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I don't know anything about those things in your diagnosis, but it seems to me that vision troubles of that level of significance would be likely to contribute to anxiety.

If you didn't know who people were, and couldn't read their faces before they got within three feet of you, it would likely be frightening. Someone prone to anxiety would not be at all out of line in deciding to ascribe terrible motives to people by default -- who knows what those people are up to, I'm going to assume the worst, just in case. And it seems reasonable to make monster noises at them and run and hide, in self defense.

Could you ask the optometrist to simulate this level of vision for you? What about a second opinion?

As someone who was found to need glasses in 1st grade because I could not see the chalkboard, I can relate. 20/200 means some things are blurry but you still see color and form... just not as distinctive. I progressed to having mere inches of near vision that I can see without correction during my childhood.... but I can still find my glasses (sometimes more with feeling and memory than sight) and walk through a room without my glasses. I'd think watching me, you'd know I couldn't see well but be shocked at how poorly I am actually seeing.

If people around you were less distinctive at a distance many social situations would be difficult to navigate. I know that people seem less predictable when you can't see the nuances of what they are doing. As you off course know, blurry is not the same as blind. It's just seeing less distinction in the shapes as you test the limits of your range of sight.

When you can't see, you don't know that you are seeing anything different than what others see and you compensate as best as you can. I'd say your most convincing evidence will be in your child's response to those new glasses. It should be HUGE for her and there will be no doubt once you see that.

It will be interesting to see if there is an impact for her in her vestibular/proprioceptive issues. I have been learning about those with my son who has visual/motor deficits. From what I've learned so far I can't think of how they would relate. Seems like different areas with so many children who have 20/20 vision having the vestibular/proprioceptive issues. Maybe someone will have more helpful knowledge about this.

Hope that helps! And hope your family sees wonderful changes ahead for your daughter. (BTW WOW on the bike riding!)

Make sure she is at home when she first wears the glasses outside the optometrist's office. It can be overwhelming to the point of frightening at first.

it wasn't too bad for me as I was an adult and my sight is not that bad, but my sister found it scary at first.

moomin, it's good to hear your dd's update - it sounds like she's had a good summer!


I can't give you specific insight into your dd's issues and how her vision may have impacted them, but I can tell you a bit about our dd's experience. She had severe double vision that went unnoticed until she was 7 years old and struggling in school - we never knew it was a vision issue because she didn't realize that the rest of us weren't also seeing two of everything. Even now, at 11 years old, after vision therapy etc, it is still second nature to her to expect to see double and she doesn't tell us when she is unless we ask her - and she then will tell us she "sees two" without blinking - as if it's totally normal (because for her, it is). The other thing that I'd heard can happen with young children and has apparently happened with our dd is that eyesight can change rapidly when kids are young - so a child who has good vision one day may, within a month, have eyesight that is much worse. (I'm talking about actual eyesight here, not visual processing challenges). My ds had had a few difficulties with just a tad bit of farsightedness when he was younger, and his teacher had told us that she had had many students who had issues when first getting glasses because their eyesight would change so rapidly. So - my first thought when I read your question about how can your dd read road signs and still have such poor vision was that quite possibly her vision hasn't always been so poor, but the issue has just recently developed.

Back to our experience with our dd - re vestibular challenges - vestibular refers to balance if I remember correctly - our dd was a kid who routinely bumped into things etc - and that improved tremendously when she first went through vision therapy for double vision (which included significant improvements in her peripheral field of vision) - and now we also see a difference in her balance and overall "clumsiness" when she isn't wearing her glasses and when she is. We also see obvious differences in her proprioceptive awareness with and without glasses, as well as differences before and after vision therapy.

So, yes, I would expect you may see a difference - quite possibly a large, obvious difference.

Last thing I'll add - quite a few of our friends and relative's children have gotten prescriptions for glasses when they were in elementary school. It's been our experience that it's pretty obvious that our dd needed glasses because how she reacted to putting them on and wearing them was very different than the kids who didn't have significant vision issues (but relatively minor needs in terms of prescriptions) - the kids with the minor issues didn't wear their glasses full time, showed more inclination not to wear them either because they were minor annoyances or they didn't want to be the kid wearing glasses etc. Our dd put her glasses on the first time and her world changed - I've never seen a happier kid and never felt so guilty in my whole life for not realizing she'd needed glasses sooner. For the first few months she had them she never took them off except to go to bed. She's morphed back into a kid who now occasionally will appear without them on - but she still happily uses them. I suspect if your dd has 20/200 vision, you'll see that her vision really was challenged once she's had a chance to look through glasses for the first time

Best wishes,

polarbear

As Polarbear says - how much the child chooses to wear the glasses is probably quite telling.

My DD doesn't have double vision, and has excellent normal vision. Her glasses are primarly for visual processing issues (prisms). We were told she would likely need them for a year or two. She wore them VERY reliably for a good 6 months to a year. Nearly 18 months later she's much more variable with them.

A couple of months ago, when she was going through a period of not bothering to wear them much she was doing timez attack and really struggling. She wondered off, came back with her glasses and it was really quite shocking to me the difference it made to her as I had the impression no longer needed them that much (you can't hear a noticeable difference when she reads aloud most days for example, though sometimes you can).

My brother would stare at the TV without his glasses, eyelids in constant motion, and insist he didn't need to put them on.

On the vision and proprioception question, the systems interact strongly to build awareness of ones location and orientation. But proprioception is an independent sense and can be tested with a blindfold or such to discriminate.

