dd2 - dyslexia - visual disturbances - eye test, what to expect.

[hazeyjane]

dd2 (6) has recently had an assessment for dyslexia, we haven't been through it with the senco yet, but apparently it shows that she is 'strongly dylexic'.

The head teacher has referred us to an optician, to do some tests wrt visual disturbances that dd has described - she calls them, 'sparkles' and says that they are like blobs of colour which she sees on people faces, and when she is reading. She said she can't read the notes on a page of music because the notes move and the sparkles jump on the notes (!)

I have the number of a highly recommended behavioural optometrist as a back up, because I am a little wary of the optician we have been referred to after a couple of other parent's sought a second opinion after seeing the one we are seeing today. (one said that her dd was prescribed glasses with tinted lenses after a 10 minute test, which gave her bad headaches)

I will see what happens at the appointment, but would like some idea of what to expect from an appointment like this.

Any thoughts would be lovely, thankyou.

I don't know, but will be watching this closely, as DS2 is also being monitored for possible dyslexia, however he's still quite young for the assessment.

Oh blimey, polter reading about benign occipital epilepsy sounds very much like dd - headaches, nausea, coloured blobs. I am seeing our gp on Monday (about ds's seizures, ironically) I will ask for a referral - she may end up having an eeg with ds.

alice, how old is ds2?

he's 4yo, in reception. They've also mentioned a concern over his "visual memory". Interestingly, he's an auditory learner, whereas DS1 is a visual learner all the way. So very different in that way.

Just back from the eye appointment with dd2, feel a bit about it. She came away with some glasses, which apparently will help with the 'flow' of the reading, I am not entirely sure what he meant about the balance between the eyes not coming together. When she was reading the words, she did seem to stall less with the glasses.

He was a bit dismissive about the 'sparkles' and dd2 was really quiet about them. I asked about coloured overlays, and he said he felt they were over used by schools and that it would be better to see her in 6 months to do an overlay assessment if there was no improvement.

I just asked her about the glasses, and she said, 'by the way I could still see the sparkles with the glasses on' when I asked her why she didn't mention anything to the optician about the sparkles, and she just answered me in her made up language,'Mingola, NO!'

She is however incredibly excited about having reading glasses, they are orange.

Interesting about the epilepsy polter.

I would seriously ask GP Hazey. You may remember me posting about DS visual disturbances on goose thread? He's had moving side to side, tilting and also coloured blobs. He is not dyslexic.

Lots of people suggested seizures and GP wants me to monitor (which of course we've had 3 weeks without it!). He also says the same re reading and was tired with a blue overlay.

DS has had some questionable seizure activity in the past but never anything regularly or major that has even Pin pointed anything.

My only experience is my daughter needing coloured lenses, a 10 minute test wouldn't be sufficient I don't think to make a decision like that. ours probably took half an hour just for the coloured bit tests and the difference with them has been amazing but I think they are right that a lot of schools overuse them and think they will help all poor readers which of course they don't, they will only help if that is the actual problem.

Do you think he meant some sort of convergence issue? I have read about them.

Definitely get the possible epilepsy thing checked out as it does sound like that could be a possibility.

convergence, yes that sounds right. It was all a bit rushed and I felt daft talking about dd2's 'sparkles' and dd2 just clamming up!

I think I need to look into a specific overlay test, once I have cleared the idea of epilepsy.

I guess for the schools, providing an overlay is a fairly easy way of feeling as though they are doing something.

I know my niece has them and it has helped enormously.

Do you live anywhere near Reading?

www.dyslexic.org.uk/dyslexiahelp.htm

'the eyes not coming together' means convergence problems.

I think Engaging Eyes is the best program to help with convergence difficulties.

My DS is playing it every day, and it's helping heaps.

You dont need to spend a penny on expensive software. You just need to do simple excercises with a pencil that cost nothing. My dd had quite bad convergence problems and was seeing double at 20cm instead of 8cm.
Just hold pencil at arms length and gradually bring it forward until you see double . Do this for 10 minutes a day.

High street opticians diagnosed dd and dh with convergence. You dont need to spend money on it at all. My dd isnt dyslexic but was seeing double when she was reading. We only found out that she was seeing double because of the optician. I think she thought it was normal.She never had a problem learning to read. She was reading fluently in reception.
My ds who has an spld had a huge leap in his reading in year 2. Some children including dyslexics have dwvelopmental leaps

Ds has an eye disorder called oculomotor deficiencies. Which means good eyesight for general purposes, but words blur and jump when reading. He hasn't described any sparkles though, although when younger he did describe 'white flashes'

www.bernsteincenterforvisualperformance.com/eye-movement-problems-oculomotor-dysfunction-or-omd

Ds says when he reads, the closet to how he sees text is the top right image. Kind of like 2 lines of the same text, which moves back and forth and gets bigger and smaller.