Vision Therapy

I sat down with Evan's teachers on Thursday morning to talk about how the school year is going so far. They had lots of positive things to say which was wonderful. He has come so far since Kindergarten when we started this special education journey.

They did mention that he continues to have BIG troubles with handwriting, orienting himself to a page, complaining that words and lines "jump" when he reads, and with organization. All of which his teachers feel make him a good candidate for vision therapy. Evan also has had problems since he was 3 with a lazy eye, so this made sense to me. I didn't know that it could affect all of these areas at school, but after they talked about it with me, it seemed pretty clear that the problem is getting worse instead of better.

As a teacher, I have watched several students make incredible gains with vision therapy which involves once weekly therapy sessions to retrain the muscles in the eyes. This could take anywhere from 6 months to a year.

I called and made an appointment for his evaluation with the doctor they recommended. I asked for a little more info over the phone, and was stunned when they told me that insurance does not usually cover the treatment, and that the total cost is around $3000. Yes, three thousand dollars!!!

I am so torn. I want to do whatever we can to help Evan, and the poor kid has enough to deal with regarding his learning disability. He doesn't need his eyes making it any worse. But that's a LOT of moola. I haven't even told Jeff yet. I know he will keel over from the shock. What to do? It would be a major sacrifice financially for us, but how can we not help him? ARGH!