Symptoms of a Vision Processing Disorder

As most of you know my oldest daughter (8 1/2) has a Vision Processing Disorder. I have seen lately, through my stat counter, that there are a lot of people searching for symptoms of a Vision Processing Disorder (VPD),  so I thought I’d give some symptoms. Keep in mind that I am not a doctor, do not pretend to be one,  have never played one on tv and I did not sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night. lol These are some of the symptoms that I and the school noticed in my daughter that told us she needed a vision screening/evaluation.

Just because a child has a VPD does not make them dumb or behind in regular activities. In fact my daughter was extremely advanced for her age as a baby and toddler. She’s a very bright kid but just has difficulty with reading, comprehension, written expression, visual memory and short term memory. Her eyes just do not work together as they should but by looking at her you would have no idea, which is why I never knew why she was having problems in school. She looks healthy, she has no developmental delays and acts age appropriately. However, when it comes to school and reading she has a lot of problems.

Some of her symptoms are:

• Mixing up letters (i.e. ‘d’ and ‘b’)
• Mixing up words by changing letters around (i.e. ’saw’ and ‘was’)
• After she reads a story she cannot always tell me in detail what the story was about.
• Skipping words, letters or paragraphs when reading.
• When writing she will start off on the left hand side of the page but as she continues her new lines start going more toward the middle of the page instead of staying on the left hand side.
• She would get headaches during and after reading.

I’ve also noticed while my daughter is reading out loud to me that she often replaces words with other words, skips complete lines and at times even starts making up new sentences. I talked to her Vision Therapist about this and she says she makes up new words or sentences to help everything make sense. So that is something we are still working on as well.

Keep in mind that she also has ADD/ADHD so there are many other factors that brought so much of this out. Not having the patience to sit and read, being easily distracted by others, sounds, etc. This only worsened her VPD symptoms.

After receiving some Occupational Therapy for some sensory issues we were referred to see a Visual Therapist for an eye check and visual evaluation. It was then found that she has excellent 20/20 vision but does have a VPD mostly from a focus issue. Please keep in mind that just because someone has a Vision Processing Disorder it does not necessarily mean that they have bad eyesight. Like I said before, my daughter has perfect eyesight. She started to receive Visual Therapy and goes in once a week for 45 minutes. So far she has made wonderful progress. Yes, it can be expensive but when it comes to your child’s well being and future success it is totally worth it.

There are many things that her Visual Therapist does with her each week to help her eyes start to work together better. She favors her entire right side so they try to get her left as strong as her right. This is also why when she writes, her new lines begin to move in away from the left hand side of the paper.

The best advice I can give you until you make an appointment to get your child evaluated is:

• Buy a Reading Guide Strip that  your child can either place the highlighted area over the words in the book or underneath the sentence to keep their eyes focused on the line they should be reading.
• Reading to your child is always important. Point to the words as you read and at times ask them to sound out some of the words or say, ‘Hmm…what is this word?’ and have them answer you.
• Having your child read to you aloud, while you follow along, is a good idea as well. This  way you can see where their strengths and weaknesses are. This will also educate you a little when it comes time for your child’s evaluation.
• Remind your child to read slow and look carefully at each word.
• Pausing every now and then to talk about what is going on in the story will help your child with comprehension, visual memory and their short term memory as well. Helping them come up with a visual of what they’re reading about can help drastically. (i.e. A story about a horse who is lost in the woods. Help your child create a mental visual of the scene. What color is the horse? Is it dark in the woods? What sounds do you think the horse is hearing, etc.)
• Sometimes just pausing to ask your child what is going on is a good idea just to see how much they’re picking up from the story. If your child says, ‘well the cat was hiding in a box.’ when the cat was actually in his bed sleeping, then you know that your child is not comprehending the story well and may have a comprehension issue as well.
  

