Visual Training

A few years ago when my mother-in-law mentioned she saw things in Jordan that made her think of Michael when he was little I took it with a grain of salt. After all, Jordan had a Mom who was an avid reader, had no problem writing, and was at a 4th grade reading level in 2nd grade. Just because his Dad has dyslexia didnt mean that my son would have it too. I finally consented to having Dr Treasure Wheeler test Jordan and we would take it from there.

Because Jordan was 4 years old they could not determine whether or not he would be dyslexic, that presents itself at around 1st grade and 7 years old. However, Treasure did determine that my son had tracking issues and was colorblind. I was not surprised to find out he was colorblind. He never liked I was confused and completely uneducated. She recommended tutoring sessions to help his eyes work correctly. Michael and I decided to pass. After all, I was still in denial and felt my child was fine.

Reality hit me this year when Jordan started 1st grade. Watching my son struggle with his letters, shapes, sounds, and some colors still I knew something had to change. And because of my wonderful in-laws Jordan was able to begin Visual Therapy.

Jordan started visual training this year with a vision specialist in Silverton. I'm sure that you, like me, do not understand or even know what visual training or therapy is. I have copied a link for you to go to to help you understand. I hope that by posting about this that maybe I will understand more, too.

http://www.visiontherapy.org/

Jordan has been in therapy for 11 weeks now, he has 4 left in this session. Some changes we have noticed in Jordan since the beginning of his therapy is that he is able to sit and concentrate much better. His eyes are working together to track movements. Tracking was what was noticed when we had him tested at 4. He was very easily distracted while being tested. He is now reading more frequently on his own.

Some things Jordan and I had to work with during his therapy have been prisms, marsden balls, patches (so not his favorite one), a tracking computer program, letter and number sacades, reading glasses, and more. Now we are toward the end of his therapy and Jordan gets to play more games. This helps make it more fun for him so he is more willing to do the work with me.

This week Jordan will be ordering his glasses. He has to have bifocals, which will take some for him to get used to, but will make it so he does not have to take off his reading glasses 100 times a day to see the board and then to read up close.

Jordan has not been diagnosed with dyslexia, yet. He does however, constantly flip his letters and numbers. We will have more testing done over the next few weeks so we can look over his progress and see how far my son has come.

I can tell you this, watching my son be able to read a complete story makes my heart melt in no way I thought possible. He is an amazing child and is so bright. I love seeing his confidence grow and through that seeing him succeed in school.