A typical eye will be able to focus on an object up to a few inches away from their eyeball before it blurs. CJ's eyes don't focus properly. He is 8" out on the right eye (meaning the object goes out of focus at that distance) and 10" out on his left eye. In other words, his eyes are taxed easily. A 2" difference between the two eyes working together is also a big concern. The eye doctor said this is something to work on because he hardly did anything to his eyes, and they were already tired.
They gave him a tracking test, where he had to read numbers in columns and in rows. He is accurate in terms of keeping place, however he is on the slow side for his age on the timed test. His eye tracking could be improved along with the speed of his eye movement.
(If you can see past my middle son in the green, you can see CJ being tested for eye tracking)
His convergence and focus issues are making learning difficult because these things are not linking to the brain properly, making understanding hard.
Because we are on winter break, we haven't been studying or learning like we usually do. It was recommended to wait one month so we get a good handle on how he's doing with just his glasses in school, and then meet back together if we feel Vision Therapy is needed. I’m pretty confident it’s needed, but I’ll move forward with Dianne Craft’s therapy manual in the meantime.
When I asked if his eyes would get better over time with just his glasses, the answer was no...as good as his eyes are now, are as good as they will ever be. So, this means, we just need to start therapy. However, with waiting and observing one month, we'll have more knowledge to move forward with.
Once Vision Therapy starts, he will go through a battery of two hours of testing. This will include remembering details on a picture, figure ground, reading into a machine that tracks eye movements, timed images, and looking into fine motor skills.
Let this journey begin!
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