What I possibly like most about this venue of the Web, is the sharing aspect. Whereas before anything communicated would only be between me and the client in my office, you can now see a lot of interactions, advice, questions, and support via the forum.
And sometimes we get great context, like Nate E‘s recent post:
It’s been about 1 month, so I thought I’d give a quick update on my son.
We’ve been pushing focus every day. But I think the real key has been keeping a regular log.
His first centimeter reading was 90. Over the next 4 weeks he has steadily increased his centimeter reading until now he regularly gets 122-sometimes higher.
One important thing has been to get him motivated. We use a point system. Every time he has a good day (uses his plus lenses for close up work always), he gets 2 points. For an ok day he gets 1 point, for a bad day 0 points. At the end of the week he can redeem his points for different rewards.
He’s been really good.
I have to say that I think that keeping a log has been what really made a difference. I also have a 14 year old daughter with mild myopia. We put her in the log also. In the last month, her centimeter distance has gone from 88 cm to 105. Not a dramatic change, but if we can keep it up, it will add up over time.
Really, the log has been key.
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The full thread is here.
I often suggest that you keep a log for yourself. It’s motivating, it prevents incorrect judgments, and it removes all questions whether your eyesight habits are effective. With children, Nate discovers these benefits when using healthy eyesight practices even more significantly.
When you just work on your own eyesight, you might forego the benefits of the log. You might just know you’ll stick with healthy eyesight habits, and you don’t care enough about optimizing each aspect of strain management.
” If you don’t keep a log with your child, your odds
of long term success are significantly smaller.”
But when you are having to expend effort on behalf of others, it’s a different story. Especially in the case of children, where a lot of your effort goes towards maintaining their motivation, keeping them working, and dealing with all the extra effort that is the fun of parenting. If you don’t keep a log with your child, your odds of long term success are significantly smaller.
A brilliant suggestion to take from Nate’s post, is to have a reward system. Your child may not care enough about eyesight, but with Nate’s point system you can substitute other incentives that may be much more tempting!
Enjoy some healthy eyesight today.
