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Vision Deficiencies, Vision Therapy, Learning Disorders

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 23:00

I'm not quite sure what topic to put this in, but since it seems to possibly be a side affect of some AEDs, I figured I'd put it here.  It is a known fact that those with epilepsy have a higher change of learning disabilities.  I'm trying to wrap my head around all of it and figure out some things for our son.  

Our son was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 5.  He's been on a few different medications over the years:  Trileptal, Depakote/Depakene, Zonegran, and now Keppra.  He recently had neuro-psychological testing done.  Also, after talking with a friend of mine, we also had him tested for vision deficiencies with a behavioral optometrist. 

His neuro-psych testing backed up the areas we knew he had issues with.  ADHD, memory, etc.  The report basically gave us recommendations for accommodations in school (when he goes back....we are homeschooling now because of so many issues this past Fall).  

The vision testing revealed a LOT of things we had no clue were issues.  He has severe vision deficiencies and it's no wonder he has had so many difficulties in school and sports.  We are now paying out of pocket for Vision Therapy to help these issues.  Truthfully, my son can not see more than a small area right in front of his eyes.  No peripheral vision at all, he also has no depth perception and his eyes don't work together, so his brain is ignoring the weaker eye.  There are some other issues, but those are the main ones.  We have been told that it's probably from his medication.  

My question....anyone have any dealings with this?  I've tried researching and I'm finding a few things, but it's pretty limited.  I'm thinking that this might be more widespread than people know and some of the learning issues children are having are actually visual issues.  I'd love to hear from more people!!!!

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