Matthew needed an eye exam for Kindergarten registration and I only got around to it this week. Whoops. Normally, the school office would be on my case waaaaay before now, but, y'know...Covid. Sigh. I took him and Alice at the same time. He's a teeny bit far-sighted and Alice needed to bump up her prescription a little, but no biggie. I left those appointments just relieved that Matthew kept his mask on the whole time. I didn't have energy to philosophize further :)
I also made appointments later for Robert and James 'cuz, well, neither of them had been seen since THEIR required Kindergarten eye exams *cough cough*. Once Robert realized the exam was only for his eyes and there wouldn't be any shots or examinations of any other kind, he loosened up. James was just plain excited for an outing :) It turns out Robert is a little near-sighted in both eyes (double astigmatism). James is a little far-sighted. Neither boy's condition warrants correction, though, so it's just a watch-and-see situation.
No surprise, it got me thinking...James' subtle near-sightedness might partially explain why he stumbles and glosses over more complex words while reading. I thought maybe he was being lazy. And he might be. But he also might not see the words as clearly as others do. As a whole, he tends to dreams big and figure out the details later. He prefers to communicate with body language and emotion and action, not words.
I also thought about Robert. He's so focused on what is literally right in front of him that he sometimes misses other important dimensions of the situation. Things afar off. He'll fight you to the death over semantics, completely missing the fact that you actually AGREE with him on the larger point. He doesn't see how the vicious debate wears on a relationship, either. Robert lives in a world of wordy exactness, repeating his case until he feels you understand his point adequately. Flexibility and open-ended answers have been known to infuriate him. He communicates with words. So many words.
I have never been more convinced that people come to this world with a little something already programmed inside them. Personality. Needs. Perspective.
Just plain fascinating.
Posts
While James's eye sight might have something to do with this glossing over those words, he might just be a really speedy silent reader and trips up when reading out loud. It has taken me a lot of practice to get to where I can read out loud without stumbling all over the place, but I can sit down and read a Harry Potter (4+) in 5 or 6 hours. He might not be reading every word and just skip the big words because he can still get enough from the other words and context clues to figure things out. Totally me. I was way older and further in my collage career than I like to admit when I figured out that /pair-a-dime/ what my professor said, was the same as paradigm that I read in my text book. Regardless, kids are weird. :)
ReplyDeleteYes indeed. We come with who we are. I decided that with my first two children and have had it reinforced with the rest. Glad they can see well.
ReplyDelete