Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional vision issues

My dd7 was not thrilled with the idea of wearing glasses at first. She started to get happier about it when she got to pick out frames. She wanted round ones like Simon (the chipmunk) because it made him look "smart" and she wanted to look smart.

Anyway, she had to be reminded a lot in the beginning about wearing them all the time. Then we saw another eye doctor that said they were doing nothing for her. So we took them away for a week and noticed that her dyslexic writing was worse and her ablility to do homework seemed to decrease.

We found another Optometrist (behavioral) and she explained that the glasses certainly did help but that dd also needed therapy. We are getting the results of all the eye testing this week and then we will start the vision therapy sessions.

I was concerned about dd getting on board with the therapy but she seems excited. The office has therapy dogs so that is a big motivator for her. She also has some insight about her vision that also motivates her.

For us, it has been a long road and it has required a great deal of research, persistance and organization!

Good luck!

Thanks, the stories and advice here from every one are so helpful.

I found a behavioral optometrist by our house that will do an assessment.

I also was thinking maybe I am worrying about nothing. The issues she is having could simple be asynchronous development. Her eyes can not do what her brain wants to do yet. This could just be age. It seems like every time she has a big jump in one area it takes time for her body to catch up and she gets frustrated.

I think I will take her for the assessment just to be safe. If she dose need glasses or therapy, I would rather do it and not have her spend a year frustrated until we go back to the regular eye doctor.

It is better to err on the side of caution and have it confirmed that you are worried about nothing, than to do nothing and find that she does need help later after she is frustrated!

The good news is that the evaluation is not invasive or painful for the child and it gives you a baseline for when she gets older for noting changes.

It seems that your "mommy gut" is telling you something!

Good Luck!!

I had the same worries that I was overreacting. My ped said DS4's vision was fine. He totally "there, there'd" me about it. But I couldn't help feeling like something wasn't right. My dear friends on this board helped me to decide to get him checked by a developmental optometrist.

And whaddya know! The DO said that there is, indeed, an issue with DS4. The glasses the DO prescribed have helped. But I suspect DS4 may need visual therapy or something more. I'm actually wondering now if he might be dyslexic--lots of backwards writing. Not just letter reversals, but writing whole words like mirror images, from R to L instead of L to R, complete with all letters reversed. And he doesn't realize it's backards. So I do think my "mommy gut" was right that something is up.

Mommy guts usually are. A check up with a DO shouldn't cost very much. If nothing else, it's worth the peace of mind to find out that you're just worrying over nothing! That's the best case scenario!

DD4 writes words mirror image sometimes and reverses b and d too. I wonder if any other GT 4s also do this. When I point it out she says, oh yeah, in a silly voice and fixes it.

You know, she started drawing upside down come to think of it. When she was 1 and 2 she would draw a face upside down and then flip the paper over to draw the body. DH and I thought it was kind of odd. I don't know what that is about. These could be just random quirks.

Anyway, thanks for the advice and the little push. I found a behavioral optometrist who will do a free assessment. So I will call and set up an appointment for next week.

FWIW, I think if she sees that it's wrong, it's not as likely to be a problem. My worry with DS4 is that he can't see that it's wrong. He regularly asks me number questions like "What's 3-1," and I say "thirty-one," only to find that what he's looking at says thirteen. It happens daily. And if I show him the difference, he just looks at me blankly.

Something just seems off...

I definitely think an assessment for your DD is smart though. Especially a free one. Nothing to lose, right? Trust that mommy gut!

Kriston wow!
Lots of really famous, smart people were dyslexic. Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Edison, Jay Leno...
Here are some links that I found. famous people with dyslexia
dyslexia dyslexia the gift
The second one has 10 common characteristics of people with dyslexia.

DD5 wrote some words in mirror images last year. It was really weird. But then it stopped, and I haven't seen it in a long time. Sometimes she still reverses 2 and 5, but that seems more like what many other kids do.

As far as vision, she has worn glasses since right after she turned 3. The ophthalmologist checks her every 6 months because he has been concerned about her left eye and said that vision in young children is fragile. At our last visit, she was 20/30 and he told me not to bother getting new lenses. I think he would have had a different opinion with 20/40.

Thanks, skyward. I'm just starting to think this might be what's wrong, so I really appreciate the links. I'm not even sure who to ask about it or what to do yet.

And maybe it's nothing. Reversals and mirror images aren't exactly uncommon at this age. I could be making much ado about nothing. But I'm pretty well convinced that I'd rather be "that mom" and find out that it's nothing than to go with the flow and find out later that it was, indeed, something.

Another thing about Developmental Optometrists is that you should get second opinions, just like with any other doctor. My ds6 went to one that gave him glasses he liked and suddenly decided to change them to bifocals at the beginning of the school year. I went back three times to ask him to change them back and he wouldn't.

We found another DO that retested DS6, agreed with the previous diagnosis, but is giving DS6 something like his original prescription back and has recommended some Vision Therapy.