Esophoria and Kabuki

I guess my reprieve is over for now. Earlier this year, I was thinking how nice it's been that we haven't been dealing with any "issues," other than the ongoing ones - twice weekly therapy and night homework struggles.

I can't remember now what prompted me, but I decided to act on a referral from last July and made an appointment with a vision specialist. For a long time, Demi had been doing odd things that made you wonder what she was seeing: she can't write "on" a line, she orients shapes/letters in strange ways sometimes, she practically puts her head on the table to do her work, and more.

This past Monday, we visited a doctor specializing in visual perception issues. Before making the appointment, I talked to the referring doctor who briefly mentioned esophoria. I don't recall him mentioning that before. The specialist, Dr. Sharon Berger, wholeheartedly confirmed a diagnosis for Demi of esophoria.

I found a description to esophoria online:
"Esophoria: Another eye coordination problem is termed esophoria, which is a tendency for the eyes to turn inwards. The educational implication of this particular problem is that a child with esophoria sees things smaller than what they actually are. In order to see an object properly, it is necessary to make the object larger. The only means at the disposal of the child to make it larger is to bring it closer. Eventually, the child is observed with his head buried in a book and still not achieving."

I couldn't believe how accurately that explanation described Demi! She has ALWAYS, from the time she could sit at a table and look at something, had her face right on the table! She always puts things very close to her face. She still like looking at little character figures, but she puts them right up to her face. After this explanation, I'm amazed she can read as well as she can. Her weakness is math.

Thankfully, the LEA at school pushed to get her large print materials for the CRCT, just on the hunch that it might help her. I'm SO glad she had them, given this new information. (We won't get the results of the testing for another few weeks.) Her IEP is coming up next Monday, so large print materials for next year will definitely be on the agenda. The problem will be figuring out whether she'll be in first grade or second grade.