glasses at all. He got them when he was just 14 mos. old, he is now almost 22 mos and tears them up as often as he can manage. So as long as he is not running into the walls or falling alot, I'm not pushing the issue for now. It is time for another eye test so we will see what the good doc has to say and go from there.

I don't like him wearing polycarbonate at all and most places will not make glasses with real glass for children, for obvious reasons. So I guess we're stuck with plastic which I hate! The many toxins plastics puts in our environment has caused such a heavy body burden on our little ones it's just not right! That stuff needs to be thrown out of every child's home so they can breathe freely!

Oh well let me know how it goes, I guess when he is older we may look at other therapy's more seriously.

I work with special needs kids and I have seen the biggest sucess with patching. vision therapy has mixed results and usually isn't covered by insurance. As a mom you want to try anything, but I don't know if the money is worth the chance. Hope you find something that works!