I am curious to know if it is common in other areas for children to wear an eye patch to strengthen a weak eye for extended periods of time.  We are currently working with a 4-1/2 year old with a congenital eye condition causing significantly reduced acuity in one eye.  He has been on a patching schedule for nearly 2 years, with some but not significant improvement noted.  Last year he wore the patch 8 hours a day, including all the time he was in a school/day care setting.  This year he is down to 4 hours a day but it is during the time of most academic learning in his preschool program.  I have spoken with the opthamologist and he would like to get as much functional vision now while he is young, he feels it gives him the best chance for long term vision in that eye.  He doesn't think it's really important to worry about his learning until he starts attending "real school".  (Has he read any of the recent research regaring the importance of the early childhood years?) Vision in the other eye is normal.  My question is, how can this not affect his learning, fine motor development, etc.  Even if the unpatched eye had perfect vision, I would think using only monocular vision for all learning would affect depth and overall visual perception, fine motor skills etc.  At this point he shows mild fine motor delays compared to same age peers but his main issues are behavioral, including being strongly resistant to wearing the patch.  Just curious what others think.

Laurie N.

Hi Laurie..Is patching the only thing done for this little tyke? I have a grandchild that went for vision therapy  for 8 weeks. We worked at home on a home program and her vision completely cleared up. I had an eye  MD tell me this would not work, but it did . She never wore a patch.She is 18 now and I dont remember all of the things that we did. but it seemed like the vision therapy fellow loaned us different strength lenses for the lazy eye and we used them for exercises. If you know of any one in your area who does vision therapy I would suggest to the parents that they try it. My grand child had  "lazy eye" and very little peripheral vision. I also have tapes and some booklets I purchased from(Sr. Moment)-------- look up vision therapy on line, until you find something other than patching. I will find the tapes I have and if you want them I will send them to you. contact me at barb_schoonover@yahoo.com. I have been an O T since 1963.

Sincerely,

Barb