As frustrating as it can be when your child is having a difficulty with something always remember that they are young.  Children love to please adults, especially parents to show and prove to them that they are getting bigger and smarter. Please, whatever you do, do not make your child feel stupid or embarrassed over anything when it comes to learning. Even if they are behind, get them the help they need and always encourage them appropriately to do their best and try harder next time, practice makes perfect. Being too hard, mean and embarrassing them will only cause them to feel bad about themselves for something they cannot control and make them self conscious.

To read more about Vision Therapy please click here.

Vision Therapy – Building Visual Skill

My oldest daughter is currently in Vision Therapy for a Vision Processing Disorder and I have had people ask me what it is exactly. It is hard for me to explain in a way that is reliable and understandable so last week when we were at the office I picked up a pamphlet about it so everyone can understand it a little better.

We first knew something wasn’t right when our daughter had trouble reading, focusing and retaining information that she either saw or read. She was having problems with her memory and at times was rearranging letters in words so they would be backwards (i.e. ’saw’ and ‘was’). She didn’t enjoy reading and even though we would work and work on spelling, reading and comprehension and had her in extra classes to receive help from teachers with this, she was still having issues. I thought it was possibly dyslexia but was told that they don’t do testing until after second grade for that but the teachers didn’t think that was what it was anyway so we left it alone.

She also had other issues that needed to be dealt with, so after her baby sister started receiving therapy for SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder) we thought we would take her in and see if they could help. They recommended taking her to see an Opthamologist and getting her eyes looked at. Her vision is 20/20 so that wasn’t the issue. After some more testing they determined that she had a Vision Processing Disorder and should start receiving Visual Therapy.

She goes once a week and has been going for about 7 months now. She is improving dramatically and we are so excited. Finally this year she is doing better with reading and comprehension, although, her memory and organizational skills are still lacking. But that’s for another post.

So what exactly is a Vision Processing Disorder and how do they fix it? From a pamphlet by Optometric Extension Program:

“There are many important skills one needs in order for one’s visual system to work efficiently. Sometimes these skills don’t develop the way they should. This happens for a variety of reasons we do know about, and other  reasons that are still unknown.

Vision Therapy is a service provided by optometrists that helps people improve their visual abilities. Vision Therapy works to improve their basic abilities, much like occupational therapy or speech therapy works to improve other basic skills.”

What is Visual Skill?

“Visual skill that can be developed and improved through vision therapy includes these abilities:

Tracking: Imagine watching someone trow a ball to you. Your eyes follow the path of this ball to your hands. You are using tracking – the ability to follow a moving object with your eyes. Tracking is vitally important when reading.  You must be able to move  your eyes accurately to get the full meaning when reading across a line of print.

Fixation: When we read, we use fixation – the ability to find and look at a series of stationary objects (like words on a page).

Focus Change: Children in school use this skill constantly. Every time they look from the board to their paper and back, they are changing focus. Adults use this skill as well. While driving, it is important to be able to change your focus from the road to the instrument panel on your dashboard quickly and precisely.

Visual Discrimination:The ability to detect small differences needs to be fast and accurate. When driving a car you need to read the street sign as “Henry” not “Harry”; reading “though” not “through.” This requires focusing skills, tracking, and fixation.

Binocularity: Our eyes were designed to work together by pointing at the same place and moving together accurately and smoothly as one.

Depth Perception, which is directly related to binocularity, helps you to see in three dimensions. A critical skill, it gives you a finely tuned sense of exactly where things are. This directly related to sports performance and driving  a car.

Peripheral Vision: You’ve probably caught yourself saying “…out of the corner of my eye…”. You were referring to peripheral vision – the ability to notice things outside of your direct line of sight and understand what is going on around you, even though you aren’t looking directly at them. Peripheral vision also helps to direct your visual system so you know where to look next when reading.

Visual Memory: A skill to help us remember and “picture” in our minds things we’ve seen before. This skill helps you in many ways – finding  your lost keys, recalling information that you’ve read before, giving directions to a specific place. Visualization is the skill that we use to “see” what we imagine as we read or hear a story. Most great readers, writers, and spellers have great visualization skills.

Near and Distance Acuity: Acuity is the ability to see clearly far away and close up. 20/20 visual acuity is what most people think of when they thing of good vision or hear the word “optometrist.” Seeing clearly is very important, but acuity is just one of the many skills important to healthy vision.

