My seven-year old son just got reading glasses.

[Pacifist Patriot]

I learned something interesting this week. Apparently he has a "problem" afflicting approximately 65% of the youth population these days. Nothing pathogenic or degenerating. It's just that the typical range of vision has shrunk to an average of 18 inches so people use their eyes differently these days. I was hoping the optometrist would tell my kids their computer usage was ruining their eyes, but he wouldn't. Drat! I'm tired of arguing over computer time.

So there is this tracking issue that leads kids with perfectly normal vision into reading glasses. Hmm. If you see your kid's head bobbing (and maybe eventually nose touching paper or screen) when reading or using the computer, get it checked. Simple fix.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

1. You're the parent.

There should be no arguing over computer time. There should be no arguing over anything. If I talked back to my parents over something like that, I would never have seen the light of day again.
Duckie

[Pacifist Patriot]

3. Okay, maybe I should have said whining and pleading instead.

I do have the last word around here. The arguing is between the boys. Not with me.

[rakeeb]

7. re. The arguing is between the boys

If you are running Windows Vista (or even XP) at home, you can create separate profiles for the boys that have defined time limits for access, (also handy for just getting the kids to go outdoors).

[Pacifist Patriot]

13. Thank you! Running Vista and did not know that.

[Left Is Write]

8. Heard rather frequently at the LIW household:

"If I hear any more arguing about the computer, I'll shut if off and NOBODY will use it!"

I've only had to make good on that threat maybe three times. :D

[Pacifist Patriot]

15. Gee, that sounds vaguely familiar.

Sure enough, 10 year old just woke up and started arguing that the 7 year old had had enough computer time because he was sure he'd been on it way before the 10 year old woke up. So clearly it was his turn at it. AAGGHH! On that note, I'm off to take a shower.

[Radio_Lady]

2. Hi, Patriot. Interesting! I was born with strabismus (one eye turned in).

I started wearing glasses at age 4, and periodically wore an eye patch and did vision exercises. I really believe that time was what fixed the problem. At age 12, I didn't need the glasses any more. I am far sighted, and had to resume wearing glasses at about age 40, due to presbyopia (aging of the eyes).

My son has accomodative esotropia (also a focusing problem) which we were aware of at about age 4. Some doctors wanted to operate on him and I absolutely refused to allow it. He wore glasses for many years, and now wears contact lenses. He will be 38 in December.

Before I'd buy glasses from an optometrist (is he the one selling you the glasses?), I'd take the child to an opthamologist to confirm the diagnosis. Also, can the optometrist produce any backup for his "statistical analysis"?

My granddaughter was sold some "eye exercise" therapy a few years ago. My son-in-law's sister recommended it. I can't remember the name of the condition they claimed she had, but the whole thing turned out to be a scam. My granddaughter did not have proper reading readiness preparation from the pre-school she attended. They were more interested in teaching religion before reading.

There's a lot of BULLSH*T masquerading as medical information these days.

Good luck!

[Pacifist Patriot]

4. It was a second opinion and he's an opthamologist.

I could tell my son had some sort of vision problem before I took him in. I actually figured it would be worse than the doctor prescribed.

[Radio_Lady]

6. Wonderful! Sounds like you did a good thing!

[Breeze54]

5. Good thing they found it early!

I had to walk into a full mirrored window and read the hymn numbers at church wrong before
anyone figured out I couldn't see. I was in the fifth grade before it was discovered and
getting glasses changed my life! My Dad took me for a ride by the local mall that night and
that's when I realized all those Christmas lights were actually signs!

You can setup a shut down timer on the computer.

And you can just shut it off, as the parent! :P

[Kali]

9. I'll join the compter-arguing tangent group

mine don't argue because I'm always hogging it:P

[Manifestor_of_Light]

10. I got gfasses in the second grade.

This was WAY before computers. They barely had Color TV.

I had my nose in a book all the time reading. Mom wondered why. Took me to the ophthalmologist. Then she found out I was incredibly nearsighted. What they call a high minus in diopters. A diopter is a meter, so a minus is a reciprocal. If you have a minus 7 on your prescription, that means your focal length in that eye is 39.37 inches divided by 7.

Now I'm still very nearsighted but in bifocals due to aging. I remember being a kid and getting a new prescription and being able to see stars I couldn't see before, in the sky!

[Breeze54]

11. I never knew what all the minus signs meant. Thanks!

I have always had minus signs on my prescriptions and I also now have bifocals.

I'm very nearsighted. Almost legally blind without glasses. At least I think so!

[raccoon]

12. I was/am very nearsighted and didn't get glasses until my teen years.

I couldn't see the blackboard, got headaches due to eyestrain (I know now), and squinted all the time. Why my mother didn't figure out I had a problem, I don't know.

Anyway, good for you realizing he had a problem and getting it checked out.

[Pacifist Patriot]

14. I'm sensitive to it because I had a childhood that sounds similar to some of the stories here.

I got glasses in the fourth grade.

Here's part of my sob story. My poor eyesight was discovered because of bad math grades. I was getting horrible grades and my parents couldn't figure out why. They saw me do my homework and I obviously got the concepts. Turns out the teacher was putting test questions up on the blackboard. I would copy them down wrong. I'd get the question right, but the teacher was just grading by looking at her answer key. Only when my parents saw one of the tests and said, "Wait a minute. She got everything right. This isn't a C paper!" Needless to say the teacher got a little eye opener on that one when it was pointed out to her that she didn't even pick up on it.

When I got my glasses I experienced a whole new world. It gave me great examples when explaining philosophy, especially the subfield of epistimology, to my students. (Students= adult religion education, I'm not a professor)

[tjwmason]

16. When I was young we had universal sight tests at school.

Once a year we all had to go to the Matron's office and do a quick reading chart thingy, then if there were any problems they'd send a standard note home suggesting that one's parents arranged a sight test.

My mother had been in glasses since her teens, so she always made sure that we had frequent tests.

I don't know how it works in the U.S., but over here anybody under 16 or under 19 and in full-time education gets an automatic free sight-test plus a subsidy towards any glasses needed (which usually covers the cost of the lenses).

[hedgehog]

17. Most people don't know it, but your 2 year old should go in for a basic eye check up.

There are machines that can measure the shape of the eye directly to determine if there is a vision problem in pre-verbal children. I took my youngest in at that age and we were stunned to be told that she was so far sighted that she was effectively legally blind! It took her about a week to get used to wearing glasses, but it really opened up the world for her. (It was a hoot getting the glasses to fit. Two year old Irish kids don't have enough of a nose to hold up the glasses!) Her vision has improved immensely since then as she has grown and her eyes have changed.

Here's the kicker - I have an uncle who was blind in one eye because his brain never learned to use information from that eye. A simple eye patch or pair of glasses at an early age would have saved his vision.