Learning disabilities and vision?

[kjralston]

My son is in first grade and has extreme difficulty learning to read. He's also been diagnosed with ADHD and has receptive/expressive language delays. Took him to a developmental optometrist who made a few diagnoses, including convergence insufficiency, but my gut told me I should get a second opinion. My pediatrician doesn't support vision therapy and urged me to take him to a pediatric ophthalmologist instead. I understand that ophthalmologists also do not support vision therapy so I’m wondering, if the ophthalmologist will be able to confirm the diagnoses the optometrist made and if so, how he will treat them.
As you can imagine, we have spent TONS of money and time trying to figure out what will help my son. He is struggling and we just want to streamline and prioritize and figure out the best and most effective course of treatment for him. Any insight/advice would be greatly appreciated. Between recommendations for OT, social skills groups, vision therapy, speech therapy (which he does do)- I'm a bit overwhelmed and don't know what’s causing what and where to start!

[Anonymous]

Have you done OT yet? While we were doing the OT and Speech Therapy thing, it was actually our OT who said we should looking into vision therapy.

We started with just a normal eye exam (with a younger doctor) and she recommended/confirmed that vision therapy would be a good idea.

We did vision therapy for a year. We saw big results, but it is hard to say what was vision therapy, OT, baseball practice and just growing up (ironically it was our 1st grade year). Vision therapy was a little crunchy for us, but we figured it didn't feel like it would do harm.

Start with what you are already doing and do the basic appointments that are covered by insurance for screening. You only have so much time in the day.

How many years have you been doing this? Our OT and Speech started at age 2 1/2. If you just started OT or speech in the last 12 months, it is a long road. Give OT some time before you add Vision therapy. I've seen kids take vision therapy at much older ages.

[Anonymous]

Oh dear God, run don't walk from vision therapy. There is no science behind it and they will soak you. I did OT for years with my DS and came to the conclusion that they tell everyone to see a developmental pediatrician, who always diagnosis something. Both OTs and developmental optometrists think they can fix learning and developmental difference. Its the brain. Its not the eyes and its not the rest of the body. Its the brain.

On serious danger with developmental optometrists is that they keep families from getting their kids checkups with ophthalmologists, and therefore may cause them to mist getting the correct medical diagnosis.

OP, if you are feeling like your DS' issues haven't been addressed, have an evaluation by a developmental pediatrician. General pediatricians are simply no good with this kind of thing. And you need someone with expertise recommending the right interventions because if you follow the lead of the OTs you will end up in hoo-hoo land.

[kjralston]

Thank you. We have not done OT yet but I've been seriously considering it. He does do speech therapy (we did it privately over the summer but now he will receive services at school, which I don't think will be nearly as effective as the private SLP was.) My pediatrician suggests that our next step should be to see an ophthamologist. However, if the ophthamologist doesn't find anything concerning, I don't know where to go from there. Sounds like a developmental pediatrician might be the way to go..

[Anonymous]

I was not diagnosed with learning disabilities until after high school (whoopsie!), but did wear glasses starting in second grade.

My optometrist had me do vision therapy for several years and my mother told me years after that, that he diagnosed me with a few of my learning disabilities through that, though we didnt realize it at the time.

[Anonymous]

There actually is science behind vision therapy for convergence insufficiency (there's an NIH study that indicates in-office vision therapy can be successful in treating this). However, because some people tout vision therapy as the "cure" for everything from ADHD to Autism, you do want to be skeptical.

My 5th grader will be starting vision therapy for convergence insufficiency. DC has the classic symptoms, and a 3mos course of vision therapy is an experiment worth doing. If it works, great - I won't really care if it worked because vision therapy works or placebo. If it doesn't work, no biggie.

This is definitely a "popular" thing right now and I think skepticism makes sense. That's why I looked at the studies and decided on terms that made sense to us. You hear about people doing a year of vision therapy and I didn't want to become one of those folks that starts on the treadmill and doesn't know when to get off.

[Anonymous]

I could not disagree more with anonymous above. Vision therapy SAVED my child. I watched it happen before my eyes. And I'm not the only one. Check out the Facebook page Vision Therapy Changed My Life: https://www.facebook.com/groups/74321220306/
Read the book Jillian's Story, How Vision Therapy Changed my Daughter's Life: http://www.jilliansstory.com/index.htm
Vision therapy is not a cure-all for everyone, but it was a miracle for my family. For more info., try the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD)
www.covd.org/? .

[Anonymous]

kjralston wrote:Thank you. We have not done OT yet but I've been seriously considering it. He does do speech therapy (we did it privately over the summer but now he will receive services at school, which I don't think will be nearly as effective as the private SLP was.) My pediatrician suggests that our next step should be to see an ophthamologist. However, if the ophthamologist doesn't find anything concerning, I don't know where to go from there. Sounds like a developmental pediatrician might be the way to go..

Absolutely get a full evaluation from a developmental pediatrician. OTs and developmental optometrists make diagnoses all the time that they are not qualified to make. They are not medical doctors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I could not disagree more with anonymous above. Vision therapy SAVED my child. I watched it happen before my eyes. And I'm not the only one. Check out the Facebook page Vision Therapy Changed My Life: https://www.facebook.com/groups/74321220306/
Read the book Jillian's Story, How Vision Therapy Changed my Daughter's Life: http://www.jilliansstory.com/index.htm
Vision therapy is not a cure-all for everyone, but it was a miracle for my family. For more info., try the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD)
www.covd.org/? .

Every time developmental optometry comes up on these boards there are developmental optometrists who come on the hawk their profession. I don't know if this is one, but it smells of a sales pitch. No specific details, just links to promotional sites.