To think that the optician was talking out of his arse?

[ConstanceNoring]

Dont' get me wrong I'm not fuming an frothing about this, just wondering if I could be very wrong in thinking he was wrong..

I took DS (7) to the optiician as he was complaining of has 'sore' and 'blurry' eyes.

The optician went through all what I imagine are the usual tests, looking at the screen is that blurred, is that clear etc. Then he asked DS to read the lines of letters getting smaller toward the bottom, for some reason on a couple of lines he read from right to left so the optician was firstly saying 'no read that one again' and then he read it the other way correctly. (bearing in mind I can't see the screen)

He then showed him a series of two digit numbers on his iPhone, an official App apparently, and on a couple of these DS said 34 when it was 43 for example.

Sorry - getting to the point.

So in the summing up the optician said he's fine his vision is perfect, the health of his eyes also fine but "I don't know why he's pretending that he can't read certain things, and why he's reading them back to front and reversing the numbers as well" and "but if he's not pretending then it looks like he's dyslexic, so you may want to be aware of this developing over the next couple of years" and handed me his vision test "there's his prescription which is zero for what it's worth"

My immediate thoughts were that it wasn't really his place to 'diagnose' DS as having dyslexia and perhaps he thought we'd wasted his time and he was being a bit of an arse. Or am I missing something, are opticians trained to pick up and report such things?

Of course opticians are trained to spot dyslexia....my dad was an optician many years ago and he had a book with special pictures which was specifically for that purpose.

So yes, YABU!

Opticians are eye specialists and eye-health can be symptomatic of a surprising range of other conditions. If there are no physical reasons that an optician can find for your son's difficulties in reading a line of letters or numbers in the right order then his suggestion about dyslexia (not a diagnosis) is worth following up. If he finds it takes a lot of concentration to read, the sore and blurry eye problem can be eye-strain.

Thank you Betty, I never knew that - you see this is why I had the nagging doubt in my mind, wanting to think "shut up you prat what are you talking about" but then "oh gawd, really?"

He didn't have a very nice manner though which is why I went for the former

Opticians are trained to pick up all sorts of things, not just to prescribe spectacles. That is why it's so important to get regular eye tests, as they check for all kinds of things.

My opticians have literally saved my eyesight on two separate occasions.

YABU and a bit precious I'm afraid.

I think they have to point out something like that. My dad is a dentist and he has diagnosed mouth/throat cancer in a few patients. He's not trained as a doctor but as someone who looks in people's mouths all the time it's his responsibility to mention these things.

He probably mentioned it in such a casual way because if he said "I think your son is dyslexic" and you got him tested and he wasn't you could get arsey in the same way that if he didn't mention it and you later found out he was dyslexic, you could potentially sue him for not pointing it out when you saw him see your son make these mistakes.

Sorry just seen your last post - I will retract the "precious"

Wow - put some punctuation in where you feel it's needed

YABU and he was being helpful. Especially if you yourself hadn't picked up on DS doing that before.

That's what knocked me a bit though, as he doesn't appear to be struggling at all with the reading, and even got an award for the 100% correct spellings he had last term.

So it was a bit of a surprise to hear that.

FWIW, my DS1 is 7, and sometimes reads/writes numbers backwards, I was told that it is normal at this age, and not always an indication of dyslexia.

Why would you think "shut up you prat" and think he was "talking out of his arse" when allmh did was suggest you keep your eye on something that might possibly be an indicator of q problem? Would you rather h kept quiet qout it?

IneedAbetterNickname yes, one of DS's friends does that a lot but not in her school work apparently, just when she's doodling things at home. She did a cartoon strip for DS in his birthday card and all the speech bubbles were entirely back to front I was impressed!

Maybe they're all evil geniuses just having a laugh at our expense

Maybe they're all evil geniuses just having a laugh at our expense

Is there a tiny chance your DS thinks it might be 'cool' or 'exciting' to have glasses?

Perhaps it was the Opticians way of letting you know your son may have been deliberately getting them wrong in order to get a pair?

I'm sure he sees this many times during the course of his work?

You could be right worra , maybe he thought "he we go another time waster" and it was near the end of the day too.

I'm just remembering my Sister getting glasses when I was around his age....I was jealous

Well that's settled then, it appears the optician might not have been talking out of his arse

I still think he had a bad 'bedside' manner

Although maybe he had good reason

and DS won't be needing scooby doo glasses.

Actually, I am an optometrist and some of us specialise in dyslexia and other learning difficulties. here

I've had a quick read of that chipmonkey thank you. Although his balance and co-ordination appear fine, he's not very good at catching and when doing detailed thinks like lego he's always slightly shaky, but does manage very detailed models and drawings.

I will read on, it's very interesting, - thanks again

Worra - I used to work for my dad as his receptionist years ago and there were loads of kids who came out disappointed when they didnt need glasses!

If you think he might have dyslexia and it's worth getting a diagnosis, do so. The optician didn't 'diagnose', he just made a suggestion which his professional experience has allowed him to know may be relevant.

I agree that opticians/optometrists may be very useful - I am dyslexic and was diagnosed long before I had any eye issues, but it took the eye specialist to notice that I also have an unrelated problem with focussing which makes the effects of the dyslexia more severe when I'm reading. It was really helpful to have advice from a person trained to look at my eyes as well as knowledgeable about dyslexia.