As far as I can tell there’s nothing to worry about here. (Though I’ll be mentioning it next time we’re at the doctor, just to be sure.) But it’s very strange how my kid (6 years old) acts when he’s told to look directly at something.
When taking pictures, we tell him to look at the camera, and invariably he looks off to the side. We tell him he’s not looking at the camera, and he shifts his eye position–but to look off to some other side. Never right at the camera.
When we tell him he’s not looking at the camera, he insists that he is.
At baseball, the coach tells him to look at the ball, and the same thing–he looks everywhere but at the ball.
The reason I say this is strange and not alarming is that as far as I can tell he has no visual problems. And when not being specifically told to look straight at something, he looks straight at things with no problem whatsoever.
It’s as though he’s fine til his attention is brought to the “looking at something” process and then he becomes completely unable to do it.
When you say “he has no visual problems, that you can tell”, does that mean (and I’m assuming it does:)), that the child is not “cross eyed” or “wide eyed” to any degree?
I have to concur with Astro and Absolute, have the youngun’ checked out. Soon as possible.
I would fly right to the eye doctor. My 18 yo son has significant visual perception problems as the result of a stroke. Some of what you are describing sets off alarm bells.
When I was a kid, I had “No vision problems that anyone could see.” Actually, I had Amblyopia, and because no one could detect it, it wasn’t treated… So I still have it. Fortunately in my case, its not very bad. My “dead” eye looks where the other eye looks 95% of the time, and despite having completely blurry vision, still allows for depth perception.
So, like others in this thread are saying, get your kid to an ophthalmologist. To your him, nothing is wrong with his vision, because that’s the only experience he has. The earlier you catch these things, the more treatable they are.
Let me be sure I’ve described the phenomenon clearly:
He definitely can and usually does look directly at objects for extended periods of time when that’s appropriate to whatever activity he’s involved in. (Reading a book, playing a game, drawing, watching to see when something is going to move, etc.) The unusual bit is, when we actually tell him to look at something, that’s when things get weird.
If he’s interested in the camera for his own purposes, he’ll look at it forever. If he’s told to look at it, though, (i.e., not in order to watch for some cue, but rather, simply told “look at it,”) he appears not to understand what’s being asked of him or something.
A pediatric ophthalmologist can check on issues like focus, reading distance, etc., and then refer as necessary if he or she doesn’t think it’s an ocular issue. For instance, ophthalmologists often work closely with neurologists, and may recognize it as something neurological instead.
Folly also has a good point; it’s possible he’s mislearned exactly what “look at” means.
Yes, do take him - I was completely disbelieved when I said I had trouble seeing, and it wasn’t until my teachers said something when I was 10 that I got glasses/Lazy Eye Surgery.
I couldn’t hurt to take him. We took Squeaky when we noticed he was looking oddly at things. It turns out he had Amblyopia, which we were able to catch early. It’s being treated with glasses and an eyepatch for five hours a day. At the last check up, his right eye was nearly bak up to full vision, but he still has an astigmatism.
There’s something about a two-year-old in glasses that’s too cute for words.