We ask that adults and children doing the vision improvement programme wear reduced prescriptions and go without prescriptions as much of the time as possible. This allows the eyes to improve with the activities. If he is going without his glasses and not doing the vision activities that will allow his clarity to increase, then the stress of not seeing, of straining to see, may result in a continuing reduction in clarity. Children’s eyesight can also change from moment to moment, and day to day. Therefore I would still suggest that he wears somewhat weaker glasses than those that give him super sharp clarity, so his eyes have some room to change. And that he wear these only when he needs to. However unless he is interested in not wearing glasses – and therefore in putting some attention and energy into the vision activities, then you will have a conflict between your and his desires that may be stressful for both of you. In this situation I would be interested to know about his parents vision, does he have siblings etc, as the family situation can often be utilised to create an interest.

Please also remember that myopia and astigmatism both have a strong emotional stress component and it could be beneficial to address this is some way as a precurser to interesting him in the vision activities.

In the end the best thing you can do is;

1) set him a good example by taking care of yourself, your emotions and eyesight, your general health, nutrition awareness and wellbeing. Even if he is not doing it himself now, he is learning by observing you, both conciously and unconciously. This will have a lifelong effect.

2) Any attempts at doing vision games must introduce them as fun activities that you do together. Where the vision games are done rigidly, strictly or seriously they tend not to have the beneficial effects we expect. As a myope and hyperope he may be dealing with issues of self-esteem, anxiety, fear, anger and pain at various levels and the goal of the activities is to relax the eyes and mind, not to give a ‘work-out’. There can be resistance to doing the things that will change the ways that he emotionally protects himself. Some excellent results have been obtained in children around his age by simply by taking any emotional or academic pressure off of them, in a clear and supportive manner.

3) be ‘on his team’ with the eyesight issues, willing to find solutions that suit you both now, and knowing that the information is there for you both, when he is ready to do something different. You have provided him with the knowledge that there is an alternative to glasses when he is ready for it, and sometimes that is the most we can do, for now.

4) When he does express an interest, perhaps having a vision teacher or taking him to a course may be helpful, as children can often have resistance to learning particular things from their parents, and the parents best role in this case is as support but not the main ‘instructor’. It’s OK to have help!

I hope this has been helpful.
Best Regards,
Carina Goodrich