About a year ago I posted here, very upset, about my under achieving daughter in 2nd grade who had recently been identified as gifted but was getting terrible grades, had issues with reading and writing, with school psychologist suggesting she had ADD.
A couple of people suggested getting her evaluated by a developmental optometrist, which I did, and it was determined she had a mid-line jump, slow focusing, and various other visual processing issues that I can't name.
I'm posting to share our great experience with vision therapy, because it has changed my daughter's life so much. I was really nervous about spending the $1400 to get her the therapy as it is so controversial, but it's really some of the best money I've ever spent.
DD finished her vision therapy in early September, after about 6 months of bi-weekly therapy sessions. She had 15-30 minutes a day of home exercises. The first thing we noticed was that DD's drawing went from about normal for her age (or maybe a bit below even) to more of a middle school level. This happened almost overnight after maybe 3 months of therapy, and was pretty shocking for me and DH. The mid-line jump disappeared a little after this time.
Around October she discovered graphic novels at the school library, and started reading them constantly. This was a kid that pretty much refused to read for pleasure prior to this, so I was thrilled that she was reading on her own. She started with graphic novels at her grade level and quickly moved up to the teen level. I bought her quite a few for Christmas but she read them all within the first week, then complained she had nothing to read. I handed her "Logicomix", a graphic novel of mine about Bertrand Russell and other great logicians (a graphic novel for adults), and she read it and loved it. She then moved on to regular books and spends lots of time reading now, with no prompting from anyone. I am absolutely amazed at this change, and so thrilled.
We just got her first-semester report card, and it is a HUGE improvement from last year. She is still getting horrible marks in German spelling (she goes to a German immersion school), but her English spelling is much, much better than it had been. Her writing is still a bit below grade level, but has improved a lot since last year. She still is not finishing her class work all the time, but it's not a huge problem like it was last year. She is also participating in class a lot more, especially in German week.
I will allow that there may be other factors at work here besides the vision therapy, but as there have been no other big changes I feel pretty comfortable saying that most of the changes are attributable to that. I'm pregnant with my third child now, and definitely plan on having her evaluated by a developmental optometrist in early childhood, and I recommend the same to everyone I know with small children. This has been such a life changer for us, and I hope the MDC posters who recommended it to me read this and accept my thanks!
A couple of people suggested getting her evaluated by a developmental optometrist, which I did, and it was determined she had a mid-line jump, slow focusing, and various other visual processing issues that I can't name.
I'm posting to share our great experience with vision therapy, because it has changed my daughter's life so much. I was really nervous about spending the $1400 to get her the therapy as it is so controversial, but it's really some of the best money I've ever spent.
DD finished her vision therapy in early September, after about 6 months of bi-weekly therapy sessions. She had 15-30 minutes a day of home exercises. The first thing we noticed was that DD's drawing went from about normal for her age (or maybe a bit below even) to more of a middle school level. This happened almost overnight after maybe 3 months of therapy, and was pretty shocking for me and DH. The mid-line jump disappeared a little after this time.
Around October she discovered graphic novels at the school library, and started reading them constantly. This was a kid that pretty much refused to read for pleasure prior to this, so I was thrilled that she was reading on her own. She started with graphic novels at her grade level and quickly moved up to the teen level. I bought her quite a few for Christmas but she read them all within the first week, then complained she had nothing to read. I handed her "Logicomix", a graphic novel of mine about Bertrand Russell and other great logicians (a graphic novel for adults), and she read it and loved it. She then moved on to regular books and spends lots of time reading now, with no prompting from anyone. I am absolutely amazed at this change, and so thrilled.
We just got her first-semester report card, and it is a HUGE improvement from last year. She is still getting horrible marks in German spelling (she goes to a German immersion school), but her English spelling is much, much better than it had been. Her writing is still a bit below grade level, but has improved a lot since last year. She still is not finishing her class work all the time, but it's not a huge problem like it was last year. She is also participating in class a lot more, especially in German week.
I will allow that there may be other factors at work here besides the vision therapy, but as there have been no other big changes I feel pretty comfortable saying that most of the changes are attributable to that. I'm pregnant with my third child now, and definitely plan on having her evaluated by a developmental optometrist in early childhood, and I recommend the same to everyone I know with small children. This has been such a life changer for us, and I hope the MDC posters who recommended it to me read this and accept my thanks!