Something happened, recently;

In fact, many somethings.

My baby daughter became a kid;

She started to go to school;

She got recognized for her glasses.

Back in the early days, when her diagnoses, and spectacles, were so new,

my greatest fear was that she’d be judged.

I worried that she would be ridiculed

and prayed that she would not be marginalized.

I hoped that people would be able to look beyond the tiny, wire frames that sat upon her nose,

and not see a girl who was bespectacled,

but instead, a girl who was being spectacular.

I hoped. I wished. I waited.

And then, she grew up.

She started preschool.

She met children.

She made new friends.

And, by coincidence, we found out that another girl in her class had the very same name.

I wrestled with the idea of how to tackle the name situation, as I am in the role of both mother and teacher,

and with the girls being so young, I wanted to avoid as much confusion as possible.

Should I call by daughter by her full name, although she’s used to going by the abbreviation?

Should I tack on the first initial to their last name?

But, before I could come up with the right answer,

it was handed to me;

handed to me by two, tiny, sticky, toddler hands.

A little boy in the class, for whom my daughter has the utmost affection, began to ask for her on his drive to school in the morning.

His mother shared with me that as they would pull into the parking lot, he would ask for his teachers, the puppets, and my daughter.

And he would say her name, and then, to be absolutely clear, he would modify it, by saying,

“With glasses.”

His mother told me this with a smile.

Her son loved my daughter. His friend. His friend with glasses.

And when I heard this, I was overcome with great emotion.

For all those many days and weeks and months, I had felt so worried that my daughter would not be seen for who she was

for what she could do,

and here it was: The affirmation of my fears. My kid was the little girl who was known for having glasses, and even given a nickname, as such.

And as soon as her words hit me,

I felt

absolutely

nothing

but

love.

I thought it was precious.

I felt grateful.

I felt proud.

Because for me, her glasses are just one of the many things that maker her special. And they make her special to her new friend. And they have absolutely nothing to do with why he loves her.

He loves her because she shares his obsession with animals. He loves her because they do puppet shows for one another. He loves her because they sit quietly together, in the corner, and read books. And he loves her enough to have a nickname for her. And it is true. She’s with glasses,

but she’s also with so much more.

Filed under: babies with glasses, day in, day out, glasses, kids with glasses, toddlers with glasses Tagged: how to handle bullies, mommy ever after, toddler glasses, toddler in school with glasses ]]> http://littlefoureyes.com/2012/02/13/with-glasses/feed/ 2 mommyeverafter http://littlefoureyes.com/2012/01/31/pediatric-glaucoma/ http://littlefoureyes.com/2012/01/31/pediatric-glaucoma/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:28:39 +0000 Ann Z http://littlefoureyes.com/?p=3854 ]]> As we come to the end of January, which this year is Glaucoma Awareness Month, I wanted to post a few resources for families who are dealing with pediatric glaucoma.

Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness, and while older people are more at risk, glaucoma can occur at any age.  Pediatric or Childhood Glaucoma may be congenital (1 in 10,000 babies in the US are born with glaucoma) or may develop later in childhood.  Glaucoma is also closely associated with cataracts, children who have cataract surgery are at higher risk of developing glaucoma, and so are often closely monitored.  Some symptoms of childhood glaucoma include light sensitivity (photophobia), corneal opacification (hazy gray cornea), enlarged eye and cornea, epiphora (overflow of tears), and vision loss. (Information is from the Pediatric Glaucoma and Cataract Family Association, and the Glaucoma Research Foundation).

You can find more information about pediatric glaucoma and support support for those dealing with it here:

• Congenital Glaucoma Network - this is a social network for all people affected by childhood glaucoma come to share their story.  There is a forum, blogs, a place to share photos, videos, and links to more resources.
• Pediatric Glaucoma – information on pediatric glaucoma from the Pediatric Cataracts & Glaucoma Family Association.  You may also want to check their Knowledgebase for more articles on glaucoma.
• Children’s Glaucoma Foundation – a non-profit dedicated to supporting children with glaucoma.
• Childhood Glaucoma – symptoms, treatment options, and stories about childhood glaucoma.  From the Glaucoma Research Foundation.

