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Powering through Far and Near Sightedness

My son is six years old and for point of reference is a child with high functioning Autism.  We have returned from our yearly check up with our Opthamologist (whom we love, but is an hour and a half away) where his vision checked out at 20\25 but he has Astigmatism, Mild to Moderate Depth Perception problems, Spatial Awareness concerns, and while he's Nearsighted he's powering through to Farsighted (the doc figured that out when she dilated\relaxed his eyes and although she first thought he was farsighted, he's actually nearsighted).  This means his brain is overcompensating for his nearsightedness by thinking he has farsightedness.  His eyes are not lazy or crossed.  

(1)  Is there a name for this condition, or do you just say "powering through?";  and
(2)  Did we catch it early enough to possibly correct it?
(3)  I would assume that there is a miswiring in the brain that causes this?

His private school suspects dyslexia and dysgraphia.  I'm hoping that perhaps with this diagnosis and correction we may find a difference in resolving those issues.

Thanks,

~C




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Avatar universal
My daughter, who has no developmental issues, was diagnosed with the same thing you describe, about a year ago.  He optometrist gave it a name and I can't think of it right now, but basically there was a discrepancy between her chart test and the 3 D pictures they had her look at.  In whatever relation these two tests, put together, are supposed to be, my daughter showed the extreme opposite.  On the surface she appeared to be nearsighted, when her eyes were dilated it was found that she was extremely farsighted.  The explanation to me was that her brain worked overtime to correct itself and "made her" for lack of a better way to put it, nearsighted.  I was told she would need to wear glasses (which we got for her) at a fraction of her actual farsighted perscription and slowly increase this prescription over time until her brain "relaxed itself" and stopped doing what it was doing.  Her glasses don't actually improve her vision,  they are just trying to retrain her brain, according to her doctor.  Also, I was told that this happens to a small portion of the population and it's not normally diagnosed until a patient is in their 20's, putting them at risk, supposedly, for bi-focals very early on.

I find it hard to believe that this condition is unknown (I'm going to call the Dr. to remind me what she called it.)

In the end, I thought it was important for you to know that it would seem unlikely that this is a part of your son's Autism as my daughter has no emotional or physical conditions and is otherwise a highly functioning teen.
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Avatar universal
Ah....it sounds as if we're both describing the same thing (although I'm doing a poor job on my end).   Dilating the eye to see how much latent farsightedness (or a refractive error) is a much better description than mine.  Autism is a different world, and determining what his true condition was in relation to a developmental delay\learning barrier was interesting to say the least.  As to my question about "wiring in the brain" many areas of my son's performance and development center around neurological\neuropsychiatric considerations and it's important to separate and\or identify known variances from new variances.  Finding out that there are some somewhat significant visual concerns certainly sheds light on his history of inability to read and write.  Thanks for your input.  
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233488 tn?1310693103
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Your description of your child's problem doesn't make a lot of sense. Some children appear myopic because they focus when they take the eye test. So drops are used to dilate the eye and prevent them from focusing. This discloses that there is no true myopia only pseudo or false myopia and also lets the Eye MD determine how much latent farsightedness there is.  Refractive errors (myopia, hyperaopia and astigmatism) have nothing to do with "wiring in the brain".

You need to call your Eye MDs office and get a straighter account of the problem

JCH III MD
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Avatar universal
Many thanks for letting me know about that!   I sure do appreciate your thoughtfulness!

~C
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Avatar universal
I am not a doctor. I am a community leader here. I have a lot of experience helping eye patients, including me.

The doctor will respond to your concern. Sorry for the delay; he is much needed in many places.

I hope you find answers to help your son.
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