Symptoms of a Vision Problem:

What happens when your vision isn’t working at its best? Symptoms of a vision problem may include:

Headaches:May develop especially following closeup work, and occur near the eys, forehead, or at the back of the head.

Double vision: Seeing two of something when only one exists.

Suppression: Occurs while both eyes are being used to view normally visible objects, the brain blocks or ignores all or part of the objects in one eye to avoid seeing double.

Poor or erratic performance: Losing your place while reading, rereading words or lines,  difficulty understanding what you’ve read, or reading slowly. Having difficulty with sports, dropping the ball, over or under throwing, or poor hitting.

Discomfort or Fatigue: Body tension, stress or pain, weariness at the end of a school or workday.

In many cases the proper glasses, contact lenses, or a combination of vision therapy and glasses can improve, prevent, or remedy vision problems for both children and adults.

What is Vision Therapy?

If you think that you or someone you know is experiencing problems and could benefit from vision therapy, the first step is to schedule an appointment with your local behavioral optometrist. The doctor will meet with you, perform a complete vision examination that includes a skills assessment, and explain exactly what would be best for you.

For most people, vision therapy means once a week visits to their optometrist’s office for  a period of time, where they work with optometrist or a trained vision therapist working under the supervision of an optometrist. You will be guided through activities designed to correct visual processing problems and/or build your visual skill. The activities are often fun, though challenging. Your therapist might give you a few activities to work on at home. These vision activities, or exercises, usually only take about 15 minutes a day. Read more

Our experience with Therapeutic Listening!

 

Therapeutic Listening

Edible Playdoh Recipe

Water therapy works!

Well my friends this week has been a tough one! Little Miss seems to think that since she’s the youngest that she is the boss and that any and every tantrum will get her her way! Umm….NO!

So this week has been F.U.L.L of tantrums and meltdowns. (sigh) Thank goodness she is cute! One night this week my hubs was at work and I had to:

~ make dinner
~ do dishes
~ help Sassy Pants with her homework
~ pay a little extra attention to Mr. Trouble since he was feeling left out.
~ wrap up Sassy’s box for her V-Day party at school the next day.
~ TRY to remember how to do 2nd grade homework the way I was taught to help teach her
how to do it the ‘right’ way!
~ and of course calm the never-ending meltdowns from Little Miss.

So then I remembered what Little Miss’ S.T. told me to do. Pour some water in a bowl and lay it on a towel. Give Little Miss some kitchen items to play in the water with and let her go. Sooo…I did! And guess what? The meltdown was over! TA DA!!! Like magic! She sat there and played for 10-15 minutes while I got everything I could done.

After that it was back to normal routine…which she loves and craves, so she was fine. Dinner, bath, jammies, snuggles and my favorite part…bed! Ahhh….(sigh of relief!)

Evaluation Update

This week we had my older kids’ evaluations done for SPD. Finally! I took my oldest daughter (Sassy Pants) in on Tuesday and we went through and answered all the questions and they observed her for a while. They haven’t said for sure that they think she has SPD but do think that she has sensory issues that need to be dealt with. They referred us to go see a Visual Therapist to get her eyesight checked out and to see if her eyes move correctly to read, understand and comprehend what she’s looking at/reading. So we go in for that on Monday. (I’ll update on that later after we get back.) So now she is going in to have Occupational Therapy once a week. And Sassy’s teacher at school has offered to stay one day a week to help her out more in school on a one on one basis; she already stays after two days a week for extra help with a reading intervention teacher. So I am hoping that after a while she will start to improve in school. She was always so advanced in everything when she was younger so all this really took us by surprise. But we will do any and everything to help her and make sure her future is a bright one.

