My DD may have visual processing disorder.. any experience?

I have taught for 20 years and haven’t run across this particular type of processing disorder...

I’m wondering if she can use those overlays to do her work? Maybe let her write with colored pencils or pens instead of regular ones?

Curious what you decide to ask for.

My oldest had something similar, but hers was related to her eyes focusing at different points. The assessment should also check for any difficulties she has with the eye muscles and their work. My daughter did almost 2 years of visual therapy. I had to pay out of pocket for all but two months of it and had to drive two hours once or twice a week to get her to the place that specializes in it. But it was well worth it. She is now completely caught up academically and is above grade level in most subjects. We did therapy for two sessions a week at the eye clinic and then I did therapy with her every night at home. She was reassessed every 4 weeks to determine where they needed to focus on next or if they needed to continue with what they were doing. As for the IEP I would ask that she be allowed to use the overlays. You could also consider asking that tests be read aloud to her. I would ask for frequent breaks for her as school tends to be visually intense and fatigue her quickly

Yes, my daughter was diagnosed with Convergence Insufficiency (sounds similar to what Sabrinae described above) which is a visual processing disorder. Simply put her eyes did not work together to converge and so she frequently saw words blurry or dancing around a page, board, etc. This was discovered in second grade. A regular optometrist did not catch it.

I don't know if it was our state or what, but these are not widely known about and she did not qualify for services in the school. We were lucky to find a place that deals with all types of processing disorders near her school. Because this originated from a base issue, she first needed occupational therapy and then she went on to vision therapy - the problem is now resolved. We do get her eyes checked by the optometrist at the specialty dsorder place, just to be safe.

Though the school could not provide services, there were accommodations set up in an IEP when she needed it.

Good luck.

Ask your optometrist. I was literally sitting in her office on Tuesday reading their poster about visual processing disorder and how it could connect to my son. Their poster was explaining the services they offer. At the very least, they might give you some insight on how to best help your daughter.

My daughter was diagnosed with visual-spatial processing disorder by an occupational therapist but ended up experiencing multiple types of visual processing disorders throughout her school years. The school didn't know what to do with her or how to help her. I had to feed them a lot of the accommodations. I can't tell you how many times I was in a meeting room with our district SPED person feeding her information from the State of Texas of what she needed to do to help my kid. It was a hard road with DD having to repeat the first grade. She is a senior this year and will be graduating early.

There are about eight different types of visual processing disorders. Sometimes things can be narrowed down to one type. Other times, depending on age of the child and the point in time when the test was administered the student exhibits symptoms from multiple types of visual processing disorders. [ahref="https://www.churchillstl.org/learning-disability-resources/visual-processing-disorder/"]Here[/a] is a website listing the different types of visual processing disorders. Visual processing disorder is not always about the eyes work - it is about how the brain interprets (or misinterprets) what the eyes see.

Each child is going to respond differently to available techniques. The top things I can recommend are lots of patience, lots of repetition, using dyslexia methodologies to learn how to read if you have a struggling reader, small spurts of studying with frequent breaks (15 mins studying/working with a 5 minute break), extra time for tests, the ability to type class notes on a computer or a teacher provide a written handout, use a calculator with multi-step math problems, sit in the front of the class, and ability to use noise canceling headphones during periods of quiet concentration.

These accommodations (or a combination of them) helped my daughter get through school. The older she became the less she relied on these tools because she learned how to work with her strengths but they are always there for her to fall back on.

She can overcome it. It takes time a lot of time, understanding teachers who are efficient, clear, no-fluff and direct in how they teach, and your daughter building confidence in the ways she can succeed so make sure she is involved in things she loves to do outside of school.

My oldest had similar issues early on. It took until mid 4th grade to determine it was a vision problem. Fortunately we were able to find an optometrist that specialized in vision therapy. His was minor enough that we were able to do therapy at home with some special computer software and just have him reassessed periodically (of course it was still expensive and not covered by insurance ). He’s now 17 and he can read fine but he doesn’t like to read and isn’t a great student (pretty much a B/C student). I don’t know if that’s his personality or if it relates back to his struggles early on . He never had anything other than reading support at school, no talk of an IEP. We did hold him back in 1st grade which worked in his favor, it was partly for the reading delays and partly for maturity (he was young for his class initially)

I hope your issues have resolved. That sounds miserable. My DD was a champ through all of it. The therapy tended to make her nauseous in the beginning because of all the different visual inputs. She actually vomited at times. But, she kept working through it. I will say the clinic we went to was great. They did their best to make games out of a lot of the therapy work. We started the testing in first grade; did therapy through second and third grade. She’s now in 6th grade and honestly you wouldn’t know without someone explaining the problems. She’s learned to compensate well for the few remaining issues and speak up to her teachers when she just needs a break.

I was diagnosed between my freshman and sophomore year in college. Purple was the color that helped me. I bought purple highlighters for my textbooks and purple legal pads for note taking. My grades improved dramatically after I was diagnosed. I always wonder what might have been if I had been diagnosed as a young child.

DD was finally diagnosed with a visual processing issue at 14 or so yo. She had 9 months of weekly therapy with exercises for her eyes and visual memory practice. It helped a lot, but I wish she'd been able to be diagnosed earlier- her spelling is atrocious and she struggled in college. she's 24, happily married, great at her job- assistant director of a preschool. She should wear reading glasses, but doesn't any more, since she doesn't have to read as much (well, she reads, but not for homework when the print is usually smaller). She still gets headaches sometimes when she's in a library because of the overhead lighting and rows and rows of bookshelves.