2016 TASH Conference

LET THEM SEE CLEARLY LTSC 1 IN 5 CHILD STRUGGLE WITH BINOCULAR VISION DISORDER My name is Catherine Carter and I am a mother of five, 4 of whom struggling with Binocular Vision Disorder BVD. BVD is a physiological condition where the brain and eyes fail to work in coordination to fuse and create a binocular image, resulting in neurological reactions such as: headaches/fatigue when reading, discomfort watching 3D movies, motion sickness, unable to read in a car, lazy/cross eyes, etc. (http://www.vlca.com/visionsymptoms.php). ATTICUS’ STRUGGLE WITH BVD My oldest son Atticus struggled from kindergarten to sixth grade: vomiting in school, reading dyslexia, writing dyslexia, concentration. Doctors diagnosed him as ADHD and prescribed medicine. However, Atticus symptoms got worse, and by fifth grade, he was begging for glasses (he has 20/20 vision), complaining of headaches, dizziness, vertigo, and had hours of blindness. All test came back negative. Finally I took him to a Costco optometrist to get glasses. After a long time, the optometrist came out and said my son was legally blind, glasses would not fix it, and he needs vision therapy. In shock I asked what was vision therapy. Testing by a behavioral optometrist showed Atticus suffered from a form of BVD, double vision. He immediately began vision therapy and began to see amazing results in his vision and behavior. The National Eye Institute NEI found office-based vision therapy to be 75% effective in curing BVD. I submitted his vision accommodations to the school, expecting them to have training and experience with this disorder, which they did not. They refused to recognize my son’s vision disability and provide any vision accommodations. He is in Home and Hospital Teaching Program because a year without accommodations strained his eye so much struggled to read past 15 minutes and PARCC testing triggered five days of dizziness and vertigo. FEDERAL LEGISLATION As a former teacher and parent I found it completely unacceptable the BVD and vision therapy is not recognized. 1 in 5 children struggle with BVD. I immediately contacted by state and federal representatives to share my son’s story and advocate for legislation to change this and help those struggling with BVD. They are currently working on legislation for BVD. In four weeks I have: -Filed a disability discrimination complaint with the Office of Civil Rights for the Department of Education -Have the support of Howard Board of Education, running, incumbents, and current members to look at BVD and how HCPSS can screen for and accommodate the 1/5 students who struggle with this. -Met with MD Senator Gail Bates who said in our meeting that she would work on state legislation and wanted to have Atticus testify in front the Education committee. -My son is in Home and Hospital Teaching Program since 2 days of PARCC testing triggered 5 days of dizziness and 6 hours of vertigo. Just Sunday I received a call from HCPSS to schedule an in home make up for Atticus to finish the PARCC. I refused, saying due to his vision disability he is unable to take it. I gave them a letter from my pediatrician to indicate the week before. -US Representative Elijah Cummings has sent a letter to Dr. Foose for HCPSS. He sent me a letter saying he was looking into the matter and will let me know when he receives a reply. -US Senator Cardin office contacted me. Their health and education offices legislation offices are currently working on BVD legislation. -Spoke to the National PTA federal advocacy legislation who requested updates and will offer their support once the bill is written and being up for a vote in D.C. (who adopted a resolution about vision developmental screening in July 1999 that school did not adopt) -Friday I also spoke to Howard County Executive Kittleman office about this issue, who is planning on discussing it with MD Senator Gail Bates this week. -I received correspondence from the White House that my letter from last week and contact information was forwarded to the appropriate agency. -The Office of Civil Rights for the Department of Education is investigating my disability discrimination complaint.