Q: Any advice/experience is appreciated.. My child is six and struggling with reading. Is vision therapy credible? Is it that I am not used to teaching someone to read? Would you get an exam?
Answer:
Vision therapy may or may not be the issue. MANY, MANY kids
who have difficulty with reading have processing problems,
not visual problems. I've found that often the problems co-exist,
as they did with my child. Vision therapy did not affect a
significant change in his overall reading ability, bit it did alleviate some of the eyestrain
my child had while reading.
If you have concerns or questions about the efficacy of vision therapy, check out the research info at the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD):
http://www.covd.org/Home/ResearchWhitePapers/tabid/188/Default.aspx
In particular, these two papers provide summaries of dozens of studies that have
been done..
1) http://www.covd.org/Portals/0/ResearchClinicalStudies.pdf
2) http://www.covd.org/Portals/0/2010%20Research%20Summaries.pdf
If the D.O. is going to do a comprehensive developmental evaluation
for occular motor difficulties, and then provide therapy if
needed.. it is a good thing to go ahead, but chances are high
that visual motor issues are not the primary or only problem.
Difficulties with phonemic processing make decoding "painfully"
slow, and the child has difficulty remembering words from
one reading to the next. Processing problems (or any learning
disability) can be diagnosed by a psychologist who specializes
in psycho-educational evaluations or a neuro-psychologist.
Many Educational Consultants are also trained in administering
tests that can point to potential problems, but they won't
have the comprehensive training in problems that a neuropsychologist
has.
While your child is young.. it seldom "pays" to wait to pursue
answers. A LOT of people take a "he'll probably grow out of
it" stance, but the International Dyslexia Association points
out that 85% of children do NOT "grow out" of their reading
difficulties, so there is a greater likelihood he won't grow
out of it. Waiting generally doesn't pay off. The earlier
a child is diagnosed, and can receive treatment, the smoother
the road ahead because he won't devise a lot of bad coping
skills that he'll have to "unlearn" later.
It would probably be beneficial to see about getting some
testing for reading difficulties, dyslexia, and processing
problems while you are waiting for the D.O. to get you in.
Hope that helps!
Best Wishes,
Sandy