Shy Boy? Maybe He Can’t See?
At the threshold of the office stands Mom and Patryk. “We need help – my son can’t see anything!” – I hear. I look at Patryk – he moves quite slowly, as if shyly. His glasses are quite thick, “by eye” about +5.00 diopters. “He went to kindergarten in September… the teacher says he can’t see anything, he colors for a minute, so clumsily, doesn’t want to play, and always stands by the wall, please help us!” In my head, I have many hypotheses, but first, an examination and here’s the surprise…! Patryk can see everything…!
One eye sees super, the other eye similarly. Patryk briskly reads letters, doesn’t make mistakes, doesn’t hesitate. He responds intelligently to questions. His binocular vision is very well developed, no eye squints… nothing alarming. More precisely, “only” hyperopia.
So, can he see or not?
I asked Patryk to perform a few simple tasks. He had to walk on a balance beam, thread some beads of different sizes, cut out a paper shape, match pairs of cartoon characters… and Patryk didn’t do anything. He couldn’t keep his balance, the beads were nonsensical and he didn’t want to thread them at all. When he let himself be persuaded, he awkwardly threaded two and left the task. Scissors and cutting went somehow, but very imprecisely, and matching the same characters took a long time and Patryk got discouraged after a few pictures…
What did Patryk’s day look like before he went to kindergarten?
Mom admitted that Patryk doesn’t do such things at home at all. He doesn’t go outside often because he’s scared. Mom forbids running and going outside because, after all, he has a vision defect and could destroy his glasses. Patryk also doesn’t want to play manually, but mom also admitted that they don’t even have Memo games and puzzles at home. She taught him letters herself because, after all, going to kindergarten, he should know them. “But you know, Patryk is too young to play with scissors on his own….”
Vision, Brain, Eye-Hand Coordination
Patryk can see, his eyes, of course, in glasses, see fantastically. He doesn’t have any visual disorders that could hinder his development. So, where did such developmental deficits, which the teacher associated with visual impairment, come from? From a complete lack of stimulation of visual memory development, eye-hand coordination, and general visual-motor coordination.
How to Develop Visual-Motor Coordination?
Primarily naturally! Let’s not do everything for our children during dressing, even though we will be impatient at the beginning because it will go slowly. Already two, three-year-olds can boldly learn to put on panties, trousers, or socks. Let children throw balls, bags, or blocks into prepared containers. Let them throw stuffed animals at us or run away from our “shelling.” During such play, the youngest children develop a sense of balance, accuracy, and coordination of performed activities.
Let's Go Outside!
Let’s use every curb to walk on, a wall and a playground to climb, a jump rope or hopscotch to jump on one or two legs. I know that we have very little time nowadays, but resting outdoors should be a priority – for the development of our children and the health of our eyes.
Play at Home and Visual Memory
The simplest game developing visual memory is all kinds of puzzles, with which you can play with a child from the first year of life. Even a few-piece puzzles stimulate a child’s vision, and even clumsy assembling develops little hands and teaches precision and motor skills. Reading and showing pictures to a child also has a fantastic impact on vision. The worst thing we can do is to sit a child in front of the television….
My Self-Reflection
Now, a little self-reflection – does your five-year-old peel an apple and tie shoes by himself? My older daughter (as I write the article, she’s 5.5 years old) asked us to buy a vegetable peeler “like grandma has” after spending the summer with grandparents. A bit distanced, I called grandma to ask what this was all about and whether the peeler was too much, that my daughter is still too young, something might happen. Grandma told me to relax and buy the peeler. It turned out that the patience and involvement of the grandparents work wonders – my daughter calmly and precisely peels every type of vegetables and fruits. I admit, without force, I wouldn’t have dared, but it turned out that the child was more mature and engaged than I was.
How to Develop Eye-Hand Coordination?
Again – naturally: allow children to eat by themselves as early as possible. Teach and encourage younger children to tear, and older ones to cut out pictures. I sincerely recommend all kinds of advertising leaflets – Tesco’s worked for us – the girls are still cutting out circles with prices, toys, vegetables, or whatever they need. Initially, I cut out pictures, and they glued them, then they did everything by themselves. In the end, they arranged stories from it, decorated everything they could (using holiday motifs), and made their promotions.
What Happened to Patryk?
As delicately as possible, I explained to Patryk’s mom what the problem was. I recommended every possible kind of exercise/game. Patryk needs to catch up with his peers as quickly as possible because what good is it that he knows letters by heart if he is afraid to run, throw and catch a ball, and doesn’t participate in any play. His withdrawal will very quickly affect his relationships in the group and self-esteem. When I see the boy at the next eye examination, I’ll see how he’s doing.
The names of the characters are of course changed. Patryk was not diagnosed with any neurological disorders. Psychologists also saw nothing alarming.