I figured my spacial awareness and balance were completely shot when I was kid. It wasn't until I learned Tai Chi in college that I realized that vision was the only issue. Being able to split that awareness let me develop those senses. I still can't catch a ball, but I no longer fall over if I stand on one leg.

Dude my DH also doesn't wear his glasses, which he's needed for over 20 years, presumably with increasing need. So I do get that not all kids that need their glasses will need them. My DH seems to quite enjoy his blurry vision, loves blurry feeling art too.

Does she look at the faces (of the people she's trying to engage) for clues? If she doesn't, or can't see them, she's missing the information about whether they're interested, overwhelmed, or bored.

DeeDee

That's about what my vision is, with some astigmatism complications. I lose acuity at about my arm's length. I can certainly read street signs by recognizing shapes of words. I can tell you the number of fingers at that distance in bright light by moving my head while looking at the hand. Without my glasses, though, I feel ill, get a horrid headache, and lose depth perception. With poor depth perception, I run into things, lose my balance, misjudge how fast things are moving, and I trip over even small obsticals.

You seem to need a second opinion, though, since the vision numbers don't sync with your sense on the child. Kids can be hard to test. DS initially tested at about 20:200 because the eye doc asked him to start reading all the way to the left side of the eye chart. He struggled and squirmed as he tried to make out anything to get started, making us think his vision was horrid. It turned out he was trying to make out the teeny tiny '20/200' code to the left of the huge letters. Without my glasses, I can't even see that there's even anything printed beside the letters.

moomin, after the first day with glasses I predicted my DDs would last a week, tops. The first pair probably made it 9 months. The second has also been somewhat brutalised but are now over 6 months old and not lost or broken (somewhat bent). So you may luck out.

We ended up springing for a pair that had the twistable/unbreakable hinges and metal frames for our fiddly kid... they lasted longer, but still not forever.

DeeDee

I think contact lenses worked even better than glasses for my son who is now 15. He used to have vestibular and proprioceptive issues when he was younger, before we knew he was nearsighted. He wears the kind of contact lenses that you can sleep in and then throw away after a month. I don't know how old a child would have to be before getting these. But I also think headaches might have been a cause of his issues. I remember him having a headache when he was tested and I know I have sensory issues when I get a migraine.

I think my son's proprioceptive and vestibular issues must have totally disappeared for him to have walked so soon after scoliosis surgery and to not need a walker or any kind of support when he was also under the influence of heavy duty pain medication.

Whatever you do get the replacement plan for the glasses. My son has been pretty careful with his glasses (he is 8) but on the playground someone whacked him one accidentally. Later in the day he was sitting at his desk and the glasses just fell apart (assuming the whack to the head broke them almost all the way and that they fell apart later when the last little bit gave way).

I figure he will go through more than one pair a year as a kid. Oh and we stop for adjustments about every two months...they just get out of adjustment from play.

I think LensCrafters also has a buy 1 get one 1 free thing for kids glasses, because they tend to lose/break them so often. Good luck!

yay! yay! yay! when DD5 got her glasses a couple of years ago, they made such a huge difference for her. she doesn't even have to wear them all the time anymore, but she does because she feels how much they've empowered her.

and while we're talking glasses... keep a sharp eye out for the kid who will tease her about them. DD loved hers and then all of a sudden started saying that she thought she didn't need them anymore/she could see better without them.

given that with her particular vision issues she *may* outgrow them - we went straight off to the eye doctor. everything was fine with the prescription, but the doctor immediately picked up on a bullying vibe. it wasn't overt, it was honestly something that i never would have seen on my own - and it was like kicking over a hornet's nest. i am so grateful to that doctor, you have no idea.

ultimately, DD dealt with the bully in truly a hilarious way:

DD: um, dude - i love my glasses and you should, too.
Bully: i hate them. i'll never love them - they make you ugly.
DD: ah. well, you see without them, i get headaches. and when i have headaches, i get REALLY angry. YOU WOULDN'T LIKE ME WHEN I'M ANGRY.

and literally... that was that.

I LOVE that response doubtfulguest!! Truly a classic! Thanks for sharing it. I read it to my son and he laughed and said "good defense system!"

Hooray! Nothing like SEEING how much glasses were needed. I was able to start contacts by 5th grade at 11yrs old and they were even better in addition to slowing the rapid change in my sight every year. Most likely I could have started them in 3rd grade but those around me thought 5th was incredibly young already.

About the "new prop" for problems....My son's prism glasses make a phenomenal improvement in behavior for him. He's a much more resilient and flexible kid when he wears them. BUT he can see without them so he was very on and off about them. We finally added it to his Chore Chart App on the ipad and incentivized it enough that he is wearing them all day everyday now and everyone wins. He is so delightfully more himself when he wears them. I plan to wean down the points for wearing them as the habit gets more ingrained.

Slightly off topic...We LOVE our Chore Chart HD app and have put many motivating award options for our child like: go to the park, go to library, get a donut, dinner at his favorite restaurant, free app he wants, $2 or less App, etc. It costs us very little and he gets LOTS of motivation from the awards as well as the stars and trophies provided on the chart. It provides lots of control to assign, unassign, modify, give bonus and penalty stars. It's been wildly helpful in reinforcing positive behaviors we want to increase. Anything can be given as a task on his chart and he gets to personalize it with icons and backgrounds. We use it for specific social behaviors we want in varied situations in addition to typical chores. Truly a great parenting tool for us.