Anyone who knows anything about visual perception.

[Ineedalife]

After a thread on here I emailed Aston Uni's visual science department to find out about a test for DD3. The OT's said she had visual perception issues.

Anyway they have emailed me back and said they do a clinc called the Binocular Vision Clinic, it is a 2 hour assessment and costs £65 for the first appointment [2hrs] and then £20 there after. They did say part of the test is to see if she needs coloured overlays.

So is this the test we want because I was quoted £400 by an optician!!

Does anyone know if it would be a good idea to do this assessment.

I was told this was what ds1 needed, as the optician he saw noted he had poor binocular vision. She said they would do a full assessment of his sight, including binocular vision and would also test things like tracking and whether or not he needed coloured overlays/glasses, so it sounds like they do a pretty comprehensive workout.

A Behavioural Optometrist will cost a lost more, but will do more specific tests - you need Indigo really, she explains it much better than I ever could.

My plan was to do the Aston thing first and then the BABO if it still seemed necessary.

We did receive the pre-assessment questionnaire from Aston and its asks a lot of questions that seem highly relevant to children with AS or Dyspraxia, which I found reassuring.

I mentioned it to Ds2's hospital optometrist at his last appointment and she said Aston are a good starting point, but that if there's no improvement then she would recommend a BABO appointment. I was quite surprised actually, as I assumed she wouldn't necessarily approve of BABOs, but she said in her opinion its just a more specialised form of optometry and shouldn't be dismissed out of hand.

Thanks moose, its a good idea to use it as a starting point.

Part of my problem is that i dont actually know if Dd3 is struggling visually. I know she doesn't get symetry and cant turn shapes but apart from that i am a bit of a loss. I am kind of hoping an optometrist might be able to tell me.

have you checked to see if your local hospital offer it on the NHS? Some do? Our local hospital has a behavioural optometrist & although they couldnt do the full coloured overlay testing they passed us ont o someone else (at a uni) that did it for free.

They were also able to fully assess his tracking, dyslexia screening etc at the hospital eye clinic

Wow dont, i have never heard of it being available on the NHS are you prepared to say where abouts in the country you are.

I don't know anything about Aston Uni, but if it's a 2 hr appointment for £65 I'd go for it.

Prices for BABOs vary wildly, and I can't work out why.

2 of my kids are under Ian Jordan also x

Thanks indigo i am going to book it i think because i really cant afford £400 but i know i should do something.

imogen, i just read your thread and am sorry that the so called proffs didnt take the report seriously.

OP if the OT assessed Visual perception issues did they not advise you about what to do next? OT's can assess and treat Vis perception but best practice would be to do it in conjunction a Behavioural Optometrist.
If it were my child I would take up the Aston assessment and save to get to a Behavioural Opt in the next while.

As for poohpoohing the BO's asssessment- thats just ignorance. They are qualified Optometrist with a specialist area and training.

Hi wannabe, no the OT's didnt recommend anything for visual stuff only for handwriting and shoulder stability. They discharged her after the assessment and we have had no folow up at all.

It seems normal in my area to assess a child, diagnose a few issues if you are lucky and then discharge and leave the parents to get on with it.

Ineed, that sounds very similar to what happened with ds1's OT assessment.

Basically they assessed him as being precisely on the cutoff for dyspraxia, which meant he wasn't entitled to any help. One point lower and he'd have had OT support.

They then supplied a report detailing all the areas where he had problems and needed support - then left us to it!

I need a life - we are in Suffolk & ds2 is seen at the eye clinic at Ipswich hospital, they carry out dyslexia screening, look for tracking problems & other problems associated with visual perception (cant remember all the things she checked) they no longer carry out the full colour screening but she was able to giv eus details of Prof Arnold Wilkins a tCOlchester uni & he saw ds2 for free.
She also provided a full report of ds2's difficulties & strategies for the school. His school are generally very good but i do think it helps when a report comes on NHS headed paper.

Have you seen "speed up" ds2's OT recommended the school try it with DS2 & they are doing it with a group of kids now. Very kinisthetic approach, very good with dyspraxia apparently.
DS2 has mild CP, asd & bilateral integration disorder so many of the strategies used for dyspraxia help him too.

Speed Up is a handwriting program designed by an OT, and helps with physical problems.

However 'write from the start' is a handwriting program designed to help with visual perception problems. You can buy it from amazon and do it yourself at home.

ineedalife I am shocked that the OT diagnosed but didn't give you a breakdown of the difficulties or give you any ideas to improve things.
The most common Visual Perception tests have sub-test areas that look at the different 'parts' of visual perception. Treatment would be best if focussed on the area that your chid would have most difficulty with. Often the BOpt will add a dimension to the Visual Perception test to help focus treatement. Here links to some activities that you can do at home that treat visual perception.

