On National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, Ketzel Levine reported about a family that has opened a company to promote vision therapy. Although the angle for the story is “people reinventing themselves,” there is a pretty strong undertone endorsing vision therapy.
Last time I checked, those who advocated vision therapy as a means of helping people learn to read did not have a strong scientific base. Before I challenge the basis for this story, I have to go to the library and determine whether there is new evidence supporting it and overturning earlier evidence. For example, there is the possibility that the practices used in vision therapy have changed and those who employ these newer methods are, in fact, helping children, youth, and adults learn to read.
Even without formally reviewing the literature, I know that trustworthy sources such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, and American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), and American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus have issued policy statements dismissing optometric training for Learning Disabilities and including “Optometric vision training” in a list of “methods [that] have not been proven to work in scientific studies” for ADHD. Also, optometrists such a Russell Worrall have strongly criticized optometric training.
One thing that I’ll bet happens is that advocates will refer to individual cases where they can show success, claiming those successes as evidence. For those of us who say “hooray for the patient,” but are not willing to accept anecdotal evidence as providing a scientific base for a practice, this will be yet another challenge. It is very difficult to get people to put aside personal experience in deference to strong research, a point that—ironically—was made 2 August in an NPR story by Allison Aubrey on dietary supplements.
Links:
- Link to Ms. Levin’s story.
- American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement, “Learning Disabilities, Dyslexia, and Vision: A Subject Review” and “ADHD — Unproven Treatments“
- R. Worrall’s Web page about “eye-related quackery.”
- Link to Ms. Aubrey’s story.
I think that they should see my DVD called “The Eye Patch Kids” to encourage patching in children who have amblyopia. It helped my son out so much. My website is http://www.bjortandcompany.com if you are interested. Diagnosing vision problems is one thing, but, it’s another thing to get them to patch to help it.
Kelly H.
Bjort & Company, Inc.
http://www.bjortandcompany.com
info@bjortandcompany.com
Kelly,
Thanks for the comment. As I understand the research, patching for amblyopia is one of the practices that has proven effective. However, benefits for reading and Learning Disabilities is another matter and the research does not support this latter application. It would be interesting to know whether your system for promoting the use of patches for treating amblyopia actually causes behavioral change among children. Has anyone collected systematic data to evaluate it?
There is no data as of yet. However, patching can be a very difficult situation for the whole family. There is alot of resistance from the child in wearing an eye patch. I went through this with my son. That is where I came up with the idea to make a DVD that encourages the child to wear the eye patch. The puppets are all wearing eye patches and singing and dancing. Throughout the DVD they keep telling the child to put it on to be like them. It really works. The child also has fun while watching it. My son was a changed kid after seeing it. In turn there was less fighting about wearing it and less stress on the child and parents. I also put a segment on the DVD menu called “The Eye Patch Promise” where the child makes a promise with the puppet to keep their eye patch on until their parents tell them to take it off. I have had parents across the country e-mail me telling me how much this has helped them with patching their child. It is really nice to be able to help these kids out during a difficult situation.
Kelly Harmsen
Bjort & Company, Inc.
http://www.bjortandcompany.com
info@bjortandcompany.com
Kelly, thanks again for commenting on the LDBlog.com post.
I understand the potential value of patching for amblyopia. Are you recommending your product for that purpose or for helping children with reading problems to wear patches?
John,
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I am recommending it to parents for children who have to patch for any reason really. As long as they keep the patch on then that is the goal. I have kids who have amblyopia, strabismus, cataracts and they all benefit from it. I’m sure that children with learning disabilities would benefit from it also. It is a fun DVD that the children enjoy while they are patching. I have been receiving e-mails from parents across the country telling me how much this is helping their children and the whole family. There is less fighting this way which makes for a better home life as a result.
Kelly Harmsen
Bjort & Company, Inc.
http://www.bjortandcompany.com
info@bjortandcompany.com