LuLu's independent neuropsych eval showed severe visual processing problems. (Her auditory processing wasn't much better - but that's for later.) What did that mean, I wondered? In light of all the other "symptoms" she had and all the behaviors, trauma memories, hyperactivity we were trying to control...how did visual processing come in to play?

Evidence that your child may have visual processing issues is best seen through problems in reading. Skipping lines or losing your place is common, as is skipping over or misidentifying connecting words like "in", "and" "the". A child who seems smart and eager to learn, but finds reading difficult and doesn't like it is a good clue. A child who tires of reading quickly and rubs his eyes. The processing deficits can also show up as inability to distinguish between similar letters like "p" and "b" or "d" and "b", or being unable to correctly interpret symbols (+, /, =, &). Being clumsy or unaware of where you all spatially can be a visual processing problem - being able to fluidly move out of the way when a ball is thrown at you or knocking things over are signs.

Obviously if the child has actual vision problems (like LuLu's astigmatism) this compounds the ability to take in information visually. But visual processing deficits can occur without any vision problems at all, because it's all about how the brain processes the information the eyes take in.

Two interesting indications of visual processing problems I found were "less ability to observe and reaction to facial expressions" and "no concept of time". Hmmm.... the facial expression reaction symptom is one that often indicates autism, right? And parents working on attachment are told to focus on the eye contact. I know in LuLu's case she had real trouble as a toddler/preschooler even noticing my facial expressions -- there was no acknowledgement of my smiles or frowns, or changes in voice either. (I attribute the neurofeedback work we did on her left temporal lobe to have greatly improved that - but then, that's another post...)

The implications for kids like LuLu is that processing deficits have been heavily linked to behavior. Because children with visual or auditory processing problems can't make sense of the information they are taking in visually or verbally, they respond with behaviors like inattentiveness, hyperactivity/hypervigiliance, or frustration. Hmmm...no one in their right mind would suggest that behavior causes processing problems, or would they? LuLu's "severe" problems (she tested in the bottom 5% or below on all components of the visual processing evaluations - both the private eval and the school's eval)were explained away by the school as inability to pay attention and impulsivity -- again, focusing totally on her "bad" behavior. Huh? It sounds like a chicken and egg dilemma except it doesn't make sense to say the behaviors cause the processing problems...it makes more sense to say that the processing problems contribute to the behaviors.

And that, in a nutshell, is a big part of the reason we're in due process with the school...