Visual Perception is part of the reason some kids have difficulty with handwriting- they can skate along fine until they have to manage the very complex task of writing where finesse in motor skills, visual-motor integration, visual perception, attention and gross motor control come together.

Hope thats of some help- access to the OT's assessment would help you to pinpoint your work even more.

Ours was exactly the same Wannabe, told us he has some visual perception problems and should have them checked out properly, but no help, advice or referral and only mentioned depth perception issues due to binocular issues in her report, despite telling us that there was more to it.

Ds1 went on the Speed-up programme at school and it made no difference at all, although he did enjoy doing it at the time and I felt it might have helped more if they had followed it up with more targetted support. We did do exercises at home, but at the time he was overloaded with extra work and exercises as it was and there weren't enough hours in the day.

Well the Speed Up programme is brilliant when its targeted at a kinesthetic problem.
But you wouldn't go to the police station for a plumber....even if you happened to meet an officer who was a bit handy IYKWIM.
So you wouldn't use it for Visual Perception per se. Though the child might also have kinesthetic issues. Smacks of doing something to tick a box I'm afraid. ''Yes well we treated moosebaby using this validated approach''.

Saying that many visual perception problems co-exist with movement difficulties because- to be able to interpret space, depth etc, you have to have experienced moving efficiently through space. Does that make sense? So the best therapy would combine table-top visual perception training with eye-muscle training and gross motor work.

That made me laugh - we just had a guy round to fix our taps a couple of weeks ago - who gave up being a policeman to become a plumber!

That's exactly what I felt it was Wannabe, a box ticking exercise so the school could say they have done some intervention.

He does have some movement difficulties as well, fine and gross motor stuff, plus hypotonia particulary badly in his core and upper body. We have been working on this ourselves and his new teacher this year has really worked on it with him during PE lessons as well. We've also done some binocular vision exercises at home and we are just starting to notice improvement.

When he was assessed by the OT they said he couldn't catch a ball because he couldn't judge its speed or distance, so he body blocked balls coming towards him instead. Now he can catch balls a good percentage of the time and has even joined cricket club - and hit a few balls, with the help of his lovely cricket coach's careful bowling. He seems to be able to judge balls bowled at him better than he can when he's fielding though. He's better if he knows where the ball is coming from and where its likely to go - if its flying high he just can't judge where its headed and nearly always runs the opposite way to the rest of his team mates.

Yes that makes sense- also when he is bowling his body is stable and he has to focus on the incoming ball only whereas when he is fielding there is much more going on- his body moving, eyes tracking, ball moving, team- mates moving (in peripheral vision). It's a whole other level.
I would work hard on core strength (sit-ups, plank) as well as doing eye tracking exercises.... but also look at getting advice from a Behavioural Optometrist.
Sorry for hijacking ineedalife

Yes sorry for hijacking your thread ineed.

Thank you for all your advice Wannabe.

Sounds like we are going along the right lines then. He hates planks, but is getting quite keen on sit-ups/crunches and likes one leg/balance stuff as well. It helps so much that he adores his teacher and she's really into fitness. He used to refuse point blank to do anything sport or exercise related, but he even joins me for parts of the 30 Day Shred sometimes now!

Now, just need the £££s necessary for the BABO appointment or off to Aston while we save up.

No worries about the hijack folks, I have just been reading the posts [manic day] and they are really interesting.

Dd3 has not done any handwriting interventions at school because her old school didn't do interventions full stop and the new school are prioritising at the moment. So she is in a social skills group, springboard maths and lunchtime physio.They also do the excerises every day I can't remember what they are called but they are really helping with her co ordination. I don't think I can ask for anything els just at the moment.LOL.

Maybe when the springboard finishes they will look at her handwriting.

I feel a bit sorry for them TBH because they have inherited this child with over inflated SATS scores [all level 3's at KS1] who actually has loads of issues which need sorting and they are supposed to get her to lev 5 before yr 6. I have told them that the scores were wrong but it is difficult for them because they are there in black and white.

Thanks again everyone am going to book for Aston anyway and get the ball rolling.

if they do daily exercises (like gym trail or mind gymn) lots of stuff can be built in to that to help viual perception. Much of ds2's behavioural opt report recommendations have been built in to his gymn trail with a clever tweeking of the exercises.

Hmm, an interesting thought. dont.

Excellent link wannabe, thanks!