more on vision and fine motor issues

I am as curious as a lot of you are, as to the connection between fine motor skills, vision and learning disabilities (I have 2 children with distinct learning disabilities and I have learning disabilities as well). So I did an internet search and came up with this Scroll down and you will find some interesting information! I'll be back with an update on today.

ETA: another great site!

ETA again! I will share with you the tips our eye dr shared with us.

for little kiddos and even older ones with pincher issues, he suggests playing games like connect four (for the younger kiddos just match colors and buy other checker pieces in different colors for 4 or more color options).

He suggested, with close supervision of course, having the child pick up and put coins into a bank.

When learning to write or RElearning to grip pencils/pens/etc, start with a fisted grip (this is normal and OK!), then transition slowly to a golf grip (like you are holding a golf club with your thumb down) then transiton to the normal pincher grab on the writing instrument.

Also, use large sidewalk chalk, fat markers, chunky crayons, etc. They need the larger diameter to work on pinching it with their fingers.

You want a two finger pincher when it's all said and done, your thumb and pointer, the middle finger works for stability, not to "grip" the pen/pencil.

It was really interesting to get his point of view.

Now, to give you an idea of who to look for, when looking for an eye doctor. We first thought we needed an opthamologist for Hope. She was a preemie, has CP and has eye issues, so we made her an appointment with a well known opthamologist at Hershey Medical Center. Hmmm. After the first exam, he said Hope had 20/20 vision and he'd consider surgery for her "lazy eye" if it didn't improve by the time she was to start kindergarten.

I wasn't crazy about that but we returned 6 months later for another exam and got the same results.

It was then I decided to try this other doctor, who came highly recommended by my daughter's therapists. He took one look at Hope, read her history and said she was NOT a candidate for surgery because her "lazy eye" was a product of the stroke, had nothing to do with her muscle length at all, but rather was neurologically based. (This information was confirmed by her neurologist, I like to get 2nd and 3rd opinions when it comes to my kids :-)). He believes in Vision Therapy. Not many insurances will cover it. He feels that if a child needs it, he will provide it regardless of the ability to pay. He's an awesome doctor. :-)

So my unsolicited advice would be to find an optometrist who does vision therapy or at least believes in vision therapy. S/he would likely be more educated in alternative treatments to surgery for kids like ours.