Vision and doctor questions for 5yo

[linguistmama]

I think my 5 yo may have some vision issues. She sits really close to the computer screen all the time. I moved her back a couple feet and asked her what one of the large letters was on a big alphabet picture. She didn't know until I moved her closer. I'm going to get her vision checked, but just want to make sure I'm informed before we go to a doctor. Also, she is very interested in all kinds of 'learning', math, writing, science etc. She has asked to learn to read, but it's not going well. We have games we play together, computer games, books for learning to read and workbooks. But after a minute she tells me it's too hard and she seems to be blocked in some way. I'm wondering if there are some vision skills or dyslexia issues. To check the vision skills is a regular optometrist enough? Or would she need a developmental or pediatric optometrist? How are dyslexia issues checked? Anything I should specifically ask for at an appointment?

[sbgrace]

There is a lot of possibilities here and they are all different/would need different assessment to sort out. I'll try to sort of lay it out in the order I would approach this.

1. She's at the age where she needs a vision check anyway. Start with checking her vision (20/20). A pediatric ophthalmologist would be the best option for her I think given you're concerned there may be some other issues and she's relatively young. If you can't do that though a regular ophthalmologist would be fine--when you call ask if they typically evaluate kids. Most will say yes I suspect.

Then the other two. If her vision is ok and/or correcting it doesn't fix the issues you see I would then see if you have signs of either (or both) and based on that I'd select the next assessment:

Vision Processing. This would need a developmental optometrist to sort out. This is different than 20/20 vision. This site will give you information about that and also you can search for a doctor in your area (see top right--you put in zip code). My son certainly had issues in this area and he resisted close work including drawing, cutting, etc. Does she draw? My son would constantly stop and rub his eyes if he was even willing to try. Of course every child is different. I didn't realize until we were assessed but he couldn't even follow a pencil (moving left to right in front of him) with his eyes. He couldn't track (or focus--couldn't even catch a ball because he couldn't focus in on it) so of course he couldn't learn to read but your daughter might just not be ready for that stuff. She's young yet. Don't let anyone tell you that visual processing therapy solves dyslexia. They are different things. So you sort out which you're dealing with (if any). It's possible to have both. But if you do you need to treat both. One doesn't sub for the other.

Dyslexia: There are pre-school signs so you can sort of see if she has flags for that now. See K and preschool signs at this site. http://www.dys-add.com/symptoms.html I believe they will also recommend someone for assessment. In our area we could be assessed at the child development clinic at our Children's Hospital. I'm sure who evaluates varies by location. In our case we just decided my son has enough flags to act as if in terms of learning to read. That is another option--to just act as if should you see flags.