Behavioural optometry - legit science or quackery?

[Hiddiddleyho]

Dd age 8 has a known eye convergence issue and it looks like also dyslexia. The dyslexia assessor suggested the eye issue is feeding into the dyslexia flags as they're mostly visual and a bit short term memory. She suggested seeing a behavioural optometrist, which we've now done.

The behavioural optometrist did a 'normal' eye test with a lot more detail, then looked at things like copying shapes, identifying backwards letters and numbers, testing awareness left and right, coordination exercises like moving arms and legs in different combos, balance etc. The idea behind it seems to be looking to identify issues in brain processing software as well as visual hardware.

I've done a bit of reading online and it seems a bit like psuedo science, or at least that there's a lack of controlled testing.

I'm wondering if anyone out there knows more? Or has any personal experience to lob some anecdata in?

Our optician says that it’s impossible to do RCTs on this as you know what you see. Said he never trusted it one inch and then
saw what a difference it made to a friend’s
child. Said it could just be placebo, but his friend (and child!) were just happy w the outcome.

I do love a good placebo to be fair.

This optometrist website explains that is a controversial area and discusses the placebo effect http://www.cmt-optometrists.co.uk/

My son is 11 and been seeing a BO for almost a year. Severe ASD ( I know I can't say that but how do I convey that this isn't Aspergers?). He was fully illiterate.

He can read now. So I do belive it worked. If its a placebo it worked. My friend asked me wth was I doing as they are not registered professionals.

I was told he needed a eye operation at 6. Boots opinions said they can't detect a squint any more. Read into that what you want. We had nothing to loose though and DLA to pay.

Look at neuro development delay and the treatments for it.

Our neuro system is amazing. Wouldn't surprise me if the exercise's literally make the neuro system go "oh we could do x differently" or get how to to things wired in.

Fascinating and helpful things are out that that work from a holistic point of view which is how healthcare and treatments work in may other countries.

Thanks for the replies.

One of things my son's behavioral optometrist does is get him to stand and look at a tennis ball that is spinning with different numbers and letters printed on it. He covers one eye and then uses a magnifying glass for five seconds and then removes it for five seconds on the eye that hasn't got a patch. At first I thought this looked a bit mad but thinking about it it's forcing that eye muscles to focus and re Focus and it's exercise in that muscle so logic behind it actually seems quite sound and not as far out as I first thought.

It's getting your hands, eyes and brain to work together and undoubtedly fire up new pathways. It is possible to re wire a brain so why not this I think.

it made a huge difference to my son.

My son has vision therapy for a year. We did the exercises at home daily for the first 9 months but got gradually disillusioned with lack of progress and practitioner needing us to remind them at 6 weekly sessions what we had /hadn’t done already as they didn’t have a case file for him etc. A year in when the price rose considerably per hour, without a warning, we withdrew. It sounded like the answer to our years of seeking answers for DS’s lack of academic progress so I found it hard to walk away. But it didn’t work for us.

Following

Dd's been recommended 6m of treatment, with visits to the optometrist once a month, and ten mins of exercises to do every day. The first 4m will be on more sort of coordination and brain connections stuff, then 2m on vision. Sort of building the bricks up. I don't know what the exercises might be yet.

Where roughly in the country will the treatment be?

Gloucester

That isn’t the area we received treatment in. Our first few months was exercises around integrating retained primitive reflexes before moving on to exercises around visual tracking etc.

@Hiddiddleyho we are currently doing primitive reflex integration near Gloucester. We have seen our DS come on in leaps and bounds. Our practitioners has said working on the reflexes will also help his visual tracking, apparently. It's a really really interesting science.

I have experience of this - my DS (now 19) was struggling at school in year 1 - went from being happy to read to actively avoiding it. Along with some other issues we found he had sensory processing disorder & the OT (private because the wait for the NHS was 2 yrs plus) suggested the behavioural optometrist.
DS had a problem with bilateral convergence & I could see how he couldn’t focus. We did regular exercises and it dramatically improved.
The thing that put me off was the fact that the exercises were designed to work - you reached improvement and then stopped, no need for further exercises. Great. We were then told we had to have 6 mthly check ups ‘just in case’ … it began to feel exploitative.
The exercises did work though.

Primitive reflexes is the treatment for neuro developmental delay. There was a massive study in USA that monitored eye tracking. It's what led to the INPP treatment. However far cheaper places to go.

I always recommend Access your potential.

www.accesspotential.net/contact

Honestly the small area of BO that actually works and is backed up by research is already provided free of charge by a profession called Orthoptics. The nonsense that BO have built around legitimate techniques is all smoke and mirrors and snake oil designed to part you from your money. Ask your GP to refer you to your local NHS orthoptics' clinic who will give you good evidence based assessment and treatment without costing a fortune.

Wish I had known this

Can I jump in and ask if anyone has experience of this helping with squint?

Ds(4) is under nhs orthotics but they only monitor- I'd like to try some exercises to help him control it.

The treatment sessions are £60 ish each, once a month, for 6m. The main money was the assessment which I've already done now. So sort of feel at might as well give it a whirl as it can't do harm. But I'm interested to see the written report and look more things up.

How much did the report cost out of interest?

Where I linked to doesn't do reports anymore - for primitive reflexes treatment that is as it doesn't change the treatment and ended up making the cost prohibitive to more people.

INPP charges something ridiculous like £750 for the report and having it explained

Mother of clogs if exercises would help your Orthoptist should be giving them as part of the treatment if they haven't suggested them there's probably a good reason ie they are not effective for the type of squint your child has !

Hope this helps but I haven't read the rest of the thread. One of my DC had private Vision Therapy/Behavioural Optometry when we were living in New Zealand. It massively helped them.
I was skeptical at first but we enjoyed the sessions which I was allowed to sit in on and it quickly showed improvements in length of time they could concentrate to read, self-esteem etc. Non-integrated reflexes were given as the explanation for their clumsiness and after a few months the floor exercises worked and the reflexes were normalised.
This DC needed no extra help throughout schooling and recently obtained a first class honours degree. They now only wear glasses for driving.
Their eyesight was always deemed to be good by the optometrist but temporary glasses and exercises were needed for a while to get the eye muscles coordinating and tracking properly.
I think we attended twice weekly for 12-18 months and the private school was happy to allow this during the school day.
In summary yes, it is worth doing or at least it was for my DC.
https://barryandsargent.co.nz/our-services/vision-therapy/

Following with interest. It seems very expensive. Does anyone have any recommendations in London/ west of London?