Dyslexia or Visual Processing Disorder


(Perth, WA, Australia)

I have been looking into a few concerns I have had with my now 8 year old daughter. Even in pre-primary the teacher was telling me that she had problems with syllables and rhyming. In year one she was putting a lot of numbers and letters backwards and then in year two copied the whole spelling list backwards from the right hand margin (but only once). When approaching teachers they would just shrug it off saying that it happened sometimes and was quite normal for her age.




I took her to an optometrist who said she had Accommadative Insufficiency and prescribed glasses but the problems still remained a year later. This year's teacher is now concerned as her writing, spelling (does well in spelling tests and then forgets them a week later) and maths is dropping below the year level. I took her for a second opinion at another optometrist who said she didn't have Accommadative Insufficiency but may have a problem with visual processing.

My brother was dyslexic so I originally went down that road but now not sure if her problems are with visual processing as the letters and numbers are not always reversed.



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Jan 27, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		dylslexia or both
by: Anonymous

my son is nearly 10, and has just been given the dyslexia screening test at school,and the result as come back as strongly at risk,quotient 1.0. what does this mean? does it mean he is dyslexic? because im now confused as a few years ago he was diagnosed with visual perceptual disorder.does he now have both which would answer alot of questions, but how do i find out for sure he has all the symptoms of both, is it possible to get both? please help me to understand.
May 22, 2009
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starstarstarstarstar 		I understand
by: Anonymous

My oldest daughter was put in glasses at age 4 for bilateral amblyophia (turning of eyes). When I pulled her out of the school system I noticed things were not right. Letter reversals, number reversals, and failing phonics test. Today, she has unilateral hearing loss with visual and auditory processing disorders. In our daughters case dyslexia is caused by the severity of the two processing disorders. However, visual processing problems can exist without dyslexia.

Our son has been going yearly for exams just last year he was prescribed glasses for reading. Now he has a focusing problem. This is the inability to watch things move and understand; it is not just in vision up close but in everyday movement. He sometimes appears lost. Gently raising your voice tends to gain attention again. This can be easily misdiagnosis as ADD.

Don't focus on their not getting it, and give your kids as much sensory stimulation. Make sure teachers are using a multi-sensory technique to teach. Your children are very visual learners so using lots of pictures with word labels will help. Make letters out of clay so they can see and feel the letter.

We see the same signs in our 4 year old. With her I use a sand bucket and put beans in it with Braille alphabet letters. This gives her enough stimulation to discriminate between the letters before ?seeing?. This has helped her identify certain letters. Calm music during her school day helps.

Dyslexia can be hereditary.
Mar 25, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		visual processing
by: Anonymous

My son has some sensory issues and when we had him screened we were told he is Visual Perceptual issues. This doesn't surprise me because he has been wearing glasses since he was 2.

One of his eyes turns in and the glasses help a lot but they still recommend patching. He is in Kindergarten and can't recognize most of his letters. He finally recognizes the letters in his name and write most letters given an example.
We are know doing OT for fine motor skills which seems to be helping.

If you have any suggestions I would appreciate it.

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