“Come on silly eyes”, he said as he shook his head from side to side one evening while doing homework… “Mom you know when you read a bunch of words and it all goes blurry? Now that just happened to me and then I can’t see the words and lines.”
This incident explained why he kept hounding me, “mom, when am I going for my eye test”, after I forgot his optometrist appointment in April. An appointment set up by my dad, quite randomly when he collected his own spectacles.
After a chat on our way to school he elaborated a bit more on this blurry vision. Seems he’s been experiencing difficulty this term. Blurred vision when needing to read his book or look on the board, and sometimes his friends would be a blur on the playground. His one friend has been helping him in class when he struggled to see.
I had no clue. I mean he passed his eye test in Gr. R AND Gr.1!
Last week the Optometrist confirmed that he has amblyopia, or more commonly known as a lazy eye. There is a development problem with his visual cortex. The right eye has gained dominance due to the left eye sending inconsistent signals to the brain. Glasses were prescribed in the hope that it will stimulate the visual cortex and solve the lazy eye or at least prevent it from deteriorating.
On Saturday, we collected his spectacles, and I must admit, this child of mine has a quirky sense of style! He absolutely rocks his new look, and on Sunday he pointed out that the spectacles makes a big difference, especially when he reads!
Poor chap and his silly lazy eye. I know all about that and it sucks when everything blurs. He does look uber cool with his specs.
Thanks Celeste, yes he totally rocks his specs, and he chose this frame himself 🙂
So glad you found it early, it was a bit of a running joke that I was extremely clumsy as a kid, later in life I discover, the world isn’t actually blurry to everyone,hehe
He told me that he only started to have these problems this year. I’m not very familiar with visual impairments and wonder why it’s only manifesting now? Seems the critical period whereby the visual cortex remains susceptible to external sensory stimuli is most important in the first year, but do extend to 5-10 years. So chances are that reorganisation has not taken place and the specs may prevent his eye from deteriorating any further.
With hearing the critical period is up to 3 years, where after the brain starts to reorganise itself i.e. the visual cortex starts taking over parts of the auditory cortex …but now I am digressing and going into pediatric hearing loss talk!
He looks so cute! We are battling with the same issue. Doing lots of ‘eye exercises’ with my little one at the moment but it is a battle.
Thanks Jozi. What sort of eye exercises are you doing with your little one and how old?
Thanks Shelley.