My son got his first pair of glasses at age 4. His vision wasn’t quite as bad as your nephew’s, though. He was constantly watching TV from about 2 feet away. Every time I asked him to move away, he’d migrate back up close. I finally asked him why, and he said it was “fuzzy from back there.”
I don’t remember exactly how they did the eye exam for him. Part of it was measuring the eyeball to get an idea of where the focal point was, and part of it was the traditional letters and numbers, along with images of animals and shapes and so on. The optometrist said that they probably wouldn’t get his corrected vision as sharp as it would be for an adult that can be more critical in their judgments of “this… or this…”, but his vision would be much better than it would be if uncorrected.
He’s now 20, and has been wearing wearing contact lenses for at least 6-7 years. Nobody teased him about wearing glasses that I saw. The biggest hassle we had with him was keeping them clean. When he was younger, they sometimes had enough crud on them that it was visible from across the room.
What’s really fun is when your vision-impaired child also has ADHD. We’re on a first-name basis with the help at LensCrafters, who always know to dig out their little screwdrivers and other assorted tools when they see us arriving. Moral of the story: Buy the sturdiest frames you can possibly afford!
I forgot to add that, IMHO, it’s better to get him glasses that may be thick and bulky, than it is to let him go through life with a vision problem. If he can’t see the front of a classroom, how can he learn? Point this out to your sister and BIL if they continue to fret about the issue.
more kids are in glasses now, so the teasing factor isn’t as bad as it was.
i saw a woman with a young kid in cvs. the mom kept saying, “these won’t work for you” the kid kept crying, " i want glasses, i want glasses!" mom said “honey, i took you to the doctor, you don’t need glasses.”
the kid was around 8 and her bffs all have glasses and she doesn’t. i suggested mom try clairs.
your nephy may start a trend in his classes.
I wore glasses from the age of seven or so. The symptom was, as above, sitting too close to the TV.I had some amount of teasing ("four eyes ") but not too much.
Regarding detection of Myopia in children: optics works both ways. A physician using an ophthalmoscope will have to focus his light throught the patient’s lens to image the retina. The adjustments he has to make while focusing will give an idea of the patient’s deficiencies either way.