You can also read other posts on Little Four Eyes that deal with glaucoma.

If I’m missing anything, please let me know!

My nearly four-year-old daughter Isabella has multiple ocular diagnoses: severe hyperopia (farsightedness), astigmatism, mild macular hypoplasia (“underdevelopment of the macula, a small area on the retina responsible for seeing in detail” – read more) , latent nystagmus (“involuntary rapid movement of the eyeball, occurring only when one eye is covered” – read more), and intermittent exotropia (“eyes that turn outward” -  read more).  She began seeing an ophthalmologist at six weeks old and received her first pair of glasses at 15 months. Today at nearly age four, her acuity measures about 20/70 with correction. Isabella also has bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, childhood apraxia of speech (a motor speech disorder),  hypotonia (low muscle tone), and fine and gross motor delays.

Isabella

Isabella’s functional use of her vision has always been puzzling. As an infant and toddler, she could not seem to make eye contact, despite being otherwise a social child. She did not use a visually guided reach. Instead, she would glance at an object, look away, and then pick it up, feeling for its exact location. When she began walking, she was hesitant to let go of my hand and always stayed by my side. She avoided nearly all fine motor tasks, preferring interactive pretend play with her favorite stuffed animal Curious George and me.

In general, looking appears to be hard work for Isabella. She descends stairs without so much as glancing down at the location of the next step unless reminded repeatedly. She seems to navigate our entire home based on memory instead of sight. She frequently completes tasks such as getting dressed without looking. Her depth perception is poor. She prefers the familiar. When engaged in other demanding activities such as speech, Isabella sometimes takes visual breaks and looks off into space. Her visual performance is inconsistent; she is able to perform a task one day and not the next. She fatigues easily when engaged in the visual. Working on vision in a noisy environment is all but impossible. She is a master at avoiding activities that she finds challenging.

Thus far, Isabella does not have an overarching visual diagnosis that would fully explain her functional use of vision. Some have called it a delay in visual processing, and others suggest that she has some of the characteristics of cortical visual impairment. Perhaps some combination of neurological factors and her ocular diagnoses account for it. Perhaps it does not matter.

Isabella began seeing a teacher of the visually impaired (TVI) at 2 years and 8 months when I finally found someone—her  physical therapist—who took my concerns about her use of vision seriously. At her assessment performed through Early Intervention and paid for by the county, the TVI administered the following evaluations: Functional Vision Screening Checklist, Oregon Project for Visually Impaired Children, and Developmental Inventory of Visual Efficiency (DIVE). The results showed delays in visual efficiency and qualified Isabella for services twice per week.

Isabella’s TVI began to work with her at our home on a variety of skills, e.g., scanning from left to right, puzzles, searching for items in a cluttered picture, patterns, discriminating same and different, sorting, and matching. These sessions were very challenging for Isabella, since she had never had to focus so much on visual tasks.

Slowly we began to see some progress. First Isabella began to handle visual clutter more effectively. She started to scan more effectively to locate objects in busy pictures. She learned to do and even enjoy the simplest  inset puzzles and soon advanced to three and four-piece ones. A year later, she can complete a twelve-piece puzzle with limited assistance and eagerly tries new puzzles. She grasped the idea of patterns and discriminated between same and different. She could identify and name all her uppercase and most lowercase letters as well as numbers from 1-10. She could recognize multiple words in print such as her own name and those of her classmates and family members.

This summer Isabella reached the end of the road with her first TVI. He had approached his sessions seriously, almost academically, which became too much for our creative preschooler. He and Isabella were no longer a good match. Isabella’s performance during sessions tanked, and progress stagnated. After a few months of agonizing over this decision, we chose to seek a new TVI.

Isabella is again progressing with her new TVI, who has a much more playful approach. With a background in special education as well as vision, she has managed to incorporate pretend play, snacks, reading, and even breaks such as swinging into her sessions to maximize Isabella’s attention and motivation. Vision is now fun for Isabella rather than purely work.

