Yesterday, I brought Lyka to her pediatric ophthalmologist to have her fitted with a new pair of glasses. We finally failed utterly to find her glasses in the dark recesses of our house (ie. under the bed), and Lyka, despite her constant protestations of “I can see fine”, is finally showing signs of difficulty in seeing things from as far as at least 20 feet away.

It would have been an easy affair, getting Lyka’s eyes measured up, but somehow she just plain refuses to call out the letters she sees on the doctor’s projector. At first she calls them out in a loud voice, especially if the letters were rather big. But as these got smaller and smaller, she takes longer to recite, and it seems that she was thinking whether to call out or not. I had a feeling that she was deliberately not saying anything for fear of giving a wrong answer.

Eventually, we finished her eye checkup. She actually got to call out the smallest letters displayed on the doctor’s projector. As a result, we found that Lyka’s eyes were 200-250. It’s not that she has degraded lenses, but her bad eyesight is a result of high astigmatism. I know how it feels like to some degree, as I suffer from astigmatism myself. Only my daughter’s affliction is worse than mine. I can only imagine how much worse her eyesight is than mine. That’s why it’s really frustrating when she just won’t say anything about what she sees during her examination in the doctor’s office.

So when she finally finished her eye exam, as in totally finished it, I was just so happy and relieved. I’m just happy that she would really have perfectly fitted glasses now.

Yet now that her glasses are done, I’m left with a concern about my daughter’s personality. I don’t think that she’s really a shy girl. She’s pretty much out-going, and sometimes she’s even a show-off. But in instances when you are asking her a question, and there is the possibility of a wrong answer, she rather clams up. I wonder if it is a child’s natural reaction or not. I haven’t mentioned this to Lyka’s pediatrician, but maybe I’ll make a mental note to ask him the next time I see him.

Do you guys have this same concern for your kids? Is this just a natural part of childhood?

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