My daughter was diagnosed with convergence insufficiency and visual processing skills impairment at the end of October. She started VT right away for the convergence issue and when she’s done with that supposed to start another round of VT for perceptual skills. However, in December we had a neurodevelopmental exam done which was much more intensive and complete than what the vision specialist did. At that time my daughter was diagnosed ad/hd inattentive. Her primary area of concern is temporal/sequential working memory. She started on meds and has improved in all areas of functioning dramatically. She is also doing tremendously better in her VT. The neurologist told us that a high percentage of her patients have convergence issues and that it’s neurological in origin. She also told us and showed us that our daughter is not perceptually impaired. She felt the VT would not hurt but wouldn’t necessarily “cure” the convergence issues like we were told it would. I did come across an article recently that finds there is a high percentage of ad/hd people that also have convergence insufficiency.
Sorry this is getting long and I hope I have all of the facts straight. The problem is that my daughter absolutely hates the VT. She’s only 6 but she tells me “it’s stupid, boring, dumb and she doesn’t want to do it.” We’ve tried reward systems but she really just doesn’t care that much anymore because she doesn’t want to do it. This past week we had to miss her session in the office because of a 4H party so I thought with the holidays and all the stress she has had that I would give her some time off. So we haven’t done anything with it all week at all. I am now faced with the question on what to do next week as Mondays are usually her day to go into the office. My question is how helpful did people find VT to be for ad/hd? My daughter started her therapy based on a different diagnoses which due to her great improvement under meds no longer applies. The big thing is she hates it, it’s a battle to get her to do it and I have to wonder if it’s really helping her. If it’s not really helping (not that it’s hurting) why are we doing it? Anybody else been through this or able to offer any suggestions on this? I would hate to stop something that really is beneficial to her.
By the way, I find the optometrist himself to be not easily accessible. He is supposed to be a recognized specialist, having written textbooks on VT, etc… but has four or five offices in at least two states. So, talking to him is probably not an option. The people doing the therapy with the kids are trained to do it but are not doctors. I honestly have not seen or talked to the doctor (vision) since he diagnosed my daughter at the end of October. We saw the neurological doctor who told us ultimately it is our decision but she would recommend stopping. She felt our child just needs to be as “normal” a child as possible right now. So, now after this long winded question any advice is appreciated!
Re: How much does Vision Therapy really help?
JenM,
I’m wondering if your daughter has other issues that VT would help with. Like, has she ever done or needed Occupational Therapy, have reading difficulties, or are her issues all attentional? Since you’ve already begun VT, I would definitely see it through (at least the first segment) and then you can reevaluate. You can always come back to it.
With a child as young as 6, some non - invasive intervention now may save her and you a lot of pain and suffering later on. The meds for her ADHD may allow the work of VT to be more effective but that doesn’t mean the VT doesn’t have a place. You really do need to speak with her eye doctor, and if he can’t make himself available maybe you should go to another practice!
Hey Jen
I’m sorry I don’t have advice for you, but I found your post very interesting. My son was seen by a vision specialist a few years back and had very borderline issues-I chose NOT to do therapy but have second guessed that decision many times
Later he was dx’d ADD inattentive and memory and sequencing are his biggest issues. At 12, he still cannot recall the alphabet cold-we need to review first.
I would be interested in the article if you can remember where you saw it. Also, what meds is your daughter responding to? We did AdderallXR and have switched to Strattera in hopes of gaining some weight but, unfortunately, he has little appetite with both.
I don’t think anyone addresses which med helps kids with LDs better(as opposed to control behavior) and I think this is a huge issue that is being neglected;there is such a strong level of coexistence!!!
Re: How much does Vision Therapy really help?
Here is the article. It’s hard to know what to think.
Karen, we’ve never been told my daughter needs OT but she does have some trouble reading. Since starting meds for ad/hd she is doing much much better but that is what originally clued us in that there was a problem.
We are still thinking about this. I appreciate all advice so far.
[url]http://www.add-adhd.org/convergence_insufficiency.html[/url]
Re: How much does Vision Therapy really help?
I called the VT office and there is no VT tonight due to the holiday break. I scheduled an appointment with the dr. next week to discuss our concerns! In the meantime, advice is still appreciated.
VT
Hi,
I mostly read the posts here and find a lot of useful information (and reassurance that there are other parents with similar issues - thanks everyone).
My 9yo ADHD/dyslexic daughter is doing VT right now, for weaknesses with fluid eye movement, maintaining clear focus, and convergence. I noticed a change within the first ~2 months, she no longer shows extreme avoidance of reading, does not loose her place in text as much, can read more fluidly. So I think it is helping. BUT she is also being taught to read by a fantastic skilled teacher with a great phonics-based program, and she has a language tutor on top of that so it’s hard to say which bit has helped what…
As her reading and decoding improved, problems with tracking and discrimination have become more noticable and so I think we still need to stick with the VT - but like you are starting to get resistance (“it’s boring & stupid”).
