5 year old DS has poor spatial awareness, struggles with hand-eye coordination and is shattered by the end of each day... and I think I now know why

[StraddlingTheFence]

He's one of those children who bumps heads with people, struggles to catch a ball and runs over your toes on his bike. Who takes half an hour to cut out a picture with his scissors. Badly. By the time he finishes school he is shattered and has a younger sister who, most nights, goes to bed later than him.

We found out 2 days ago that he is functionally blind in one eye . Quite a surprise given that his vision in his 'good' eye is perfect, so he spots birds in trees before the rest of us and picked up reading easily. No squint. Turns out his vision is entirely monocular; no 3d vision at all. No wonder the poor child struggles with sports. No wonder he's tired. His brain is constantly working overtime to search for visual clues for depth perception.

It also explains why he was very underwhelmed by 3d cinema

I can't believe we missed it. He's had blood tests for the fatigue, but we never considered it could be an eye problem. Fortunately he is only functionally blind in his weak eye (it's 'lazy eye', so a brain problem more than an eye problem). After a regime of glasses and patching there is an excellent chance he will regain binocular vision. Thank goodness for vision screening.

I'm so excited that he now has a chance at being good at some of the things (like sport) that we had assumed he'd always struggle with. I wish we'd thought to have his vision tested sooner.

Don't beat yourself up.

I've go to say I as an eye specialist don't agree with much of your post.

One in 10 of us have no binocular vision, it doesn't matter. It really doesn't. It won't be making him tired or rubbish at cutting out etc.

Loss of 3d only matters if you loose it, having had it.

Rats, looks like it's back to the drawing board then

The ophthalamist (sp?!) asked if he had any problems reading or writing as that can, apparently be an issue (he doesn't) and I (hopefully) thought that maybe his other fine motor skills (threading a needle, cutting, etc) might be affected.

Hi, sorry for abrupt response last night, prob shouldn't reply when tired.

How old is your son?

If he's school age might be worth asking moor an occupational therapy appt re fine motor skills?

Look up hypermobile joint syndrome and see if any of that rings true.

I have had this problem since I was little. Like your son it didn't cause obvious problems but when diagnosed it explained my clumsiness and total inability to hit a ball with a racket or bat. The only sport I excelled at was rowing and running. I had glasses early on because my good eye isn't perfect and had a lot of treatment with patches etc.
My non functioning eye is a problem when having eye tests since it functions intermittently throughout the test. Optician does all her lens stuff with the good eye covered only to find that I can't see a thing when she uncovers the good eye. It works a little on its own but my brain sort of switches it off when both eyes are open. I do have binocular vision but its probably not as good as others without specs.
I have recently started using contact lenses. Never bothered before because I need Toric lenses and they were complicated to put in. I didn't like the whole care and cleaning faf, but now that daily disposables are so cheap and the Toric lenses are self levelling I love them.

I've just spotted this in Active, I didn't mean to abandon it, I just forgot to check back

Please don't apologise helensburgh, I may have been a little to keep to pin everything onto it. He is getting his hearing tested too, which might be another reason for the tiredness (more of an overload/tuning out than normal yawning type tired, if you follow) Or, the option I try to avoid; he has some minor asd type traits so could be linked to that.

He loves being active and wants so desperately to be good at sporty type things and he tries so bloody hard. I just wish I could make it easier for him.

I've just googled hypermobile joint syndrome, thanks NormHonal. I saw a few similarities, but he's the least bendy person I know and certainly no extra movement in his fingers or thumbs, so I'm fairly confident it's not that. Thank you though.

Willdoitinaminute that's really interesting, thank you. Can I ask what age yours was caught at and when patching started/finished? I'd also be interested to hear whether you're able to view 3d images with glasses, like on a cinema screen or in a book? I have read that fairly often patching results in two eyes with good vision, but still not working together. It has been suggested that 'two eye' activities like 3d gaming and cinema might help train the eyes to function together.

to keep = too keen

Hi Straddling I was about the same age as your DS but many many years ago. I think I had treatment for 2-3 years but I'm not sure what was involved. I also had hearing problems (glue ear and perforated ear drum) so spent a great deal of time having hearing tests and eyetests.
3D is odd at times. When corrected the poor eye does join in but I find cinema 3D is not very effective and the only time I have been truly amazed by it was at the imax cinema in Birmingham where the screen virtually surrounds you. The screens in normal cinemas don't give the same experience. It may be that the glasses are better. I usually wear my glasses under the 3D glasses, I've not tried it with contact lenses yet. The biggest problem is judging distant at arms length. Close up was fine (until old age set in) and distance was fine.
When those weird 3D patterns came out I found it almost impossible to see the image but if I crossed my eyes and let the focus go I could briefly see the 3D effect.
You will be pleased to hear that it didn't stop me from doing well in life. I qualified as a dentist and have worked in general practice since. My eyesight has never been a problem with the work I do.Possibly the close up nature of the work has forced my brain to use the poor eye.
I hope the treatment goes well. Specs are much cooler now and with disposable contact lenses it is much easier for young children to use them.

Could it be dyspraxia?

I don't have binocular vision..one eye is long sighted and one short sighted. I can't do those optical illusion pictures and I'm not great at ball games. But I see in 3d etc. When I have eye tests I can't see the two things in one go tests iyswim (sorry, tired).So I think the binocular thing is quite minor andnot unusual in itself

Hi, have a google for dyspraxia (also called developmental coordination disorder) - that would explain the clumsiness and the tiredness. A gp can refer him for testing if it sounds right.

Dyspraxia crossed my mind too.