I Will Not Rest (and you shouldn't either)

This is a pic of P in his new Irlen Filters.

It's been a long and winding road, folks, but I will not rest until this little boy reaches his potential.

School was so easy for me, I don't even think I ever took home a book to study until college. Really. I scored well on my ACT and was awarded a full 4-year academic scholarship to a local regional university.

And I always assumed that school would be easy for my kiddos too. Especially P- he's got a steel-trap memory and connects the dots in life so easily. But when reading wasn't coming easily to him in first grade, I started researching. And googling. And making appointments and asking questions. Time was flying by! I had to do something NOW!

And down the road of intervention we went.

We did bi-lateral eye muscle surgery for Exotropia, 28 weeks of Vision Therapy, followed by 16 weeks of Interactive Metronome. During this, P also received twice-a-week Lindamood Bell reading tutoring.

Things were better, but still not where they should be. For such a smart little boy, reading was so so so difficult for him. And time was flying by. Why was time flying by SO FAST??????

So I googled "visual processing" and found out about Irlen Syndrome. After two rounds of testing, we found out that P indeed had a visual processing problem and needed 6 filters added on to a pair of glasses to help filter out the wavelengths of light his little brain can't process correctly. Actually, he needs 7, but he wasn't able to tolerate the 7th during testing, so we will see about adding that one later.

I trusted my gut, knew something wasn't right, and found some puzzle pieces to fit together to help P. And we may not be done.... there may still be some puzzle pieces yet to be found. BUT I WILL FIND THEM!

I won't rest until I do.

Soap Box Time

I get so emotional when I watch things about vision therapy, the program that P just competed 28 weeks of.

It is so frustrating that as parents we have to do our own research and find resources ourselves.

The fact that we can't trust opthamologists to make a treatment recommendation for us is unbelievable.

If we had "waited" as it was suggested to us by our opthamologist, where would our son be today? Father behind, that's where.

And I worry for those that can't afford vision therapy. We spent almost $4000 out of pocket, and it was so worth it, but what about families that don't have access to funds like that?

Such a shame that insurance companies don't recognize that vision therapy works.

To end on a positive note, though, P has made fantastic strides since we began vision therapy in May. Although I'm not sure that reading will ever be easy for him, his tracking and focusing have improved so much. He also has had the best attitude through this all- I am so proud of him for that. He understands that everything we are doing, and all the hard work he is having to do, is towards the goal of making reading and school easier for him.

As a supplement to vision therapy, he began Interactive Metronome therapy a few weeks ago with our OT and are already seeing progress there as well.

From www.interactivemetronome.com:

The IM program provides a structured, goal-oriented process that challenges the patient to synchronize a range of hand and foot exercises to a precise computer-generated reference tone heard through headphones. The patient attempts to match the rhythmic beat with repetitive motor actions. A patented auditory-visual guidance system provides immediate feedback measured in milliseconds, and a score is provided.

Over the course of the treatment, patients learn to:

• Focus and attend for longer periods of time


• Increase physical endurance and stamina


• Filter out internal and external distractions


• Improve ability to monitor mental and physical actions as they are occurring


• Progressively improve coordinated performance

Since we suspect P has a visual processing problem in the background, IM will hopefully help him in many areas. Our IEP meeting is on Monday, and I'm anxious to figure out what the school will be able to do to help support his education.