Our new TVI has also suggested simple, yet revolutionary changes to Isabella’s environment to maximize visual performance. For example, Isabella now sits with her back to the window in our kitchen to minimize glare. We use a black cloth draped over the table for all close work to help Isabella see better and minimize visual fatigue. This new teacher has also visited Isabella at school, and we are working to integrate these and other accommodations into her school environment.

Since the start of vision services more than a year ago, I have observed a significant change in Isabella’s use of her vision. However, her work is far from over. Isabella still displays significant delays in visual efficiency, and her vision is far from typical. As she grows older and enters school, demands will only increase; visual tasks will only become more complex. We will persevere, providing her with appropriate accommodations and services for her education as well as presenting her with as many opportunities to use and improve her vision as we can in her daily life at home. I am certain that she will continue to amaze us with her progress.

“I am attaching a picture of my daughter, SALENA, age 8 years, who got her glasses when she was about 6 years old for farsightedness and astigmatism. She has been very good with her glasses always and has never broken one.  It has only been recently that she has started getting upset about wearing glasses as the kdis in her class are teasing her.  Her pet quote: ‘I look cute with glasses but pretty without them.’

I live in Pakistan and am a doctor. My husband wears glasses but my elder daughter and I , we do not.

I am hoping that seeing her picture in your photo gallery will remind my daughter how precious she is and that she is beautiful no matter what…:-)) I plan to go through the photo gallery with her and surprise her when she sees her own picture with the rest of the wonderful children.

She is a great dancer and usually called the “rockstar” of any show that she participates in.  She is the first one to start dancing and the last to sit down.  She wants to be a fashion designer, scientist and Barbie when she grows up!”

Salena sounds amazing, and it breaks my heart that she’s upset about her glasses and dealing with teasing at school.  And this echoes one of my fears, that Zoe will also one day start to think that she’s not pretty in her glasses.  So I’m asking all of you who read this, can you leave a note letting Salena know just how beautiful she is?

Princesses Wear Glasses, by Kristin Ellsworth, illustrated by Christina Turner

UPDATE:  “Princesses Wear Glasses” is now available from Amazon.  It’s bundled with the cape and crown that were included in this giveaway.

The book I’m reviewing, Princesses Wear Glasses, by Kristin Ellsworth, is not available in bookstores or libraries (yet – update, it’s available now).  It is also sold in conjunction with the Peeps Eyewear glasses.  Ellsworth, founder of Peeps Eyewear, wrote the book to accompany the glasses and sent me a copy to review.  And fear not, if you’d like to read the book, read to the end of the review, because she’s doing a giveaway.  She tells me that she’s working on getting the book released separately from the glasses.  And that she’s working on one for boys.

The story is based on one that Ellsworth told her own daughter when she got glasses at age three.   The story is told in rhyme, and follows Annie, a brave and curious princess who is off to do some adventuring.  Oh, and Annie just happens to wear glasses.  This is one of the parts that sets this book off from many others.  Annie is simply introduced as a princess in glasses.  This isn’t a story of starting out in glasses or learning that she needed glasses..  This story takes place after that initial introduction of glasses that most books focus on, instead taking place when the glasses are simply one of the things that she wears.  I think that stories about getting glasses are important, but it’s refreshing to run in to books that feature kids who are already comfortable in their glasses.  Annie is a fun character, and you have to love a princess who goes off on her scooter (wearing helmet and glasses), looking for adventure.

Annie decides to seek out a dragon because she wonders what makes their scales so bright.  Upon finding one, she realizes that the dragon must need glasses, since he is having trouble seeing:

“I’m lost,” the dragon sniffled.
“And I can’t see far away.
It’s hard to fly.  Which way is home?
What an awful day.”

“I’m sorry you’re so sad.
My glasses help me see.
Try this spare pair from my pocket.
Then you’ll see like me.”

The illustrations by Christina Turner are bright and charming.  They often surround the text, an effect that I think is lovely.

