For a while now I've been concerned with Ruby's reading. She really didn't grasp it until the very end of kindergarten, which was fine as she was still so young, but this year she had 6 months of 'reading recovery' lessons in order to really bring her up to grade level. This made a huge difference. Her self confidence increased, her behaviour improved and she was a much happier kid in general. But there were still inconsistencies. She had come to the end of the reading recovery and seemed to be doing well, but then she would miss easy words, like 'and', 'it', 'the' etc. One evening while she was reading to me she complained that the words were jumbling together. So this started alarm bells ringing, as one of Brett's nephews is badly dyslexic and has had such a struggle with school. I had taken Ruby to have her eyes tested before she started kindy and everything was fine. But a friend gave me the number for a 'behavioural optometerist' who looks at not just vision, but the way children use their eyes in a more functional way. So last week Ruby had her appointment, which involved nearly an hour and a half of different tests, including the usual vision tests, but also looking at how she copies things, can she recite letters and numbers, can she bring two objects into line in her field of vision.

The upshot is that the optometerist found Ruby has Convergence Insufficiency, meaning that she can't keep her eyes working together for a very long time before they get fatigued and lose focus. One of the main symptoms is words that seem to jump and flip on the page. Makes sense! Ruby has a pair of glasses, on loan, to wear for 2 weeks at school to see if it helps. We go back to the optometerist after than to check her eyes again, and if they have improved we choose a pair of specs for her to keep, which she'll wear for about 2 years until her eyes have strengthened.

Ruby was unbelievably thrilled with her new glasses, even wanting to wear them in the bath the night she got them. She's calmed down about them a bit more now, but it is such a relief to find that we can help her like this. Poor little thing! It must have been so hard, trying to learn how to read with tired eyes. Personally I think it's a good reason for kids not starting formal reading until they are 7, like they used to!