kitchen table math, the sequel: vision and vision therapy

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

vision and vision therapy

Rickie by Frederic Flach

Seeing Through New Eyes: Changing the Lives of Children with Autism, Asperger Syndrome and other Developmental Disabilities through Vision Therapy by Melvin Kaplan

Dr. Kaplan was Rickie's vision therapist.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Catherine, can you explain how the vision therapy is supposed to help with the stimming? I can see how the prism lenses could help train the eyes and brain to overcome the strabismus, but I can't see how stimming relates to vision.

My eyes drift apart when I am tired or daydreaming, especially when I am not wearing glasses, or I can drift either one at will. But when I handflap it is because I just had an aha or am excited about something or need to interject into a conversation, and when I claw my hand it has more to do with how it feels, except when it claws unconsciously as I am running. Not sure how vision therapy helps with that.

Catherine Johnson said...

Hi anonymous - unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea how any of this works (or might work).

I posted these books because vision therapy came up on another thread, and although I'm usually cautious about alternative therapies, I personally was convinced by the presentation I saw Melvin Kaplan give.

Basically, I just had a 'this sounds more than plausible' reaction ---

I can't remember whether Dr. Kaplan talked to us about stimming per se. It's been a while now. (I took two of my kids - one typical and one autistic - as well as myself to vision therapy for a time.

I saw the largest gains in my typical son who suddenly became a much better soccer player. He had a sharp gain in skill, practically overnight - but I can't remember specifically what the difference was.