dd2 visual processing difficulties? whats that!!

[Chundle]

The OT said that shes sure DD has visual processing difficulties but its hard to diagnose due to her age (21 months). Ive tried looking this up online and it just tells me about dyslexic symtoms and ords jumpting about on pages! How is this reated to my DD??? She does a few odd things i.e. there is a trampoline built into ground at local park with a drop of about half an inch and she will lie on her tummy and inch her way onto her rather than step on it and get off the same way. Yet a big step up to our back door she is fine with . Also when she squeezes past an object (wall/door etc) she will blink her eyes shut like somethings about to hit her. No one seems to explain terms to me so i cant do much to help her, i feel so helpless! Anyone have a child with visual processing problems and how did it affect them when they were little??

Hello,
DD2 has visual processing problems (and a lot of other stuff). She is now 3yr 11mo and it affects her in various ways. Firstly her depth perception is very poor, she is now able to go up the stairs but she doesn't look at the steps. She is still unable to walk down steps (maybe a very shallow one now but this is recent), she doesn't have good eye/foot coordination so she doesn't look at the steps again, she feels it and is very unsteady. A lot of our therapy focuses on improving the eye/foot coordination and learning to use the eyes more to function. Currently her visual sense isn't working with the other senses and she is getting by by using coping strategies.

We are about to start vision therapy along with other exercises we do so hopefully this will help.

If your DD has a problem with depth perception (which she may have as this might be why she gets onto that trampoline like that), going on swings and making sure you are in front of her so she sees you whilst swinging will help, and get her to high five you each time.

HTH

That's fab thanks mum really useful makes sense a lot of what you're saying. My dd doesn't look at stairs when she goes up either.

She may well find things like spatial awareness hard , ie. if there are other children at a playground she won't be able to easily judge distance, speed, whether she needs to move out of their way or they hers, so her reactions may be slow and/or inaccurate.

it does sound like a depth perception issue. My dd3 has a vi so different cause but same effect. I'm guessing the colour of the trampoline at the park is a different colour to the ground, contrasting colours on the floor will look like there should be a step as there is by your back door as she has learnt, whether there is in fact a step or not she's expecting one so the trampoline may be confusing what she expects. It's a coping strategy, my dd3 used to back over the change in floor colour between my hall and kitchen when she was little in the same way. Same effect with the door frame she may think it's far away but as she gets closer realises it's right in front of her, does she bump into the doorframes at all? Has she had her eyes checked thoroughly at the eye unit to rule out any physical problem, if she has it may be worth looking at vision therapy?

Thank you.
Liz she ha social problems with other kids so this may be part of the problem.

Ninja the OT mentioned something about different coloured flooring so it's making sense now. Yes she's incredibly clumsy and bumps into everything!!!

Sometimes I just wish she had something that could be treated with a tablet or a medicine! It's all so hard to try and figure out and her speech is virtually non existent which doesn't really help.
Thanks mums for all your help

Oh sorry forgot to say she had a good eye check at the CDC and they said they were fine. Will look into vision therapy x

My DS is nearly 6 and still goes downstairs like a toddler ie both feet on each step before going onto the next one. He gets really upset if you try to make him go down "properly". He has been assessed by a BABO and has various visual problems. We are doing vision training exercises with him so hopefully it will improve. Unfortunately it causes problems with his concentration in school as well. His actual sight test was fine though

She has a thing about always having to be able to see her feet could this be related at all or something different?? So if she's had a bath and she's wrapped in a towel she will wriggle and fight until her feet are free and se checks they are both there! Quite funny really, she's done this since being swaddled in babyhood!

That sounds like proprioception difficulties. ie she lacks an instinctive awareness of what her body is doing and how it is moving unless she has a visual reference. Lots of these issues can be linked and relate to neuro signal confusion - exercises from an OT involving crossing the midline , for example , can help ie touching knee with opposite hand although not sure how easy these are to do with a toddler. Maybe start with heads, shoulders, knees and toes, then with crossed arms.

Thank you liz