I
had the strangest thing happen the other day. A few weeks ago I signed a
form giving some private company that comes into the school permission to test
Ryleys (grade 1) and Zacharys (grade 2) hearing and vision. Now understand
that this isn’t free, it costs $15 but when you have as many children as I do,
really $15 is nothing compared to the headache of setting up appointments,
having to cart the babies to appointments that are not for them and just
finding the time – way much easier to have it done at the school as far as I
was concerned.
So the tests were
done at the school and then the results came home and this is were it gets
weird. Zachary’s form indicated that he passed all the tests.
Ryley’s (why is it always this poor child!?) was an entirely different
story! This is what his said:
Color vision test – NOT PASSED
Needless to say I
was very concerned because really, I hadn’t noticed anything that would suggest
Ryley wasn’t seeing colors the way he should! But then the panic set in – all I
could think about was the fact that my son may be color blind! I called
our optometrist and set up an appointment for Ryley and myself for the next
day.
What does color
blind mean anyway? It then dawned on me that I had no idea. So I
did what every parent in extreme panic mode does. Looked it up on the
internet! I was floored. Contrary to popular belief color blind
doesn’t really mean that one can’t see colors, but instead they see things as
more murky – reds may look like brown etc.. I thought this picture I
found was a neat way to see it:
So we go to our
appointment and this is where things get down right weird! I had put off having
my eyes checked for a while so I had my exam first. No surprise but I
needed two different prescriptions. One for night driving, and another
for reading and working at the computer. Ryleys turn. The Dr. was
very attentive and doubled checked everything they do to test how well they see
color, and low and behold, Ryley was fine! He is seeing colors without any
difficulty. HOWEVER – they found that he is slightly far sighted! He
doesn’t need glasses yet but needs to be watched carefully and will be tested
again in a year.
How does one go
from passing every eye exam, except the color vision test, to passing the
coloring test but not the other exam? Seriously I have an issue with
this. How many parents have paid these private companies that are
outsourced by the school board and told their child hasn’t passed the eye exam
or hearing test, only to find that absolutely nothing is wrong? Thats an
awful lot of money for that type of service in my opinion.
That all said
though what do you think of my new look?
So fess up – how
many of you consider eye exams important and do you have your children and
yourself checked on a regular basis?
Until next time,
Chantel,momof8crazymonkeys
You are so right Kristin – I should have thought about it really. The school isn’t the best place and you are quite correct in that they are just screenings – needless to say when you see the word fail you tend to panic (well at least I did). Don’t think I will ever have it done at the school again.
You are so right Kristin – I should have thought about it really. The school isn’t the best place and you are quite correct in that they are just screenings – needless to say when you see the word fail you tend to panic (well at least I did). Dont think I will ever have it done at the school again.
Thanks Julie – I grew out my hair for a year then the other day got annoyed with it so had it chopped all off! I do this on a regular basis……..hmmmmm impulsive I guess……. wonder where the adhd comes from….lol the glasses take a bit to get used to but I like them!:)
okay now I am fascinated! How on earth do they test them at age 2?? I am thinking I should have the twins tested..
i just do the regular doctor eye appointments. although with my history i am keeping an “eye” on certain things.
i was worried once about my youngest’s vision because she seems to watch tv sideways. my fears were gone when she looked up in the bright blue sky one day and asked “what’s that”? and i couldn’t see anything until i saw a teeny white spec (against a pale blue sky) moving across the sky. turns out it was the shuttle or something so i figured if she can see that, everything is fine!
love your new look!
Having grown up with family in the optical industry and then working in it myself, regardless of how difficult it can be, my kids get their first eye exam at 2 and then every year after. I grew up with strabismus (and glasses) and my husband has red/green color deficiencies as well as no depth perception/3d vision because his strabismus wasn’t corrected early enough as a child.
I had to book 3 days worth of exams over a month to get all 7 of us in without the day becoming too much. It’s such an important thing to have a professional do each year. I would never trust the exams done in a school.
I had my daughter’s eyes checked a month before her 5-year check-up (when they do a vision screening) because she seemed to be having trouble. Turns out baby girl was really not seeing well! Her prescription is so strong that I’m surprised she recognized us with her glasses on! Had my 2 year-old checked soon after just in case and she is fine so far. Otherwise I would have relied on screenings to guide me.
I am an audiologist and I must say that we often see kids who “failed” a hearing screening at school or at the pediatrician’s office. They are not foolproof and truly only screenings. Many times the kids have perfectly normal hearing and were distracted at school or didn’t understand the directions, or the room they screened in was not quiet enough.