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Angel
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| Posted: Sept 08 2011 at 4:37pm | IP Logged
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(Note to moderators: I wasn't sure if this post belonged in the language arts forum or the special blessings forum. I went with reading because it's mainly about curriculum, etc, but please move it if you think it would work better as a special blessings post.)
We finally found a decent developmental optometrist in our new city and had my non-reading 8 yo evaluated. It turns that his difficulties with tracking, focus, depth perception, and visual processing are all rather severe. This does not surprise me much, and will *hopefully* account for all his problems learning to read. (I say "hopefully" because I think he can make great strides with vision therapy... but it's going to be a lot of hard work!!)
Anyway, what I'm trying to do is to provide appropriate reading instruction alongside visual exercises. (He'll be getting therapy in office 1x week plus our exercises at home.) The vision therapy is intense and I don't want to put TOO much strain on his eyes. What I'm looking for to help him is along these lines:
Large print readers (I know most readers have large-ish print, but I'm talking larger than that.)
Visual processing games (On another thread, I found a recommendation for Big Brain Academy for Wii)
Reading aids (I'm looking at some of these Heads Up! products right now, which look really good. I also found them from another 4real post, but I have been clicking through so many posts on a "vision therapy" search that I've lost the thread it came from now!)
Any good books for parents about vision and reading, etc.
He already uses a lot of audio books to fill his need for stories and information, so we're good there.
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Angela
Mom to 9, 7 boys and 2 girls
Three Plus Two
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Sept 08 2011 at 4:46pm | IP Logged
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I had a couple of thoughts strike me and I wanted to get them out here before I forgot, Angela! I'm so glad he'll be going through vision therapy and that you've started that process! I know it's so rigorous, but it will be so worth it!
First, have you pm'ed Janet? (ALMom) More than one of her children went through vision therapy and benefited greatly! She will likely have a great deal of insight for you! If you've searched vision therapy here, you've probably seen how much she has to offer on the topic.
Second, about the readers....can you just use one of your existing early readers and just type it into Startwrite with an adequately sized font? Or, perhaps you have a nice, basic font in your word processor and can simply type the reader in that way? This would mean you'd only be spending a little time and effort and printer ink, but the print size would not be a strain for him because you could adjust it to what is needed.
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Angel
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| Posted: Sept 08 2011 at 5:36pm | IP Logged
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Mackfam wrote:
Second, about the readers....can you just use one of your existing early readers and just type it into Startwrite with an adequately sized font? Or, perhaps you have a nice, basic font in your word processor and can simply type the reader in that way? This would mean you'd only be spending a little time and effort and printer ink, but the print size would not be a strain for him because you could adjust it to what is needed. |
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Yes, this was what I was thinking I would try, but I wondered if there was anything pre-printed out there in case I dropped the ball. (Not that my dropping the ball ever happens, of course.  ) His problems may be such that printing out our own readers is definitely what I need to do, though. His tracking issues are so bad that he can't keep his place in a line of text, much less with *lines* of it. We were kind of getting by it with me drawing directional lines under the words with a pencil (and blocking out the text beneath), but I think I need to be a little more radical. Even books that are supposed to be good for dyslexics (like Phonics Pathways) just have too much text on a page.
And Janet's posts are a wealth of information!! I've had 2 go through vision therapy already, but their problems were a lot more moderate than this child's. I'm finding I need to be educated all over again, in a deeper way.
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Angela
Mom to 9, 7 boys and 2 girls
Three Plus Two
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Angel
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| Posted: Sept 08 2011 at 5:39pm | IP Logged
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Oh, and I realize that my original post may have sounded as if I was looking for visual processing activities I could buy... but games we could play, stuff we could make would be ideal! We need some beanbags, for instance, for beanbag throws, and I'm pulling out all our books of mazes.
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Angela
Mom to 9, 7 boys and 2 girls
Three Plus Two
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: learning to read and vision problems
