Question About Visual Processing Disorders

[DaisyFace]

I don't have any experience in this area - but I know that many of you do...

A friend has an 8 year old who still cannot read. The school tells her he is "lazy" and "difficult". Mom has had some success helping her child learn his letters - but she feels that he has difficulty seeing them when too many are on the page at once.

This sounds to me like a visual processing or figure/ground issue.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Books to read about the subject?

I'd appreciate it - Thank you!

 

[TerryJ2]

I don't know about that topic, just wanted to say how nice it is that you are helping someone who obviously had a kid who is NOT lazy and needs help. Bravo!

 

[TerryJ2]

P.S. My son would sometimes drag his feet when it came to reading. We went to the grocery store and I made the mistake of telling him he could buy anything he could read. Arrgh! Phenalanyline, glucosamine, processed cane sugar ...

 

[keista]

Well, can he do individual letters on flash cards? I'd start there. Then sight words on flash cards. Then sentences, then paragraphs. See at which step he fails. If he can't even get all his letters, then in my opinion (no expert, just what I've read) Dyslexia would be the first thing to look into. In the traditional form letters look different EVERY time.

 

[InsaneCdn]

The school tells her he is "lazy" and "difficult".

School is being lazy and difficult.

This kid has some sort of challenge - and it could be a broad spectrum of things. You mentioned VLD - could also be dyslexia, or a vision problem, possibly other things.

 

[Bunny]

The school tells her he is "lazy" and "difficult".

I was recently told this about easy child. I have a problem when a school's first thoughts are that the child is lazy and difficult. Has your friend had any testing done through the school district? Have they actually tried to rule anything out, or was "lazy" and "difficult" were the only things they had to say on the subject? This may sound simple, but has she had her eyes checked?

 

[DaisyFace]

If he can't even get all his letters, then in my opinion (no expert, just what I've read) Dyslexia would be the first thing to look into. In the traditional form letters look different EVERY time.

At this time - he can only identify letters in certain fonts....and even then, he still gets certain letters confused. He can recognize a few simple words and can read very short, simple sentences. BUT - if too many of those short, simple words appear on a page....he cannot identify them.

 

[keista]

At this time - he can only identify letters in certain fonts....and even then, he still gets certain letters confused. He can recognize a few simple words and can read very short, simple sentences. BUT - if too many of those short, simple words appear on a page....he cannot identify them.

Has she had him checked for dyslexia? I think that would be the best place to start. I wish I knew more about this but one thing is 100% certain, this is absolutely not laziness.

 

[Liahona]

If school is being stupid she needs to get him tested by someone they can't argue with. This won't be a school paid for evaluation. Preferably someone with a ph.d. The sp.ed. teachers probably won't have good experience with this sever a student and mom is going to be educating them. (Of course she might get a great teacher with lots of experience, but I wouldn't bet on it.) The school doesn't want this student to need all of his reading material to be in a certain font. It would be a costly nightmare for them. Much better for their pocket book to blame the kid for being lazy and deny the disability. Plus it sounds like he has other reading issues as well.

Sorry the only ideas I know about visual processing disorders are very limited. I did google it and came up with lots of websites, but I'm sure mom has probably done that already.

 

[DaisyFace]

Yes, Mom has been Googling...

She feels she has ruled out dyslexia (not sure her reasoning - something she found online) - but so far, she has not had him tested.

At this time, she is homeschooling him.

 

[Liahona]

I can understand why she would. It makes me mad though.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Get testing done. It's the ONLY way. And I would not "rule out" anything myself... I might have a bit of a priority list, but... I've seen too much to insist on searching for "one" answer any more. Even mild dyslexia, on top of something else, can become a huge problem where if "all" that was happening was mild dyslexia, it might not even be noticed.

 

[keista]

If I were this mom I wouldn't rule anything out - even *pink elephant syndrome*. Her boy needs services and I'd be looking for anything out there to get them.

You know, before son was diagnosed, he had had an evaluation and the psychiatric had verbally told me he was borderline autistic. When we moved and got stuck in a horrible school, who was not meeting my son's needs and seemed to not know him at all (they even lost him for an hour) I started *hollering* how he was borderline autistic just to get someone to listen and take action (hopefully get him out of that awful school) I in no way shape or form believed that son was autistic at the time (I was only familiar with Rain Man types and worse). I got action.

Point is, if she wants to get him services she should look at EVERY possible diagnosis, I don't care how remote the possibility.

 

[DaisyFace]

I agree about testing and not ruling anything out...

BUT - I think Mom is still in denial that there is a serious problem.

That's why I was thinking that maybe there was a book or something I could recommend to her that would help her to see that services are NEEDED.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Its out of print, but you could see if you can find:
Smart Kids with School Problems, by P. Vail.

It doesn't cover all the latest and greatest - it's about 20 years old, I think.
BUT... it's really well written, and gives a good overview of how small things, not dealt with, can put kids off the rails... and how kids that should be off the rails, have been turned around.

It was one of the first books recommended to us when difficult child started having problems in the early grades.

 

[keista]

This one? http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Kids-Sc...HTMK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337289346&sr=8-1 Pretty good reviews- only 4 and 5 star reviews.

 

[InsaneCdn]

That's the one! I don't know if it's just a re-publish, or if there are updates, but... it really got us started on the whole maze of possibilities. The orig version didn't cover Auditory Processing Disorders (APD) and Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD)... so no, I didn't get those ideas from the book. But the whole hidden-diagnosis impact is WELL done, and it's a very readable book.

 

[DaisyFace]

Thanks!

 

[Liahona]

http://tutoring.sylvanlearning.com

I just talked with someone who used to run one of these. It might help. It can be expensive, but if she goes and talks to them their might be scholarships or something to help. She was even talking about the case managers setting aside state money to send kids here.

Even if she can't afford to send him the testing they do might be good to get. It is supposed to be very specific.