Bates mentioned that having children read the Snellen chart on a daily basis could prevent the development of eye diseases. From what age onwards can you start with this method? Would it be too soon to introduce this with my 2-year-old? Whenever she is "writing", she leans forward so that her nose is nearly touching the paper. She doesn't do that as much when she is drawing, strangely enough. I am worried that she will develop bad eye habits, especially since her mum and dad are both (moderately and highly) myopic.
I have found an eye chart with pictures intead of letters, so I would use that one to keep it fun and workable for a toddler. See <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.i-see.org/random_snellen/random_snellen.shtml">http://www.i-see.org/random_snellen/ran ... llen.shtml</a><!-- m --> where you can select "pictures chart" on the right-hand sight and then choose the type of symbol you want (left-hand top side).
What are your opinions on "Bates for toddlers" please? Many thanks.
Quote:Bates mentioned that having children read the Snellen chart on a daily basis could prevent the development of eye diseases. From what age onwards can you start with this method? Would it be too soon to introduce this with my 2-year-old? Whenever she is "writing", she leans forward so that her nose is nearly touching the paper. She doesn't do that as much when she is drawing, strangely enough. I am worried that she will develop bad eye habits, especially since her mum and dad are both (moderately and highly) myopic.
I think it is an excellent idea that you confirm your child's visual acuity -- by reading a Snellen. That is more
than most parents will do.
I also believe that letting a child "lean forward" and read at 4 inches (-10 diopters) will created major problems
for her visual acuity. This is a "bad habit", and you should try to stop her from doing that.
There are many people (and professionals) who have pointed out the fact that long-term work at
-10 diopters SLOWLY induces nearsightedness. And that is particularly true for a child of that age.
I am not certain that Bates addressed this specific isssue with a 2 year-old child.
I'm not sure about an exact age, but I think the child should read the Snellen chart daily as soon as he or she learns the alphabet. And this is very important because it not only prevents imperfect sight, but even improves normal vision! The statistics on how many people suffer from poor sight are very shocking. I heard that by age 12 or so 50% of all children are nearsighted! And of course among the elderly it's a rare exception to find anyone with perfect sight.
I think the Bates method in general can be used at any age. Swinging and sun treatment are probably the best for babies and can be used whenever they are found suffering from strain, or whenever. For example, they can be rocked gently by their parents, and be allowed to get plenty of sunlight into their eyes when outside (awake or asleep).
In addition to Picture charts, Tumbling Es charts and Landolt Cs charts should be suitable for 2-year-olds (they can point which way the Es and Cs go). However, I looked at the Picture charts on the online Snellen chart generator, and it looks unsuitable for children because they might not know the name of a certain symbol, food item, or animal, and most of the pictures on the smaller lines are indistinguishable. Because of this you might want to either purchase a real Picture test card, or just be creative and make your own. Whatever you decide to do, care should be taken to not compel the child in any way but to make it a fun game.
rust Wrote:Whenever she is "writing", she leans forward so that her nose is nearly touching the paper. She doesn't do that as much when she is drawing, strangely enough. I am worried that she will develop bad eye habits, especially since her mum and dad are both (moderately and highly) myopic.
I think there are two possible reasons why she does this: she witnessed her parents leaning forward when doing near work and she mimics the same behavior, or she has temporary imperfect sight when doing certain close-up tasks. When she is drawing her imagination is good which is probably why she doesn't lean forward as much. I wouldn't worry too much about her leaning forward while doing near work, as this actually doesn't lead to nearsightedness as Otis states. Since strain and imperfect sight are contagious, you should improve your sight to normal so you set a good example to your child.
Here is a very, very important paragraph taken from Perfect Sight Without Glasses:
Bates Wrote:Parents who wish to preserve and improve the eyesight of their children should encourage them to read the Snellen test card every day. There should, in fact, be a Snellen test card in every family; for when properly used it always prevents myopia and other errors of refraction, always improves the vision, even when this is already normal, and always benefits functional nervous troubles. Parents should improve their own eyesight to normal, so that their children may not imitate wrong methods of using the eyes and will not be subject to the influence of an atmosphere of strain. They should also learn the principles of central fixation sufficiently well to relieve and prevent pain, in order that they may teach their children to do the same. This practice not only makes it possible to avoid suffering, but is a great benefit to the general health.
Yes - There may be very little you can do for her yourself unless you both eliminate your own myopia first. She'll likely pick up everything from you, especially when she starts school.
David
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
Let me add this. We are living in the "computer" age!
Click here:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.smbs.buffalo.edu/oph/ped/IVAC/IVAC.html">http://www.smbs.buffalo.edu/oph/ped/IVAC/IVAC.html</a><!-- m -->
And then on "Display" several times. You will get a RANDOM Snellen.
This is good because your child can never memorize the chart. It also
has pictures, that she should enjoy reading.
In fact, she may enjoy the challenge of reading off these letters
perfectly -- to your satisfaction.
If (or when) her vision "starts down" you will be the first to know about
it -- and can take strong preventive actions.
Thank you all for your advice and thoughts. I will try to start introducing Bates with her whenever I have prepared it a bit better. I want to do it right from the start and e.g. not mention the words "seeing badly" to her. So I need to think it over how I can introduce it to her as a game. I feel I really need to because she is asking for glasses now... :o (not that she understands what they are for, though).
I would read what Bates wrote in his second magazine in a longer article regarding this technique of having children read a Snellen chart every day. He explains that it is in fact GOOD for the eyes if the child has memorized the chart, because as they already know what they are seeing, the eye learns to relax at that distance. That is the key to the method working! He has many examples of cross-checks that he did to ensure that they weren't lying about what they saw, so I wouldn't worry about that. I guess if you are worried, you could leave one up permanently and have a random one next to it. The familiar one could be read first and then the random one.
Yep, a familiar chart is actually much better for practice purposes. Even if you want to test yourself, you can see right then and there how well you can see the letters, so cheating isn't even an issue unless you're out to actively deceive someone else. Sometimes critics make a big deal about using a random chart because they think Bates method proponents are a bunch of deluded liars, but that's just because they don't understand anything about the method. If you're preparing for a test then you can try some random charts and see if you're able to focus on it as well as you do with a chart that you know and trust, but other than that, using the same chart all the time is the best thing to do. I've had the same eye chart for years now and I still haven't memorized any of the lines beyond the big C on top.
Dave
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
