Today we went to Great Ormond Street Hospital. It was a referral we had requested for more detailed eye tests. Seth has had annual eye tests since he was was born virtually and he was officially diagnosed with 'immature' eye sight, as part of his global development delay. However, these tests haven't told us anything really useful and are really only intended to show any change year on year. We know that the problem lies with the brain damage Seth suffered at birth and how the signal from the eyes is interpreted by the brain. The tests did tell us he had stigmatism and the glasses were diagnosed to help with this in the hopes it might help him see a little. & we think that they have improved his focus.
Seth's eyesight is definitely intermittent. He uses his vision more: he will look for sounds, rather than just stilling to listen but he will often still turn his face away from sounds so that he can focus on his hearing. He looks into our faces loads more and we get lovely eye contact very often, but similarly sometimes Seth will appear to completely ignore us, not even vocalising in response.
Anyway, today we spent the afternoon at GOSH. The specific test we were after was a bit like his EEG's, in that they glued electric sensors to the back of his head and a couple on his face. They then rolled a big tv up in front of him with Something Special playing on it. On reflection, maybe I should have got them to move it closer because as I told them, he doesn't watch TV at home, he listens to it. The TV programme continued to play as they overlaid the picture with different patterns, and flashing lights. The sensors then recorded what signal was being sent back to the brain from the eyes. It can tell how good the signal is and whether one eye is stronger than the other. It was really hard to get Seth to look at the screen at all (which is pretty telling in itself!). We literally had to hold his head up with another woman shaking noisy toys in front of the screen to try to get Seth to look at it. Seth looked up only enough for them to get a basic reading. Not enough to be able to go into the detail of which side was better than the other, but enough to show that the signal that is getting through is really not good at all.
We now have a proper diagnosis that Seth is severely visually impaired and we will be getting a certificate in the post to prove it. On the plus side, I think this means we can claim for a free tv license. Also, rather more importantly it also proves that when we told the CDC (Child Development Centre) that the cognitive tests they carried out when Seth was almost two were ridiculous and their conclusion that his cognitive ability was of a 3 month old was not taking into account his visual impairment is now vindicated and his cognitive ability could well be pretty good. On the not so good side, we've just done this Aided Communication course in the hopes that he will learn to eye point to signs in order to communicate, and maybe one day use eye pointing technology to speak for him. & it's unlikely he can actually see the detail on the signs.
Seth's eyesight is definitely intermittent. He uses his vision more: he will look for sounds, rather than just stilling to listen but he will often still turn his face away from sounds so that he can focus on his hearing. He looks into our faces loads more and we get lovely eye contact very often, but similarly sometimes Seth will appear to completely ignore us, not even vocalising in response.
Anyway, today we spent the afternoon at GOSH. The specific test we were after was a bit like his EEG's, in that they glued electric sensors to the back of his head and a couple on his face. They then rolled a big tv up in front of him with Something Special playing on it. On reflection, maybe I should have got them to move it closer because as I told them, he doesn't watch TV at home, he listens to it. The TV programme continued to play as they overlaid the picture with different patterns, and flashing lights. The sensors then recorded what signal was being sent back to the brain from the eyes. It can tell how good the signal is and whether one eye is stronger than the other. It was really hard to get Seth to look at the screen at all (which is pretty telling in itself!). We literally had to hold his head up with another woman shaking noisy toys in front of the screen to try to get Seth to look at it. Seth looked up only enough for them to get a basic reading. Not enough to be able to go into the detail of which side was better than the other, but enough to show that the signal that is getting through is really not good at all.
We now have a proper diagnosis that Seth is severely visually impaired and we will be getting a certificate in the post to prove it. On the plus side, I think this means we can claim for a free tv license. Also, rather more importantly it also proves that when we told the CDC (Child Development Centre) that the cognitive tests they carried out when Seth was almost two were ridiculous and their conclusion that his cognitive ability was of a 3 month old was not taking into account his visual impairment is now vindicated and his cognitive ability could well be pretty good. On the not so good side, we've just done this Aided Communication course in the hopes that he will learn to eye point to signs in order to communicate, and maybe one day use eye pointing technology to speak for him. & it's unlikely he can actually see the detail on the signs.
