Convergence Insufficiency

I took Bunny to the eye doctor the other day because I was really concerned about the way she was trying to see things while trying read. She was squinting alot, holding the book very close to her face, and she was just mixing things up that I know she knows. This led us both to be very frustrated. I had a few people bring up a vision problems as something that maybe wrong and I thought I should check it out.

Last week, Bunny realized that her addition math board had patterns and this excited her! She spent a lot of time doing all of the addition problems and finding all the patterns!



The Doctor told us she has a vision problem called Convergence Insufficiency. This is something affects alot of kids. Some numbers put it at about 13%! It is often misdiagnosed at dyslexia or ADHD because it appears that the child lacks focus and cant seem to figure out how to read. The problem it seems is not they they dont know how to, they just cant see well. The eyes will naturally move together a bit in order to read or do things up close. This allows you to bring things into focus. However, with kids who have CI like Bunny, the eyes dont move together correctly. This will cause them to see double, to have bad headaches, the words can fracture or appear broken, they get tired, squint or rub their eyes lot, and other similar things. It makes it really hard for them to read and when the print is small, they often cant distinguish between smaller words. Bunny told me that when she tries to read a paragraph the words get swirly! So this is what we are learning to deal with here and the only option for recovery is therapy. In-office therapy with home therapy is the best method.



However, the options here so far as I can find a few and very expensive. So my night have been filled with research of different exercises we can do at home to help her start to correct this issue. So we are reading in small spurts, our school days are going need plenty of breaks so her eyes dont become fatigued making her head hurt or frustrate her. I can see where having more practical life work for her to do in between more reading and writing work will be very helpful. I knew know where those random screaming fits came from and why reading is something she has such a hard time with. It makes alot of sense, but it is also going to be a hard challenge for her and for me as we move forward. If anyone has any information that would be helpful with this, I would love the tips! And if you dont have any ideas, I would love to have some prayers or positive thoughts as we walk this path together! So if you wondered where I have been and why I have not been at this space alot lately, this is why! 🙂 Research takes a lot of time! The pictures in this post are random work from today and from later last week! I will end this post with a book Bunny wrote all by herself today! Knowing now how hard this can be, I am even more proud then ever! I hope you are all having a wonderful week! Happy Schooling!