Visual processing disorders

[thehorseandhisboy]

I've put this in primary education because I believe that VPD isn't classed as a learning disability so didn't want to use the SEN board inappropriately.

10 year old ds has Educational Psychologist assessment today. Obvs haven't received the full written report, but the preliminary analysis indicated some visual processing difficulties.

This makes complete sense to me, and is the reason that we paid for a private assessment. He has always 'done well' in school, although his confidence has declined over the years, and the difficulties that he has with concentration, anxiety, speed and quantity of written work in particular, have become more pronounced.

Does anyone else have a child with a VPD? When we receive the full report, I will meet with his class teacher and talk about adaptions etc and the ed psyche gave me a few ideas for home, but in the meantime I was wondering what strategies have helped other children?

TIA

Have they suggested the Frostig programme?

My DD has a VPD her processing speed is 79 ( average is 100). She is now in year 11 and this level of processing deficiency gets her 25% extra time and use of a lap top in her GCSEs.
She is bright ( has many, many coping strategies), but her interests are in performing arts not academia so she will be taking vocational qualifications post 16.
I was diagnosed with dyslexia, but the problems she has are the same ones I have so I imagine that if I was assessed now I would get a VPD diagnosis. But I have two degrees and a post grad certificate, but I am very driven and just worked for hours more than anyone else for my qualifications.

What's the Frostig programme norestformrz?

The ed psyche made some general recommendations ie Dweck and growth mindset and suggested that we might want to consider a behavioural ophthalamist, but we haven't had the full report yet.

Thanks lonecatwithkitten those are exactly the adjustments that the ed psyche suggested for public exams going forward.

I need to teach him to touch type before he uses a laptop as a matter of course, I think. Also, as he's only 10 I don't want him to lose the ability to write well (which he can do but not in the quantity that most 10 year olds can).

She suggested things like reading the questions before the text in a comprehension exercise, having work on a sheet in front of him rather than the board, quiet room for tests and exams and yes additional time for the SATS tests.

He is also bright, and I think that this has masked the difficulties that he's been having. But it does explain his low self-confidence, anxiety and strong reactions to being teased etc.

https://www.swft.nhs.uk/application/files/9514/6158/0965/4visualperceptionandmemory.pdf
The Frostig programme is widely used in schools to support children with visual perception difficulties.

Thanks norestformrz.

The link didn't work, but I found some info via Google.

Is it an assessment method and then exercises to improve certain areas?

It was the exercises I thought might help
The link was to a site that offers a programme to support children with VPD.

We saw a behavioural optometrist. he wasn't cheap, 2 assessments, plus 10 weeks of exercises, but it did make a difference. He was based near Baldock, but we travelled for over an hour to see him. DM if you want details

Thanks. The Ed psyche recommended the behavioural optometrist that she used when her child so I've made an appointment for the New Year.

Thanks for the exercises Mrz. I think we need a structured programme prescribed by an specialist rather than me having a bash.

No, not cheap, but we're very, very fortunate to be able to afford an assessment.

We saw the same optometrist, I think, but in St Albans. Made a huge difference to DS8. Please do DM if you'd like to know more detail.

Thanks Mollcat and KateFleming.

That's the optometrist that the ed psyche recommended!

He was excellent, and so was the woman who does the exercises. We did 10 sessions. It’s not cheap, but DS8’s handwriting, of which I despaired, has improved so much he’s near the top of the queue for a pen licence! Plus his reading shows greater depth of understanding. Think he was reading every third word and cobbling the story together from that. Subtle but important the further they go through education!

DS2 (12) has a visual processing disorder which was diagnosed just before he started year 6. It is severe and so is classed as a disability in law. I think the limit is that you have to be below the 16th centile. He is on the 5th. He therefore gets 25% extra time in assessments and once he can type faster than he can write he will be able to use a laptop in assessments. He might also need a reader (he has to hear things to take them in properly), he won't remember what he sees since he doesn't retain images in his memory. He can't use his internal visual storyboard.

He is also severely colour blind so a lot of the little things like highlighting in different colours aren't available to him.

He's doing well though. He's in an academically selective school and they're pleased with his progress. I believe they have to be assessed again completely at 14 to see whether they continue to qualify for adjustments for exam purposes (or so the learning development teacher at school has told me)

We were told to see a specialist as referred to above but we couldn't find one so I'd be grateful for the contact.

I've just dmed you kjkhj