AD Symptoms requiring child psychologist or eye specialist

[ElmoWorld]

gerberadaisy:

Hi elmoWorld


I would like to find out more about this optometrist - does he/she specialise in detecting vision problems in kids?

Previously, I also suspected my son to have vision problem and sent him to an ophthalmologist who checked and concluded that my son does not have any vision problems. Wonder if the optometrist is able to detect other vision problems that the ophthalmologist could not. Would appreciate if you could provide more info about the optometrist that you've consulted. Many thanks!

Sorry for the late reply, I was overseas for a while.
I am sure there are quite a number of optometrist around but I was referred to two:
1. Zoran Pejic from Orthovision
http://orthovision.com.sg/en-zoran-pioneered-non-surgical-treatment-squint-singapore-national-eye-centre/40.html
2. Yap Tiong Peng from IGard
http://igard.com.sg/index.php?pr=Yap_Tiong_Peng

We always thought eye doctors are all the same. But according to what i read, looks like ophthalmologist and optometrist are quite different and they dont seem to \"like\" each other. :pokeeye:

Correct me if I am wrong, ophthalmologist make sure that your eyes are in good physical conditions - u can see clearly and they can cure your eye diseases.

Development optometrists, on the other hand, are focus on how efficiently you can see, eg. some patients can see 20/20 but suffer from headaches and see light rings/ double vision, esp at night or when they are tired, which makes it difficult for them to drive or read.

Optometrist runs eye exercises (vision therapy) to train the patients' eyes so as to help the eye become more agile. This is the controversial part. Some opthalmologists and PD are skeptical about it. They are also expensive.

But at least for my boy, I think it works and is worth it as I can tell the differences in him.

One of his problem is a weak right eye muscle, which make that eye difficult to zoom in and zoom out effectively.
It is especially tedious when copying from board (which require his eyes to shift focus frequently- zooming in and out) He often lost his focus and end up dont know where he was at.
This also make a lot of daily activities difficult, including catching a ball, maintaining his balances, cutting a paper, etc.
After vision therapy, his speed definitely improve. So are some other areas.
I wont say he is fully \"normal\" now but he is definitely improving.
We are still working on his stamina as he gets tired easily when reading smaller fonts and doing homework that need more concentration.

Another thing to share:
There are a few centres (eg. BrainFit Studio, Singapopre Brain Development centre) in Spore that claim to be able to help children improve their memory and concentration.
Recently I learnt that a small part of their so called \"brain-trainings\" are in fact vision therapies!!!
I guess these centres may have sort of figured out that part of the underlying problems of some children with poor attention span and memory actually lies with their vision??

Dont get me wrong. Vision therapies are not miracle cure for children who are \"different\". It works for my son and some other children, but it is because they indeed have some vision problems.

For those who are unsure. I wish you all the best.
It can be a very frustrating process.
I have talked to many parents who have special needs kids and many of them share the same feeling. Somehow, there doesnt seem to be a systematic way of diagnosing children that are different, not only in Spore but worldwide.
For the same children, psychologists can come up with very different diagnosis.......

One thing I think Spore can probably do is to improve on the eye screening provided by schools.
We falsely belive that our children have good eyesight because they do well in their eye screening, but sometimes that are not true.

Lastly, for those who are interested, here is a very good website on how vision problems can affect children's reading:
http://childrensvision.com/reading.htm
It even shows u how words \"dance\" - what some children are in fact seeing.

[cnimed]

To add on to Elmoworld's very informative post, if your children say the words \"dance\", \"jump\", \"disappear\", \"change color\" etc etc, there is also the possibility of Irlen Syndrome which vision therapy will not alleviate. Irlen Syndrome is a perceptual issue - how the information from the eye is delivered to the brain, and has nothing to do with the eye or its muscles.


http://www.irlen.com
http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Colors-Helen-Irlen/dp/0895294826

It can also affect depth perception, so the child may also experience symptons overlapping with sensory integration issues, balance,eye-hand tracking etc. I imagine for those who are both on the spectrum and whose Irlen Syndrome are severe, negotiating a new environment can be especially challenging.

A parent should rule out/treat other vision issues before screening for Irlen Syndrome.

[gerberadaisy]

Hi ElmoWorld


Many thanks for sharing the information. Can I just check - so did you send your child to Orthovision or IGard? Do both of them offer similar therapy?

Thanks!

[ElmoWorld]

Hi GerberaDaisy,

I’d pm you, pls check your mailbox.
I only been to one so don’t know how to compare.

I think both are quite established players here with many followers.
Orthovision offers only private therapy sessions, I think. But IGard offers individual and group sessions.
The location is quite impt for me too as I hv to bring my child to their office for therapy everyday (5days a week) for 6 weeks, each time spending 30 to 40 mins there. It is easily close to 2 hrs if u plus travelling time and changing/preparation time.

[gerberadaisy]

Hi ElmoWorld


Many thanks for your reply!

Cheers

[Nebbermind]

I found this thread very informative but somehow the ‘eye sight’ info doesn’t match the title. Also, should this be in HEALTH?


It’ll be good if someone can kinda re-org this.

[jedamum]

Nebbermind:

I found this thread very informative but somehow the 'eye sight' info doesn't match the title. Also, should this be in HEALTH?


It'll be good if someone can kinda re-org this.

the eyesight info stem from the sharing that SID may be misdiagnosed as ADHD, so i reckon that it should remain in this thread.
have shifted to Health though. thanks for the headsup.

[Audvis]

Hi ElmoWorld

I would like to find out which clinic did you go to and what did they do. Have sent you a pm. Thanks!

[luvmum]

Dear mummies,


Recently I brought my child who has always been having visual issues to Zoran at orthovision. We started on his intensive 3 weeks therapies but do not find much progress. Neither are we impressed with their programs and vision therapist too. Unsure if we still want to continue him as his charges are skyrocket.

Any advice from mums here?

[ktyong]

My son is still in the program. This is his 3rd week and is advised that he will need another 15 sessions. From what I observed is that he is more capable of spotting what he is looking for. In the past, he seems like not observing what is obvious, like looking out for us in the mall if he wanders away. I was told by Zoran during the assessment that for my son condition, it is likely he will need 2 x 3 weeks theraphy. I am not sure if you were given similar advise.