Diagnosis

Yesterday I took Jared to Spokane for a 2nd opinion on a diagnosis he was given early this year. In January, he was visiting the eye doctor for a routine exam when she noticed a few things which didn't seem normal. She wanted him to do VIP testing (I'm pretty sure that stands for Visual Information Processing). After about an hour of this test, the doctor went over everything and gave us a list of different diagnosis's (Convergence Insufficiency, Defective Stereopsis, Saccadic Deficiencies, Pursuit Movement Deficiencies, Suppression of Binocular Vision and other vision related learning difficulties). We wanted a 2nd opinion before spending nearly $2500 out of pocket for his Vision Therapy. Do you remember when Chiropractic was not covered by most insurance companies 20 years ago? Well Vision Therapy is not well-accepted yet, I think we're about 10 years away from it becoming a more accepted way to treat a person. Now, a specialist might recommend surgery to snip a couple of things behind the eyes.

This 2nd doctor in Spokane had very similar findings. He said Jared scored a 0% on Complete Binocularity which means he is not capable of using both eyes equally. His left eye will read and the brain will become overloaded so it will switch to his right eye, this goes back and forth, back and forth until Jared becomes frustrated. No wonder he has so much trouble with reading and doing other school work. Kids who have visual sensory difficulties also exhibit ADHD-like behavior. I find it very interesting to have learned that because I wonder how many kids are mis-diagnosed and treated the wrong way? This doctor told me that Jared would greatly benefit from Vision Therapy.

Someone from Jared's school told me that he either had ADHD or brain damage. I didn't like either of those options!! I just knew (when I say "knew," I mean strong mother's intuition) that it was something else. After watching Jared with his tests and seeing how clear it is that he has a visual problem, I felt like crying. I was relieved, I felt vindicated and excited that there is a natural treatment. He will do Vision Therapy in our hometown twice per week for 16 weeks. I am confident that he will be ready for school in the fall.

After his appointment, we went to Manito Park which was within 2 miles of the doctors office in Spokane. Jared got to run off some steam before riding for a couple of hours in the van. He enjoyed watching these colorful fish in the pond.