I’m planning to start giving her some incentive, and am still working out what that will be but right now am leaning toward having her earn part of her allowance by doing tasks such as VT that are not otherwise immediately rewarding for her.. we’ll see if it works.
Good luck to you. :)
Kim
Re: How much does Vision Therapy really help?
Another article about vision and ad/hd. I didn’t fully read the article yet but I know somebody else was requesting this type of info.
http://www.tourettesyndrome.net/adhd_vis.htm
Re: How much does Vision Therapy really help?
Brian, you are right! I knew there was a logical explanation!
Re: How much does Vision Therapy really help?
Kim,
I wouldn’t have her earn part of her allowance as a reward. If she wasn’t doing VT, she would get her allowance, wouldn’t she. So she may actually perceive it as a punishment.
We’ve done lots of rewards for therapy here and they have run the gamat from breakfast in a restaurant, points toward pokemon or other cards, and rare plants (my son is a plant nut). Find something she would value and she otherwise wouldn’t get would be my advice. I bought my son some cards over ebay last summer—something he knew I would never other wise do.
Beth
Re: How much does Vision Therapy really help?
We had a re-evaluation with the vision therapy doctor last night. My daughter was retested and has shown improvement in both the physical (convergence insufficiency) and the visual processing skills. Whereas before meds she scored as low as 1% up to the highest of 15% she now is way above that where it is considered low/normal with just a few areas of possible concern. The doctor no longer recommends that second vision therapy program for the visual processing skills. He does recommend continuing what we have started for the convergence issue even though she has shown great improvement already. In particular, her eye tracking accuracy rate is still down at 10%. He said that the convergence is something separate from the ad/hd even though a study was done and a higher percentage of ad/hd patients were found to have convergence issues. He also said with such a significant difference in her processing scores that it’s another indicator that her underlying issue is the ad/hd and that the meds are working.
So, the problem to continue or not was left that since my daughter does not mind going into the office for the VT she will continue to do that on a weekly basis. Then at home if we can get her to do it maybe once a week instead of 3 that would even be helpful. If we can’t do it then that’s okay too but it would take longer to get the same results.
Then this morning my daughter was up early and asking if she could use the computer before school. I told her if she wanted she could do her VT. Believe it or not, she did it! She didn’t even seem to mind and didn’t complain! So, maybe her time off and rest at the holidays was part of what she needed! I’m not going to push it too much and will reward her!
Thanks for the advice!
Re: How much does Vision Therapy really help?
Now that’s an honest doc! Your experience also points up why it can be beneficial to get an evaluation for ADHD and try interventions for that before you have a VT eval. Like your daughter, a child might have a multitude of things that a DO would say need VT but which are really the ADHD at work. After you deal with the ADHD it is easier to figure what is really a developmental vision problem that VT can address.
VT and ADD and LD
My daughter is a triple winner in the alphabet soup. I put off VT for a year after being warned off by a reading teacher I really, really, really respect.
She had an angel of a reading tutor who some how broke through the language processing (aka dyslexia) barriers. She went from a 1.8 to a 2.1reading level during 2nd grade but the summer with the reading tutor she went from 2.1 to 2.8 in a few weeks of daily, individual lessons. She was reading independently!!! But getting her to practice reading was tough. Her eyes hurt, she was rubbing them, she has a headache, it was one long whine for the daily 20 minutes.
We did the VT over the summer, daily at home practice in crash course fashion-twice daily. We went from “do I have to read for 20 whole minutes” to ” yeah, in a minute let me finish my chapter”. It was amazing.
VT didn’t fix the LD, didn’t fix the ADD but it did fix her inability to maintain a focus and it ended the colossal problem of constantly losing her place while reading.
It has been pointed out before but bears repeating that our children often have a variety of weak areas. The ADD and/or LD labels have many, many constitutent components and no two are exactly the same.
Good luck
vision therapy
Hi there. I have found this topic very interesting due to the fact i myself have a 9 year old daughter who is ADHD and has been diagnosed with convergence insufficiency among 7 other vision diagnosois. My daughter recieves occupational and physical therapy due to fine and gross motor delays. We chose to have our daughter do the vision therapy for 6 months, 2 times a week for 30 minute sessions. This helped her tremendously however due to expenses and other issues we are unable to have her continue with the vision therapy. i do however feel that if the vision therapy is available to your daughter ,continue with it, it certainly can,t hurt and the more help for her the better! it is great to know someone out there actually knows about vision therapy. you dont know how many people have never heard of it. good luck!
A reputable provider of vision therapy will tell you that it is not meant to help ADHD. It does not help ADHD one whit. Instead, what VT addresses is symptoms that look like ADHD but really are caused by developmental vision problems. If your child has been thoroughly evaluated by someone who specializes in diagnosing ADHD and if she is responding well to medication, then there really is little reason to continue with VT.