Possible eye tracking problems

[Erniesmum]

Just wondering if anybody has any experience of this. My DS (8 and in year 4) is doing well at school, consistently top in Maths and in areas where he can rely on verbal instructions. His reading however is very difficult. Individual words he reads well and his vocabulary is good but he is incredibibly slow at reading lines of text and complains often that he loses his place and that the words move about. He was assessed last year for special needs as the school felt that there was a sufficient gap between his verbal skills and his written/reading skills to be concerned however the assessment came back as appropriate reading skills for his age. As time has gone on his reading has not improved at all and it has been suggested to us that he possibly has problems tracking his eyes together. Nobody however seems to know what, if anything, we can do about this and I wondered if anybody had any experience of this? I have been ignoring this in the hope that it will resolve itself but I am becoming more and more concerned that it is going to hinder his development generally and that I ought if I can to try to do something about it.

Keith Holland Associates Cheltenahm or BABO - British Association of Behavioral Ophthalmologists

Look here for a Behaviour Optometrist

You need to see a proper behaviour optometrist rather than a hight street optician (who missed my DS's very obvious eye tracking and convergence problems on 4 occasions).

I go to one in Milton Keynes. DS has some glasses and is doing vision therapy.

You will not regret making an appointment x Let me know if you have any questions.

Kind of agree with the above.

You need to do vision therapy - which is normally offered by a behaviour optometrist. Trouble is that BOs differ wildly in effectiveness.

My DD did one course of vision therapy through a BO and it hardly helped at all.

Then she did Home Therapy System through Tinsley House and we finally managed to cure her eye tracking and convergence insufficiency problems.

(And her reading age went up 2 years in 2 months)

Eye tracking is a very common problem, and it's very likely your child has it. It's also very easy to treat - the hard thing is finding someone who will sell you Home Therapy System.

It is very unlikely to resolve itself.

Hi Indigo Bell.
You very much selling TH clinic on the net in every of your threads across special needs. All with links and even where to buy meds. Is it yours?

No.

I'm telling you what helped my DD. I don't want to name the BO I had a bad experience with, because that seems mean (although if anyone PMs me I tell them)

however saying what works is important to me.

I'm incredibly annoyed that the vision therapy we did at a behaviour optemtrist didn't work. I'd far rather say go to any behaviour optometrist and do vision therapy and it'll cure eye tracking problems.

If anybody knows a BO that does HTS I'd gladly recommend them. But so far I haven't found a UK one that does.

Btw if you search my threads you'll see how long I've been on MN, how many things I recommend, and how desperate I was a year ago.

If you want to. Else you can just disregard my helpful posts.

How would you cure eye tracking problems?

For example, Here's a thread I started Jan 2011 - Don't think DD will ever learn to read

Actually it looks like Sheinman Opticians sell HTS.

He sounds dyslexic to me wrt the letters jumping around on the page. I'm not sure if that is the same as a visual tracking problem? Sometimes dyslexia is treatable with coloured overlays on the page or coloured glasses. nhs choices info here tells you where to get assessments etc.

Of course ignore me if you've already tried this route as I've no direct experience.

SneezeCake - eye tracking problems are frequently misdiagnosed as dyslexia.

It's not the words which are jumping round the page - it's his eyes.

Eye tracking problems are far, far more common than the fairly rare Irlen syndrome which coloured overlays help. However coloured overlays are frequently, and frequently wrongly, given to dyslexic children.

DS1 was referred to an advanced optometrist via our GP. He is now doing visual exercises every day for visual tracking problems. He is also using an overlay to reduce glare off the page due to Irlen syndrome.

Erniesmum - where in the country are you? The reason our gp had to refer was because the service is in a different borough.

BTW I asked about Dyslexia, and the way it was put by the optometrist was that 60% of people with dyslexia have Visual Stress.

INDIGO BELL,
That was just a simple question! I thought how great it would be to have an advise of professional. Did not mean anything else! Sorry if offended you. Just asking cos I was told to go to BO with my DS and after reading your post I thought I ask, if you the person who deals with it. I do find all posts very helpful once again sorry Indigo Bell if sounded wrong.
Regards

Sorry. I am a bit sensitive as I've been attacked many times for promoting TH.

Where in the country are you? The BO I linked to in northapmton looks good. As is Keith holland.

But the one I used near London was not good.

And if your child has bad dyslexia TH is the place to go. Whereas if they only have mild eye tracking / convergence problems a BO might be able to solve it.

It is so unfair. You should be able to go to any high street optician and get good advice. But you can't.

