White board problems

[Claw3]

Ds has a dx of oculomotor deficiencies type ll (visual tracking difficulties) When dx was made eye specialist stated what the consequences of the disorder could be ie difficulties with reading, writing etc, but no recommendations.

Attended parents evening tonight and have just discovered that ds cannot read from a whiteboard. Teacher was unaware that ds had an eye disorder (probably because it does not feature in his IEP as up until now it hasnt caused him any difficulties, he can read books etc well)

Teacher asked me what they could do to help ds with this. I dont know what can be done, anyone with any experience of this?

I have an eye appointment with eye specialist in about 2 months, but i have a meeting tomorrow with SENCO and OT and would like to be able to make some suggestions, if they dont have any. I can of course tell SENCO to contact eye specialist or do this myself.

I second Indigo Bell try to get him assessed by a behavioural optometrist.

www.babo.co.uk/

Bigcar, i asked her to copy me into anything she sent to the LA. I have her phone number too and can give her a call later today.

Yes a relief, feel like ive wasted years and as if ive only just started to get somewhere.

Thanks Minx, do the babo tests/assessment carry any weight? Its just every private assessment/report ive ever had done, is ignored.

From what I understand the BABO guy will give you a series of daily exercises to do which will improve his vision.

Indigobell, i have daily exercises given to me by eye specialist, i wonder if they are the same.

Lots of following lines basically!

I hope it'll be a lot more than 'just following lines'. But there's only one way to find out....

SLC gave us 3 eye exercises to start with (as part of retained reflexes therapy)

• looking at alternate numbers on a clock face (ie 12 - 6 - 1 - 7 ..... )

• a torch game where his torch follows my torch

• read first word then last word of every line

Ours are nothing like that.

We have several sheets where we have small square, triangle, circle, flower, star etc, shaded differently and varying in size from sheet to sheet he has to follow the line calling out the shape.

Several sheets following different, some easy, some more complex lines to see where they lead.

He got very bored of them, very quickly and i dont blame him, they are all exactly the same, just either smaller or bigger.

Should have said opposite not alternate numbers on a clock face :)

I think you can do better. And I trust a BABO which I pay privately more than anything I get free on the NHS :(

But then I'm not absolutely skint, so I have that luxury.

Get our 6 month check up with the NHS soon. Wonder if they'll be any more help then last time....

Also wonder if I should get the VI team involved. Seeing as DS hides his problems so well and the NHS are so useless not sure if I'll be able to...

Then again - I'd prefer to correct his vision (through these exercises) rather than help him live with it....

Indigobell, ds's tracking had improved in a 3 month period without doing the exercises, so im guessing he has good/bad days.

You can self refer to the VI team, if you did want to consider it in future.

I tried to phone the VI team to find out how ds did today, but she was on school visits all day, will phone again tomorrow.

Ds also has so much therapy i have to do at home with him, its difficult fitting it all in, along with homework and well having a 6 year old life!

I have to try and prioritise, at the moment i am focusing on sensory diet, eating program and OT exercises to try and reduce self injuries behaviour.

I have to try and prioritise - Absolutely. Unfortunately DS's eyesight problems haven't made the top of our priority list either :(

We too are going to be concentrating on lots of OT before we get round to doing more with his vision. I will talk to school about the VI team....

Good luck Indigo and thanks for your help.

Just spoke to the VI team and she has assessed ds for visual perception and he has scored very highly on 99th centile in most tests. With the exception of figure and shape ie finding things on a busy background where he scored average.

She will be recommending use of teachers laptop or ds to be given a hard copy, as she feels it is the glare from the white board. Also type to be bigger and spaced bigger.

She phoned the LA and was told it is too late for recommendations to be added to Statement, although they had taken his vision into account when writing the statement!

It only went to 'panel' today . At least i know he will be getting a statement and not a note, VI team and SENCO have both let this slip.

Is the 99th centile almost perfect or almost abysmal? I think I'm definitely going to ask the VI team to assess DS.

She tested for the following and wrote a report, well worth VI team assessing, she also made recommendations and has just emailed me her report (centiles are explained at the bottom:-

Developmental Test of Visual Perception (DTVP-2) in order to rule out any difficulty with processing visual information. Visual perception enables people to understand, analyse and interpret what they see. This test consisted of 8 subtests.

Eye hand coordination The ability to draw precise straight or curved lines in accordance with visual boundaries 99 centile

Position in space. The ability to match two figures according to their common features 91 centile

copying Recognise the features of a design and draw it from a model 91 centile

Figure-ground Ability to see specified figures even when they are hidden in confusing complex backgrounds 63 centile

Spatial relations The ability to connect dots to reproduce visually presented patterns 99 centile

Visual closure Ability to recognise a stimulus figure when it has been incompletely formed 98 centile

Visual motor speed Rapidity with which a child can make certain marks in certain designs 84 centile

Form constancy The ability to match two figures that vary on one or more discriminating features, size, position or shade. 50 centile

A centile score of 91 means that ds did the assessment at or above the level predicted for approximately 91% of children of his age. Average scores fall between 25% and 75%. Ds performed extremely well in most areas. In the two areas where his scores were lower, though still within the average range, form constancy and figure ground, Ds had some difficulty finding shapes in backgrounds that were visually cluttered or confusing.

She also gave me two links which might be of interest to you.

www.childrensvision.com/reading.htm

There is also a useful article on sensory disorder at www.autismtoday.com/articles/Sensory_Disorder.htm

Hope its of some help to you.

She thinks that ds has Photophobia and he also sees colours to be darker than they actually are (another problem highlighted by school)losing detail etc.

that's good news claw Have you had any advice about getting the recommendations into the statement, seems daft they won't do it now, will you have to wait for the draft and get it put in then? Big yay for getting the statement though

Bigcar, apparently VI team phoned ds's case officer and told her the situation and she replied it was too late to include recommendations, but that they had taken his vision into account when writing the statement

I asked VI team, how could take his vision into account when writing a statement if they didnt have any recommendations, to which she just hmmed at and told me the school would follow the recommendations whether they were written into a statement or not!

Just case officer, trying to fob it off as it would mean a laptop. I will make sure they are written into the statement, thats the whole purpose of the statement being a DRAFT surely, its not set in stone!?

hey, may be you have one of those psychic LAs, that would be one hell of a skill wouldn't it

lol bigcar, it would indeed.

I noticed they are also telling the VI team that the statement is written, the day before it has even gone to 'panel' for a decision as to whether issue a draft or not!

Psychic or talking shit, hmm i wonder