Baby's First Eye Test
Apr. 2nd, 2010 06:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ailbhe(I also need to write about Baby's First Sums (Will Add For Food) and Baby's First Dentistry).
Linnea's very first eye test was on Wednesday. We went out to the opticians and we were actually in plenty of time, between one thing and another. Linnea was fairly withdrawn - I am not sure what she expected, though she's been to every eye test I've had since she was born. We went in and first filled in some paperwork, corrected her name in their database, that sort of thing. Then we waited and were called by someone who said "Oh, no, you're only five! We don't need to see you, you just need the other bit." Which was a little confusing. I assume, or infer, or something, that he was operating the exciting machine which shoots air at your eyes and so on, but he didn't say.
Linnea got a drink of water from the water cooler, for the novelty, and played with a bead toy, and then sat down quietly. I went to talk to her and she asked me to leave her be. Several people tried to strike up conversations but Linnea didn't want to talk and Emer couldn't understand that deaf old ladies needed her to speak more clearly and slowly, so it didn't work very well.
When we were called in, Linnea was still very quiet, but got up in the chair as requested. She was asked to read letters off a chart but couldn't speak audibly and being asked to read made speaking at all much too difficult, so they gave her a chart to point to instead. As she relaxed throughout the appointment she started giving her answers orally instead, and proved she could read even very tiny print and see perfectly well at a distance and all those things. She was somewhat confused when the optician joked that she could see Linnea's brains through her eyes, because the structure of the eye is something Linnea's pretty familiar with and I had to reassure her it was a joke and not a terrible calamity, but that was ok.
So she's fine. She should have another test in about a year.
Why did I take her for an eye test? I didn't have one until I was 20. But I was reading the NHS website on children's health and discovered that children in the UK are entitled to free eyetests until they are 16 years old, and that they should have one automatically the year they start school - though the ones in schools tend to be better in richer areas, as with everything else. They're entitled to free hearing tests too, I might investigate that shortly, if she seems inclined to get one done.
Not that I have any cause for concern. But this whole free healthcare thing is pretty exciting!
Linnea's very first eye test was on Wednesday. We went out to the opticians and we were actually in plenty of time, between one thing and another. Linnea was fairly withdrawn - I am not sure what she expected, though she's been to every eye test I've had since she was born. We went in and first filled in some paperwork, corrected her name in their database, that sort of thing. Then we waited and were called by someone who said "Oh, no, you're only five! We don't need to see you, you just need the other bit." Which was a little confusing. I assume, or infer, or something, that he was operating the exciting machine which shoots air at your eyes and so on, but he didn't say.
Linnea got a drink of water from the water cooler, for the novelty, and played with a bead toy, and then sat down quietly. I went to talk to her and she asked me to leave her be. Several people tried to strike up conversations but Linnea didn't want to talk and Emer couldn't understand that deaf old ladies needed her to speak more clearly and slowly, so it didn't work very well.
When we were called in, Linnea was still very quiet, but got up in the chair as requested. She was asked to read letters off a chart but couldn't speak audibly and being asked to read made speaking at all much too difficult, so they gave her a chart to point to instead. As she relaxed throughout the appointment she started giving her answers orally instead, and proved she could read even very tiny print and see perfectly well at a distance and all those things. She was somewhat confused when the optician joked that she could see Linnea's brains through her eyes, because the structure of the eye is something Linnea's pretty familiar with and I had to reassure her it was a joke and not a terrible calamity, but that was ok.
So she's fine. She should have another test in about a year.
Why did I take her for an eye test? I didn't have one until I was 20. But I was reading the NHS website on children's health and discovered that children in the UK are entitled to free eyetests until they are 16 years old, and that they should have one automatically the year they start school - though the ones in schools tend to be better in richer areas, as with everything else. They're entitled to free hearing tests too, I might investigate that shortly, if she seems inclined to get one done.
Not that I have any cause for concern. But this whole free healthcare thing is pretty exciting!
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Date: 2010-04-04 04:26 pm (UTC)