anyone have any experience with vision therapy for kids?

rivk241

Wed, Dec 28 2011, 1:24 pm

my daughter is 12 yrs old... she can read perfectly fine but when she finishes reading a chapter/book she cant tell me what it was about...her reading comprehension in all subjects is pretty bad... including chumash etc.... I also have an 8 yr old son who has trouble with the reading comprehension ....I was told they might do well with vision therapy since they focus so much on the words and it doesnt process in their heads what its about....has anyone have experience with this and has the therapy helped? it is an expensive ordeal I want to help my kids but want to hears others feedback on this....

anonymrs

Wed, Dec 28 2011, 2:03 pm

rivk241 wrote:

You were told by whom? Vision therapy is not the kind of thing that you or a teacher can determine will be beneficial for your child(ren). It is something that a competent eye doctor should be recommending due to the way the muscles of the eyes are working (or not working). You can certainly go to an eye doctor for an evaluation and he will be able to tell you if this will help your child. I have seen people who have had tremendous success with it and I have also seen people who put in many many hours and a lot of money (I don't think this is covered by insurance) and seen zero improvement.

anonymrs

Wed, Dec 28 2011, 3:35 pm

Some are trained to recognize it, but not all. If you let us know what area you are in, people can tell you who does vision therapy. If you are in the NY area, there is a top doctor in the New York Eye & Ear Institute (Manhattan) who does this.

Tzutzie

Wed, Dec 28 2011, 4:29 pm

Most insurances DO cover vision therapy if referred by an eye doctor.
I used to got to vision therapy as a kid. I had no problem with reading comprehension but would get extremely tired after reading just a short time. Also, I was an extremely slow reader as I had astigmatism which made me see double occasionally and hard to focus my eyes on one page for more than 2-3 min. and now I am a FAST reader. reading through books faster than you can imagine. Mother didn't like me to buy books as a girl rather I should borrow cuz it was a waste. it costed $30 for an hour tops hour half pleasure... lol

bottom line, vision therapy if prescribed by an expert and done the right way IS VERY HELPFUL AND EFFECTIVE and totally worth it. just make sure to actually BE IN THE ROOM with your child cuz I had a very bad experience at one place where the therapist was physically abusive as I came by myself.

first and foremost, go see an eye doctor who specializes in these things to see if your child really needs it. not all eye doctors can tell you that...
Good Luck.

rivk241

Wed, Dec 28 2011, 7:14 pm

op here my mother suggest I get my kids evaluated by Suny College of optometry . since they are not a private place where they would be out for my money ...the are students and this is what they do under a doctors guidance .....hope its the right thing..

anonymrs

Thu, Dec 29 2011, 3:11 am

I would not recommend having this done by students. The eye is a very complex organ and there are many muscles that need to be coordinating. An experienced doctor will be able to tell you the correct therapy and combination of exercises that will be best for your child. Vision therapy is not just one thing, it's different for every child. I can give you that name of that doctor in the New York Eye and Ear Institute for an evaluation. There are probably places closer to you that do the actual therapy.

jayne

Thu, Dec 29 2011, 8:22 am

Dr. Michal Luchins in Monsey saved my daughter from a lifetime of academic failure and klutziness. I had my daughter evaluated for everything under the sun--no one could figure out why she was so smart verbally but just couldn't make it in school. She also was awkward, and couldn't catch a ball or jump rope. She compensated for it all and was a happy kid, but finally, I had an evaluation with Dr. Luchins, who gives an extremely comprehensive, multi-hour exam. My daughter was fitted for glasses that right away changed her life!! It turned out that her eyes were slow to change focus, so by the time she could see what the teacher was writing on the board, it was time to do close work at her desk and her eyes were still adjusted to distance. It was more complicated that that, but with the glasses, she could do all the things she never could before. She also became good at playground sports. It was really a miracle. I also took her for vision therapy for about a year until I couldn't afford more. I am so grateful for Dr. Luchins!!

Mom23gs

Thu, Dec 29 2011, 9:29 am

Hi! new to imamother here. My 10 yo dd finished up a course of vision therapy last June. She too has had difficulty with reading comprehension for many years. Additionally, she was seeing double whenever she tried to focus on the board or on books. We took her to a specialist here in NJ, who, after a thorough exam (over several sessions)changed her glasses to bifocals, and recommended vision therapy. We were lucky and insurance covered half the costs. It worked, and today she can read well with no double vision. However, that did not help the reading comprehension. What helped with that was speech therapy, with a language therapist. It has made a hugh difference in her life. She is (a year after beginning therapy), a better reader, a better student, much less frustrated with more confidence in herself. It has helped her in her secular and torah studies. After years in resource room for chumash, her morah recommended that we try a trial of having her stay in class, as she is doing so much better. And, last week she received a grade of 100 on a reading comprehension assessment. It is worth checking into all options, as assessments themselves are expensive, and you want to make sure you are spending your money on the right treatment. Good Luck!

Tzutzie

Thu, Dec 29 2011, 11:32 am

Suny has very good doctors on top of the students. and they were a really goot sheliach for me. but then, this was 10 years ago....
sometimes BECAUSE they are new and inexperienced they evaluate better and have it all backed up by an experienced doctor. so you got both!

which ever way, lots of hatzlucha!

yaeli83

Thu, Dec 29 2011, 10:25 pm

I had vision therapy as a very young child. I was probably 3 or 4 at the time. As far as I know, this type of therapy had nothing to do with reading comprehension. I was that "awkward" kid who kept running into things and people and was not coordinated. B'H vision therapy changed my life. I had to wear bifocals for a while and do eye strengthening exercises with an eye patch. B'H, it worked and I didn't need the therapy for long before my eyes got better and I was a "normal" kid...

Anyway, like I said, I have no idea if this helps with concentration. I have never heard that it has, but hatzlacha raba and I hope this is the right kind of therapy for your children!

rivk241

Sun, Jan 01 2012, 4:55 pm

op here.. thanks for all your advice I forgot to mention that my 12 yr old also gets headaches on average about 4 days a week... and my pediatrician could never figure out why so I'm thinking that might be related to her vision...so we will check it out and if its not the case we"ll dig further....

anonymrs

Sun, Jan 01 2012, 5:01 pm

chocolate moose wrote:

From my experience, concentration isn't vision therapy. Anyway, 12 years old is too old to get more vision into the eyes. It ceilings around 9.

My sister did vision therapy when she was 16 and was helped tremendously from it.

chocolate moose

Sun, Jan 01 2012, 6:37 pm

anonymrs wrote:

chocolate moose wrote:

From my experience, concentration isn't vision therapy. Anyway, 12 years old is too old to get more vision into the eyes. It ceilings around 9.

My sister did vision therapy when she was 16 and was helped tremendously from it.

We were told by a surgeon that eyes don't c ontinue to gain after age 8 or 9.