Divergent squint and visual processing difficulties

[oodlesofdoodles]

DS 5 has a divergent squint which seems to be correcting itself. However he has poor depth perception, for instance he can't tell the difference between stickers/flaps and printed pictures in sticker/lift the flap books. In a messy room he cannot pick out an object.

He's been to opticians about a year ago and apparently isn't short or long sighted. How do I get his eyesight properly assessed? What can we do to improve his eyesight?

Sorry if this sounds pathetic. DS has lots of small problems which all add up. I'm trying to unravel them.

My son was referred for his squint via the optician at tesco who checked them. I had never been to the doctor re his squint as i had never noticed it.

Cn you book in for a free eye test at tesco and go via that route.
Does your son need patching or anything further done do you think? My son is nearly 8 and still patched, has been for over 3 years. Hth

I had a thread running the other day oodles about Aston university visual sciences.

They do testing if you are anywhere near, it costs £65 for the first appointment and £10 for any followups.

Don't know if this is what you are after.

Yes, we've had loads of threads recently about vision problems :)

An optician will be no good at all.

If you want to go via the NHS you can get referred to an opthamoligst or an orthoptist. (I've been through the NHS and personally found them no use at all)

If you want to do it yourself you can go to a behaviour optemetrist. ( A bit of use, but not as good as I was helping)

Or even weirder therapies :) (Very good, but very alternative)

DS used to have no 3d vision at all. AFAIK his vision is now pretty much fine. But that is after 2 years of expensive therapies.

I believe you can see a behaviour optometrist on the NHS if you live in Essex or Ipswich.

Thanks both, yes Ineedalife I followed your thread with interest. I'm in Scotland so sadly the travel costs would outweigh the cheap consultation. Are visual processing difficulties so rare that you have to go to a university for it? He has an NHS check up for the squint in a few weeks. If I ask, will/can they check depth perception and any other issues that I haven't picked up on?

helping == hoping

And I suppose you're going to tell me Ispwich is in Essex

Thanks Indigo, how did you work out what your ds's problems were and how did you sort them out?

Are squints more of a problem than we are lead to believe?

AFAIK a squint would give you convergence insufficiency which would make reading harder.

My Ds did not have a squint, but he did have no 3d vision ( and visual perception problems and nystagmus )

He was under an opthamologist for his nystagmus as a baby / toddler, but they discharged him without ever doing a single thing for him.

Then when he saw a paed age 9 she referred him to an orthoptist / opthamologist. Who once again were very happy to say he had nystagmus, but had no interest in helping him.

The sound learning centre picked up his visual perception problems and no 3d vision. We did light wave stimulation therapy through them, which gave him 3d vision.

Then, as part of retained reflex therapy with them we did vision therapy exercises which helped a bit more.

And recently we've been to Tinsley house and done home therapy system through them which has cured his eye tracking problems and convergence insufficiency. I think his nystagmus is also an awful lot better.

Ian Jordan is in scotland, lots of people rave about him,

I think imogengladheart saw him recently.

As for who can check for visual perception issues I don't really know but i do know it is not a bog standard optician and its not usually available on the NHS.

We used someone for Dd2, she had tracking and colour issues but he currently chages £400 which is way beyond our means at the moment.

Hope some of that helps.

What you really want is home therapy system, but unfortunately you can only buy it though an eye specialist - and the only person in the UK who I know sells it is Tinsley house.

top vision is the closest alternative I can find which you can buy, and which doesn't cost a fortune. I haven't used it, and the website doesn't give much info, but from what I can tell its fairly similar to home therapy system.

Light wave stimulation was good - but not cheap.

And of course Tinsley house is absolutely incredibly good - and is not all that expensive.

home therapy system

And an OT can also test for and help with visual perception issues.

Yes I meant to say that the OT's noticed Dd3 difficulties just by doing a few simple tests with her.

They didn't offer any help though.

Thanks for the suggestions indigo and needalife. I wish I could get him properly assessed by someone impartial. I'll look into Aston uni in case we are down that way.

