Words of the Day: Convergence Insufficiency

So, on the advice of my mother, I took James to the eye doctor with me last week for an eye exam. My nephew has an eye issue and she wanted me to take James for peace of mind. How could I be defiant about that?? (I don't fully understand my nephew's eye issue but I know that one eye is great but he can't see very well at all out of the other. Corrective lenses do not help either.)

Well, suffice it to say, I need new lenses! Dang it! I swear I am creeping slowly towards bifocals every year. But enough about me! James was nervous about going to the eye doctor. He is nervous about most doctors. I explained what he would experience from beginning to end. He has been with me before for MY appointments so I just helped him remember what occurred. He DID NOT like it when the nice lady took pictures of his retinas. That was worse for him than the little puff of air to check eye pressure. I gave him a lollipop I happened to have in my purse for being such a brave boy.

Once we got to the exam room, he sat in my lap and I told him that this would be his favorite part- he gets to talk! I told him that the doctor would ask him to look at pictures or letters and he had to tell him what he sees and THEN the doctor would use his funny glasses to look at his eyes. It went well. James is a great communicator. He was able to see the pictures and respond accordingly. And as the doctor looked at his eyes with his silly glasses, James could tell him if "this" was better or worse. In the end, James has 20/20 vision...and also convergence insufficiency. Basically, he can't cross his eyes. A more clearer explanation is that when he is trying to focus on something up close, his eyes don't work together. He doesn't have binocular vision for that. The cause is simple and it's easily remedied. Eye muscles develop just like all the other muscles in the body. In child development, we hear about gross motor skills and fine motor skills, when to look for new abilities etc.

Convergence insufficiency or Convergence Disorder is a sensory and neuromuscular anomaly of the binocular vision system, characterized by an inability of the eyes to turn towards each other, or sustain convergence. (I got this definition from Wikipedia and the heading "Prevalence" shows very interesting statistics for children.)

Eye muscles are associated with fine motor skills and James is a little behind...even for boys. Boys are typically behind girls in that regard but he is a little more so. The goal here is  to strengthen the muscles so they can work together and the eye doctor gave us a FUN way to do that! He called it the flashlight game. Chris or I and James each have a flashlight and we shine them on the wall. James has to use his flashlight to follow where ever Chris or I move our flashlight. Doing this just 5 minutes a day will improve eye muscle strength.

Convergence insufficiency is important to understand because it can impact a child academically. If they can't focus on things up close, how are they going to be able to see well enough to read? Or do math? What MAY look like a learning disability may not be that at all. It explains a few things about James. He has never liked to color and has never shown interest in small blocks or Legos. That was doubly interesting to me because in going my research about CI, I found another new word I had never heard- dysgraphia. Apparently these two things are often seen together.

For someone with dysgraphia, it is often like having the ability to read and speak like Shakespeare with the inability to express it in written form. Dysgraphia is a learning disability that affects the ability to communicate the thought process through hand writing. 8 Signs your child has dysgraphia

I got nervous when I read about the signs of dysgraphia. That's where I saw that these kids HATE to color, don't like small blocks or Legos, have strong verbal skills...I am not overly worried however. And I don't think James has dysgraphia. He can write as well as a 5-year-old boy should be able to write I suspect. If he were 10-years-old and displayed these signs then I would worry but not now. He likes to play games on his phone (that is up close work!) and he can handle his Wii remote very well so I know his little fingers work fine. As for reading and math, he is also doing great. We are progressing nicely into the next reading level. He read his first stories to me today! It was wonderful! He liked reading to Mommy. He is doing great with math also and that includes the manipulative blocks that we use daily. We will finish it next week and I will have to buy the next level. I am excited and surprised that he has moved so quickly through reading and math this year. He has exceeded my expectations for this year. :) I am especially glad to know that a diagnosis is not an impairment for him. Or me for that matter.

A good problem to have?!?!?!

Well, I happily reported to my mom and mother-in-law last night via email that James is about to complete the All About Reading Pre-reading program. Yep, we will be completely done and I can have a little ceremony to give him the cute little certificate of completion next week on Tuesday. And THEN, I am looking at our Math-U-See Primer curriculum, and it looks like we will be finishing that up by the end of February. How did that happen??? I never expected to run out of curriculum before the end of the year!

And so, I get to do the fun thing....I get to go to the homeschool store and check out curriculum again! I am all set to move James onto the next level of the All About Reading program Level 1. We will also continue with Math-U-See Alpha program. With all of this moving-right-along thing we got going, I think I am going to take a really good look at adding some really meaty science to our lessons. Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronomy. It would be a great time to make this addition. James is taking an Outer Space class in the co-op we attend this semester (every Friday morning for 8 weeks) and we just got The Action Bible! It is the coolest thing ever!!!!!! I give it FIVE stars!! I mean I have taken James to see ALL the action hero movies. I am THAT mom! When we went to go see The Avengers, I ordered us T-shirts to wear! LOL

Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden

I had been struggling to find a good devotions book or bible that we could use together. And last week during the Mom's R & R hour at our co-op, a mom recommended The Action Bible. What a great way to introduce the bible to little boys! I am sure there are some little girls out there that would love this book. I have watched James and his friends pretend to be spies, dragons and ninjas, robots and superheros. This bible captures his attention with great short stories and awesome illustrations. We read, probably, 4 or 5 stories in a row today. And, because I am THAT mom, I loved reading the stories which made them more interesting to hear. Don't you remember when you were little, you KNEW which books your Mom or Dad loved to read because they read it with such passion. I think James will remember us sitting and reading The Action Bible....and Guess How Much I Love You. I love that freakin' book. It permeates our day.

Me: I love you to pieces!!
James: Well, I love you to the moon!
Me. I love you to the moon and back again.
James: I love you to the moon, around the sun, bouncing back up to the moon a-hundred and two thousand billion percent.
Me: I love you like all that AND doing a little dance!

And each time it's different. But James does love his percents and really big numbers!

So, here we are. Doing our thang. It's so good to be a homeschool mom. sigh.