The book is small and thin, it’s designed to fit in a box with a pair of glasses (that match Annie’s from the book) and a dress up princess cloak and crown.  If I had any complaint, it would be that it feels like the binding might break.  Though Zoe’s copy has weathered repeated readings just fine, I wouldn’t expect it to hold up well to a baby or young toddler’s readings.

…

So, now for the giveaway! … Author and Peeps glasses creator, Kristin Ellsworth and I, are doing a giveaway of two of the kits that go along with her glasses, and one book without the kit.  The kits include the book, a princess cape, and a crown – great for Halloween or dress up!  To enter, become a fan of Peeps Eyewear facebook page, and then leave a comment here.  Three entries will be drawn at random on October 24th.

Princesses wear glasses kit - the giveaway does not include the glasses, but will include the book, crown, and cloak.

…

Full disclosure, I was given a free copy of this book for review.  That did not impact this review.

…

UPDATE:  I went to random.org to generate random numbers for the giveaway.  Congratulations to Rebecca and Alyssa who won the kits, and Cody B who won the book!

UPDATE #2:  Surprise! Kristin would like to thank every one who participated in the Peeps Eyewear Giveaway,  by sending all of you a copy of the book!   Thanks again for commenting, any feedback on the book is welcome!

• 

  2012 Visions of Home calendar

  Children’s Eye Foundation 2012 Visions of Home Eye Care calendar (this link goes to the store, but you can see the full calendar by clicking the “View the 2012 Calendar” link).  This is a beautiful calendar, featuring images of children, many of whom wear glasses.  Children’s Eye Foundation has run a photo contest each summer since 2009 to find photos for their annual calendar, and this year’s calendar is my favorite so far.  Proceeds from the sale of the calendar support the Children’s Eye Foundation.

• VSP Eye Pledge.  VSP is asking people to take a pledge on their website to take care of their eyesight.  For every pledge they receive, they will donate an eye exam and pair of glasses to a child served by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
• Pinterest board – Little Four Eyes.  There’s been a lot of discussion on the facebook group of cute clothes for our kids that are glasses-themed.  Christie has started a Pinterest board of images of such clothes.  Check it out, and feel free to leave links to others you’ve found.
• 

  "A Book Lover"

  Speaking of cute glasses-themed attire…I just today realized that all of my favorite t-shirts from Threadless were created by the same designer, Lim Heng Swee aka “Ilovedoodle”, and that many of his designs feature animals that just happen to wear glasses (and many of them clearly love reading, too).  You can see all of his shirt designs here.

The winner of the contest (chosen from a group of top vote-getters) will be the face of the Star Pupils program – a program designed to educate parents about the importance of vision health for their children.

I would LOVE to have a child in glasses represent that program.  One of the concerns I hear so often from parents who learn their child needs glasses, is that their child’s eyes will be obscured, that others won’t see their child’s beautiful eyes.  We know that’s not true – that our children’s eyes shine through their glasses.  What a great way to show that, and to alleviate some of those fears: to have a child in glasses or a child with vision issues as the face of Star Pupils.

As voting is winding down, we don’t have a lot of time, but I know this community reaches a lot of people.  Voting is easy, you don’t need register or log in anywhere, and you can vote for multiple entries (but only once a day for the same entry).  Please join me in voting for our Little Four Eyes children!

I know of 7 entries from the Little Four Eyes community – if there are any others, please let me know (email me the link: ann @ shinypebble.com).  Click on the photo to get to the voting page.  Remember, you can vote for all of them, and you can vote everyday!  Please feel free to share with others, too!

Stella's Smiling Eyes - Stella wears glasses and does vision therapy for strabismus and amblyopia

Beautiful Eyes - Elly wears glasses for exotropia and amblyopia

Zoe's Eyes - she wears glasses for strabismus and farsightedness

Austin (had a congenital cataract in his right eye and has been patching)

Cutie Pie - she wears glasses for amblyopia

Smiling Eyes (after his surgery for infantile esotropia)

Eye scream for ice cream - Caitlyn wears glasses for vision correction and strabismus