A bit off topic but I believe Aldous Huxley was into eye exercises. Not sure we would get enough compliance from ds at this age on top of everything else. I'm guessing light wave therapy is passive, bit then may be less effective than exercises.

sound learning centre

Light wave stimulation is passive. He has o watch some co,lured swirling lights for 20 mins, twice a day, for 20 days.

£400 for the assessment, to see what his problems are, then £400 for LWS. (and another £800 if you do auditory integration therapy at the same time)

If you can afford it, it's a reasonable place to start. It was effective.

Tinsley house I think may be better (but because I did SLC first, I don't know what TH would have been like if we hadn't done SLC first...) but is certainly not passive. It certainly requires him to participate in exercises 3 times a day.

If you can afford both, I'd recommend both. If you can only afford one I'd recommend TH. if you can't afford either I'd recommend top vision, and if you can't afford even that tell me and I'll do my best to describe some of the exercises we've done :)

10 days! Not 20

Oh bless you indigo. Well ds is booked in for some behavioral therapy at half term and I'm trying to get dh to get him walking up the stairs with his eyes closed (I bought the Robin Pauc book) so that is time and money accounted for over next few weeks.

I'll start with the OT. Isn't it creepy how they won't offer any help unless you specifically ask for it using the correct lingo?

The stairs exercise (3 times a day for 2 months!) did improve both DSs and DDs vision.

It improved their eye tracking and convergence insufficiency, and also DSs nystagmus.

I don't know if it did anything for their visual perception or not, or if that had already been sorted by SLC.

The stairs exercise improves the cerebellum, which controls the body - including the eyes.

The OT should be able to test it very thoroughly ( they test about 8 different sub things of visual perception) and should give you exercises to do.

I think by the time DS saw the OT only his visual discrimination was bad, and she recommended word searches and spot the difference.

Indigo : I have a question too!

My DS has a convergent squint. He has not 3D vision and is a little bit long sighted, but not much. He wears glasses. We go to Moorfields with him.

I did see a behavioural person for a while with him, but decided to do the reflex stuff with hemispheres instead as the BO didn't seem to really know what she was doing IMHO.

I think the reflex stuff will take some more time with hemispheres and its helping DS a lot physically, but his eyes are still strongly squinting (although he is reading and writing v v well - he's in reception - which is a big surprise to me).

Do you reckon its worth going back to a BO now/later! Or do you think Tinsely House will be able to sort out his squint? Sorry if this is too big a question for you. And sorry OP for ambushing your thread!

Interesting. DS1 has a slight divergent squint that I only notice in photographs, but the optician said he didn't have convergence insufficiency. Your description of not being able to find something right in front of him described him to a T as a young child. He seems to have no problem these days, but interesting given the genes, I suppose.

Skewiff - TH is better than the BO I went to. Better and cheaper.

Im not sure if TH will be able to sort out his squint. But he will be able to improve his convergence insufficiency. (if he has it)

(if you ring him or email him he'll discuss it with you)

EJ - I think it's likely possible your DS has convergence insufficiency, even if the optician didn't notice it. Because they don't treat it, I think they're not always good at testing for it.

I think TH says 60% of the kids he sees has convergence insufficiency - so that's 60% of kids with ASD, ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia.

And their convergence insufficiency can always be treated.

Thanks, Indigo. Maybe I should chase that one up, then.

Indigobell do you mind me asking about the cause of the nystagmus?

My boys have been given a rough diagnosis of oculocutaneous albinism, but they don't meet all the criteria for this. I'm told it's 'probably' that.

I'm always interested in any thread which mentions vison problems or nystagmus. They also have other problems which I won't bore you with.

The optician did give him some eye exercises, focusing on a distant object then on a close one, etc and he definitely uses both eyes but I have always concentrated my efforts on DS2, I suppose.

Indigo please do not talk about things you know very little about.

squint and eye problems are a serious concern, Im not necessarily talking about tracking and visual perception.

leave things to the professionals, you could cause harm with your opinions.

How does the cerebellum control the eyes!? Do you know anything about the visual pathway and how and why squints can develop?

PLEASE have some sense.

Ambush away everyone. I'm fascinated how all these little problems can add up. I wonder whether ds's difficulties in reading body language are exacerbated by vision problems.