The first question that needs to be asked is if your son has any visual problems. If not, no amount of vision therapy will work.

If your son actually does have visual problems, you can read the American Academy of Ophthalmology's official position here: http://www.eyecareamerica.org/eyecare/treatment/alternative-therapies/vision-therapies-learning-disabilities.cfm

For what it's worth, my daughter is extremely far-sighted and tends to favor one eye. In spite of that, no professional ever indicated that they believed that it contributed to her early reading difficulties. Getting an accurate assessment on her vision involved 3 days of putting drops in her eyes to prevent her from being able to compensate to 20/20 vision. Her reading ability jumped significantly when she discovered game guides to her favorite Nintendo games. (Most frequently without her glasses which she hated wearing and goes totally without now.)

A really good place to start to help your son with his reading difficulties is: http://www.ldonline.org/indepth/reading

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Thanks for the info. The Opth. site confirmed what my other Drs. said. I guess I am always wondering if I am doing everything I need to be!

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Vision therapy worked very well for my son, we noticed a huge bump in his ability to concentrate after a few months. It is a once-weekly doctor visit followed by 1/2 hour of eye exercises five times a week. I would consult with an opthamologist who is trained in vision therapy to see if they can help.

Also, Nintendo makes a new DS cartridge called "flash focus" that does vision training in 10 minutes a day. Perhaps a cheaper way to do it, as each vision therapy session was about $70.

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Opthamologists never think vision therapy works. You need to find an Optomotrist who specializes in Vision Therapy. It only works if there's a physical reason why your child is having difficulty reading, like a wondering eye. You can have an evaluation done to see if vision therapy will correct the problem.

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My son (8yo) was diagnosed by a Behavioral Optometrist with occulomotor dysfunction or "tracking problem". Testing also showed a likely congenital color vision defect (red/green deficiency). Our pediatrician recommended this testing because my son has great difficulty reading (flat out refused to read for months). The plan was to start a 4 month program of vision therapy which consisted of a one hour visit weekly for instruction and an hour of "homework" every night. It is incredibly expensive, insurance does not cover anything except the routine eye exam portion. I felt the program was unrealistic for a young boy. My son cried every night as we patiently encouraged him through the difficult (and seemingly fun) homework tasks. He complained of headaches and sore eyes which are to be expected with this type of therapy. Basically, it became torture for him and for us as parents. I believe the therapy works as long as the child is enthusiastic and mature enough to understand that things will get worse before they get better. We will probably try again when he turns 10. (we never missed a night of homework despite the tantrums and tearful pleadings, this therapy required a tremendous amount of patience, time and energy on the parents part)

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We have been dumfbounded with our son for two years. In first grade the school recommended that our son be tested for ADHD because he could not sit in his seat and do the work he was easily distracted and rushed through things. We noticed that after school he was wound up, didn't want to do homework, refused to read.....so we listened to the school, had our pediatrician review the results of the conners test, yep he needs to be on meds. He has been on the medicine for the since fall 06 (he turned nine in feb). The only difference in two educational evaluations done by the school, one in first grade and on just this past feb (third grade) is that he improved in

reading and that was because of the many interventions that he needs for this to happen. I asked since first grade if it is difficult for Josh to get information from his head to the paper wouldn't that cause the same reactions??? How about the reasons that he reads backward and skips words and lines...spelling errors? Why are the reversals still present? WHy can't he get his thougths to the paper but can tell you verbal what you want to know? Well after tutoring, testing and many long hours of trying to understand his needs I am happy to say tht we have just gone through the vision therapy testing. During every test the results validated what my husband and I were viewing was true. You see our son has twenty twenty vision....you would not know from the standard vision testing that there is an issue. What the OD found was that he has visual processing issues in every area. The most severe being occular motor dysfunction and binocular vision dysfunction. After one session of therapy he has learned new things that he is using. I cannot wait for the next few months of training to see where this takes him.

In my opinion it is worth the initial testing...the developmental optometrist will tell you what they see and if there is a reason to treat with vision therapy. We have also primed our son to understand that he will only get out of this therapy things that will help him if he gives everyday his best. Our optometrist suggested that we seperate the activites to one or two afterschool and the last one a little later so that his half hour is split and he doesn't tire too quickly to not want to follow through. We know that are going to take our son off this medicine that is showing its nasty side effects and find a way to help him develop into the bright nine year old boy he is in all areas. (some of the vision testing showed he is only functioning in certain areas as a six year old) Why wouldn't that look like adhd? some of the vision deficits appear as the same symptoms. Have you heard of fight or flight? Watch your childs body movements as he reads and writes...does he move his body parts a lot, does he hold the book close, does he cover one eye, does he cock his head to the side when writing and get close to his work, does he lose focus or give up quickly?...these are signs of a possible vision disorder. All boys have a little adhd but if you are skeptical about your son google vision therapy, there is a parents website visionhelp.com that will lead you to good information.

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My son was diagnosed with visual dyslexia with suppressions the summer between kindergarten and first grade. We opted to pursue vision therapy for him. He went twice a week for an hour at a time. I think that it was one of the best things that we ever could have done for him. He went from reading at a level two in the beginning of first grade to a level twenty at the end of first grade. The therapy that they do with these kids is really pretty amazing, and I am not sure if it is something that can be replicated by other means. We also had quite a bit of work to do with him at home. It isn't a simple fix. To be completely honest, I am not sure that anything really "cures" dyslexia because sometimes he still sees things backwards/out of order. I have come to accept that his dyslexia is just a small part of who he is...and to some extent may always be present. I am very happy to say that he is at grade level for his reading now. I really don't think that would have happened if he didn't go through vision therapy. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Just to let you know, some insurance plans pay for vision therapy, so you might want to look into that as well.

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My son was having problems learning to read at school and I didn't know where to turn. I tried taking him to a optomologist and they said he had 20/20 vision and couldn't figure why I brought him in. That was pretty frustrating. Then a friend from my son's kindgergarten class suggested vision therapy. Fast forward to his current age. He started vision therapy in 2nd grade and when he started he was two grade levels below standard. After he started he moved very quickly up to standard. He had tracking problems where you read across the page and he would lose his place. It affected all writing, reading, spelling and math. If you have a problem with your eyes it is complicated and takes a long time to correct. At the end of 2nd grade he got to standard and he just finished third grade. We did vision therapy for one year and it does take this long. Then in June right before school got out he was told he no longer has to do the exercises. He just finished 3rd grade and is reading "Geronimo Stilton" books as well as harder books to himself. Writing is still a very slow process but I believe he will eventually catch up. Even his spelling has come a long way. It is alot of work but I believe it was worth the hard work to get him to this point. Hope this helps.

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Hi.

I would definitely recommend Vision Therapy. My son went from barely reading Bob books to devouring Harry Potter books in less than 7 months. We did the Vision Therapy at the NeuroSensory Center of Eastern PA -- and they take insurance!

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Hi,

You may want to look into Irlen Syndrome. My daughter couldn't read the beginning of grade 5 and by the end of grade 5 she was reading books beyond her years.

Good Luck!

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