"Don't take them! It's not going to go well"

We have been making our yearly rounds at the optometrist and most recently it was our youngest 2 children's turns.  The boys are 3 and 4 years old and unfortunately, are very complex with their multiple diagnosis, including extreme sensory issues.  There was a huge voice in my head saying "don't take them!!!! It's not going to go well!!!" But there was also another voice saying "what if there is a vision problem that's causing some of the issues".  So I listened to the second voice and made an appointment warning the receptionist about my "Monsters"and she assured me that they could handle them and they would test them as best as they could.

Both boys have been into the office on a few occasions when siblings have been tested which was a great help at getting them into the office.  Both boys walked nicely into the waiting room and played nicely with the toys...hmm maybe this will be okay.  We brought their adult brother with us too help in the waiting room while I was in the office with the other child.

The assistant came and asked "who would like to be first looking into her machine for a tree".  The youngest and most willing eagerly went and lasted 30 seconds before he had enough of that.  The assistant then asked for the next child, (and he was having none of that) that's when the screaming and head banging started.  She quickly said that they don't have to do that test and he was able to calm down.

Next it was time for the actual eye exam with the optometrist and I do have to say she tried.  The first child was patient for exactly 3 minutes but her flashing lights in his eyes HURTS him and he doesn't have the vocabulary to explain this so he cries, screams, kicks and hits.  Not being able to finish the exam and seeing an astigmatism in the one eye he is being referred to an ophthalmologist.  It was then time for the 2nd child who really did not want to even enter the exam room after his brother had more than warned him with all the screaming.  I had him in my arms, just inside the exam room door, trying to help him get comfortable with the surroundings and he was holding a small toy train when the optometrist comes at him, without warning, with her light that upset his brother so much.  Hurt and upset he throws the very small train and it breaks her specialty eye exam mirror as he continues screaming and wailing.  The optometrist then says she doesn't think she should do anymore and the ophthalmologist might be a better option.

Trying out Vision Therapy

The other day we started "vision therapy" with 3 of our children.  I didn't know much about this type of therapy, but on multiple recent assessments, from a variety of professionals it had been recommended.  After doing a lot of research on the topic we decided it was worth setting up an appointment with a developmental optometrist to further investigate this as a method to help our children.

This type of therapy has been around since the early 1800's but was not  actively implemented until the mid 1900's.  One type of treatment used in vision therapy that you may be aware of is the patching of an eye when the patient has a "lazy eye".  Vision therapy is like physical therapy for the visual system, including the eyes and brain parts that control vision.  Unlike eyeglasses the vision therapy aims to teach the visual system to correct itself.  Vision therapy is a controversial topic in vision care with not all eye doctors believing in its effectiveness.

When we saw the "developmental optometrist" he did a variety of tests with the children, discussed their medical challenges and then discussed options with us.  Out of the 5 kids, 3 of them had 20/20 vision (which we were aware of) however they still presented with balance issues, coordination challenges, dyslexia, comprehension challenges when reading, head aches, double vision, etc.  The doctor tried different shaped lenses (concave and convex), prisms and filters in the form of glasses and with some you were able to see sudden improvement with their balance and ability to catch a ball.  The doctor was also very upfront and didn't claim to be able to fix everything.  He felt that by prescribing glasses with different shaped lenses he could give a slight improvement  for a couple children but until their seizures are under control he wouldn't do anything else.  For the other 3 kids he felt they would benefit from glasses that help work on the deficit present in their eyesight and 30 weeks of vision therapy.

At vision therapy the kids did different exercises with their eyes, for some exercises one eye was patched while the other eye preformed the exercise and some exercises included both eyes.  They did exercises involving reading up close and at a distance, for those who haven't mastered reading they used pictures.  They also worked on catching or hitting a ball (fortunately the ball was attached to a string suspended from the ceiling so it wasn't a game of fetch).  There was eye tracking exercises and a computer game also.  The hour long therapy appointment went by extremely fast and the kids enjoyed themselves.  We were sent home with homework that we practice daily until our next appointment.

We were told that we won't see immediate results but we are looking forward to positive results.  Have you our your child tried "vision therapy"?  How did it work for you?

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