Thanks for all your replies I really appreciate it. Jerbil we are in Reading.

Hi, IB.
We are in London and already spend thousands £ in different clinics trying to get help. Our DS has not got label so it is OK on one site but not OK if you trying to get help (pros don't know what they are dealing with), feeling so alienated. Went to one OT clinic promoting them self's for changing the way kids brain work and working on reflexes and "curing" your kid in six to ten mths. It cost arm and a leg and result with them referring you to their "friends" BO and CO (nothing wrong with my DSs scull) and many more. It looks like big money making machine on worried parents! We are walking in a fog at the moment cos we are fighting LEA for SN school for our DS and don't know where to go. I have found myself (you gonna lough now) thinking I can not do it any more! Just want to live happily, don't need lots of money just health and my kids. To much to ask.. "System" has no kids, it's single and have no one to look after and worry about!!! I think I need and lots of it.
Glad we are ok Indigo Bell.
Speak soon.

My son has this problem & is being treated by a BO. We have completed 1 set of VT & were told that it was mostly successful but we started when DS was 6 (apparently harder to get good results?) He now has prism lenses, which despite him being excellent at reading, noticeably improve hs reading age.

The frustrating thing is the glasses dramatically impove his ability to concentrate, and I discovered this morning that he wasn't wearing them at all during hs ed psy assessment. aarggghh.

Erniesmum I will ask our optician who suggested the referral in the first place tomorrow. Purely coincidentally we have an appt. Just in case she knows of anyone near you. It's just so frustrating. you think you're getting somewhere then some other problem occurs, namely the system!

Thanks Jerbil.

plus3 LOL my DS wasn't wearning his at his assessment either! The one day he forgets to wear them they assessed him out of the blue

MMUK - lots of us have had great success with retained reflex therapy. Search the old threads. Was it David Mulhall you went to? I haven't been to him, but other people on this board have had good results with him.

Is CO Cranial Osteopath? That did help my DS.

Anyway, like you know, my top recommendation is Tinsley House. I have done all of the things you're talking about ( RRT, BO, CO and TH) and have found all of them worked to some degree, but that TH was/is the best (and BO was the least effective). What results you get will obviously depend on what problems your DS has.

Is That My Child explains TH. If you read that book, you'll know whether TH is right for you or not.

I've probably spent £2,000 - £3,000 on treatments for DS. I don't know. I haven't added it up. But I certainly don't regret a penny of it. He's going to go to secondary school in September - and I am not at all worried about him. Whereas 2 years ago I didn't think I'd be able to send him to secondary school at all.

The Tinsley House thread will tell you more about what the Tinsley House therapy is like to do.

I can 100% recommend the HTS vision therapy that TH prescribes. Both DD and DSs vision has improved out of sight with it.

Hi IndigoBell,
Thanks for that. I don't regret money I've spent on my boy, I regret that I had not found "working" therapy sooner. He has made progress, no doubt, slow but progress. I look into TH. Thank you.

Any recommendations for BO in London (South) /Surrey areas?

Erniesmum I did ask but she didn't know anyone off the top of her head, and said unless she would have worked with them then she wouldn't feel right recommending an individual. sorry. But she sooo supports this service. The one who deals with DS1 in the SPLD clinic is called an Advanced Orthoptist and she works at the Dept of Opthalmic Surgery. I wonder if you can contact a similar dept at a hospital local to you. Keep in mind that not all areas are covered by this service. We have to travel 20 miles away from one of the largest cities in England to a much smaller borough that actually offer the service. So shop around and good luck.

We go to Paul Adler in St.Albans. Think he has 2 sites & does work for a hospital. Hth

AuntEvil - I have no recommendations, but can tell you more so that you know what questions to ask. (Hopefully people who are happy with their BO can add to this list / correct my misconceptions)

There are 3 types of things BOs recommend:

1. Computer vision therapy
2. Prism glasses
3. Manual vision therapy

Computer vision therapy is the most effective. It is widely used in the US. But I can only find one optician on the UK who uses it. Both DS and DD have done this, and there is no question it has been amazing. 20 mins every day for a month.

Prism glasses. People on here who have them seem to be very happy with them. AFAIK they don't correct the eyes - ie you have to wear them forever. Hopefully someone who knows about them can tell you more.

Manual vision therapy. This is what DD and DS2 did and I was. Dry unhappy with it. It's the most expensive and the least effective. We had 5 sessions, and they did help - but you need an awful lot more than that for the therapy to be effective - which is why it is pricy. You are also reliant on your DC to tell u