Today I took my son in for his evaluation and they said that he definitely has sensory processing issues that also need to be dealt with. I really didn’t expect for them to say that; I really just thought that he had been through so much in his life that he just had weird quirks. But they said that SPD issues would explain his: never wanting to wear pants, shoes and socks, sensitivity to light, wind and touch, his constant loudness (he always talks really loud), his aggressiveness and frustrations, his constant need to touch objects and people and so on. So now he is going to go in once a week with my oldest daughter to get Occupational Therapy as well.

We will have to take all three in to get positive diagnosis’s from a Neurologist but that takes a while to get in. So in the meantime they all three will all three be getting therapy. I’ll keep you updated on what’s going on and how they are doing.

Do any of you have multiple children with sensory issues? Do you have any advice or tips that you can give me?

Picture Schedules!

Sundays are always the worst at my house! When Little Miss is off her schedule/routine she looses it. So her Speech Therapist (I’ll call her ‘B’) gave me a great idea!

I told you all about how we took pics of all of her things that she plays with, eats and does throughout her day, right?! Well now we’re going to get some Velcro and put them on the fridge so that each morning when we get up we can go over to it and take off the breakfast one and say, ‘Ok Little Miss, breakfast is over. Let’s take off the breakfast picture and see what’s next.’ Then she will see that it’s playtime with her favorite toys. After that’s over and it’s time to go somewhere to run errands or eat lunch then she’ll get to go to the fridge and see what comes next. And when that’s done then she can take that one off and see what the next one is going to be; nap time, errands, etc. This is going to help her understand what happens next, feel like she is more in control or in the loop with what’s going on and help prepare her for the next event.

So now not only are the pictures I took good for giving her options and words but they’re also now going to help her with Sundays and feel like she is on a schedule/routine even though it’s different from the rest of the week. I highly recommend doing this with your kid(s)! I can’t wait to get started. I’ll keep you all posted on how it’s going! Thanks ‘B’ for all your help and advice so far!

Let’s get organized!

On Monday my DT (I’ll call her ‘A’) told me that we had too many toys out in our living room. We watched Little Miss sit and empty out the toy box. She grabbed one toy, looked at it for a minute and then was onto the next, not really playing with anything for a long time. ‘A’ told me that this is teaching her to have a short attention span and that we needed to clear out most of the toys and only give her a certain amount. Soooo I did! With the help of my older two children we went through each and every toy and book and decided what should stay and what should go.

So ‘A’ gave me a list of certain developmental activities that we should have out. So I got some small crates and divided the toys into groups. I have one that is pretend which has a baby doll, diaper, baby bottle and rattle in it. Another crate for imaginative that has cooking toys in it. One for manipulative that has blocks and a purse that she can zip and unzip. Some books, a puzzle and a shape sorter toy. And then I have her favorite stuffed animals in a separate toy box. I will change the toys out with new different ones when she gets tired of the ones that are out. This will keep her entertained each week with new toys and help her use her imagination on the toys that are out because she won’t have the opportunity to sit and just empty out the crazy amount of toys that we did have in there.

I didn’t realize how having too many toys out was not good for her and how being organized will help her feel better. Now she is not overwhelmed by all the toys, she has more room and it’s going to be fun to see new toys out each week.

CEREAL THERAPY!

My Developemental Therapist gave me a wonderful idea for my daughter and I wanted to share it with everyone. On her first visit to our house she brought in a storage container filled with Cheerios, little plastic toys and two small cups. When she opened it up Little Miss started to play in it and had the best time. She sat there for a long while and dug her hands into the cereal, poured them from one cup to the other, dumped them out and so on. The texture of the cereal feels good and helps her to sit, relax and have fun. So I went out on Tuesday and bought the stuff to make one for our house. SHE.LOVES.IT! I have it filled with Cheerios, blocks and two plastic cups and she plays with it non-stop. When she gets tired of it I empty the cereal into a bag and then dump in marshmallows for her to play with. It does get a tad messy and she does try every now and then to eat what’s in the box but after we say, ‘not in your mouth….it’s only for your hands’ she stops and spits them out. Good girl! lol

Try this with your child(ren) and see if it is something they enjoy. I’ll post a pic of it tomorrow and ask my therapist to do a small post on what exactly this does to help them. So check back soon!