A year ago, last June, Alex got glasses. He then proceeded to break and lose several pair of glasses - 4 destroyed pairs if I'm counting correctly - over the past year. Possibly more but I was able to find 4 broken pairs that I plan to toss into the donation bucket at optical center when we pick up his new frames. .. I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here.
Today, we headed back to the eye doctor for his annual visit.
Alex isn't the most cooperative child at any doctor - and the eye doctor isn't much of an exception. His sister, who isn't autistic - has vision problems. She has anisometropic amblyopia and we go to the eye doctor on a 1-3 month frequency. Amblyopia has a higher incidence among the autistic population. But, in our case - we just happen to have one child with amblyopia and the other is on the autism spectrum.
I've noticed Alex squinting quite a bit lately. For some the squinting would be a tell-tale sign that glasses would be needed.. but, for him it is also a sensory reaction. He'll squint if things are too bright, too loud, too quiet, too dark... At first, I thought the increase in squinting was "his Autism showing", but my gut told me that he probably needed a stronger prescription. Both his father and I have glasses (or contacts) and our family has bad eyes.
I told Alex he was going to the eye doctor today and probably would be getting new glasses. He was game. He actually likes to go to the optical shop where we frequent for adjustments because he is so rough on his frames. However, as we pulled into the eye doctor parking lot he started to panic and enter "the no game". His sweet little sister attempted to comfort him by sharing that the eye doctor isn't scary. I was so proud of her - she is really so brave and cooperative when it comes to her vision.
Taking his sister's advice to heart about the eye doctor -- Alex did fine at the visit until it came time for the assistant to put the dilation drops in his eyes. That was an exhausting moment as he tried to fight and escape from the drops. We then had to wait for the drops to work while he played in the kids area and attempted to seize the computers from the optical shoppe (the opticians were impressed by his computer knowledge).
Finally after what seemed like an eternity but was only 20 minutes or so (necessary for the drops) he got into the doctor. Who, within minutes was able to assess that he indeed need a stronger prescription. We headed out with new prescription in hand (wearing his prescription sunglasses to deal with the light sensitivity).
So, Alex will get new glasses.
How many pair will get lost or broken this year?
6.30.2009
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2 comments:
I hate eye doctor visits because I don't like getting things "wrong" on the eye chart even though I know it is a vision limitation not an intelligence one - as a result, I know my ASD son will probably feel the same. He's super worried about getting wrong answers, so cries if he doesn't know. SIGH.
Crazy idea - but have you considered contacts for Alex? I know the gut reaction is probably "that would be doubly-as-hard!" and yet I've seen so much positive literature about how kids' vision with contacts is far superior than glasses. And while contacts can rip when out, the being-hard-on-frames would no longer be an issue.
You wrote: "Alex isn't the most cooperative child at any doctor"
Totally relate. My Alex freaked out last September at his Kindergarten appointment. he asked everyone in the room no less than 150 times in a complete panic: "no shots? no shots?"
It was heartbreaking.
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