My Little Fighter Pilot

My sweet little girl has been exhibiting some new clumsy tendencies lately: running across the room only to slam into the door, tripping over the base of the gate which she has navigated successfully thousands of times, misjudging steps and other non-disastrous but noticeable little things. These new developments have led us to believe something is “off” with the way her system is processing information, perhaps above and beyond the autism-related challenges with which we deal on a daily basis.

Our initial reaction to her increased clumsiness was to question her eyesight. She seems to see things well up close, but for a long time she had issues with eye contact. The eye contact issue is getting better with the therapies, so I’m pretty sure that’s unrelated...but that didn’t stop me from thinking it. Her depth perception, especially, seems to be off. She can sit down and string little, bitty beads like a champ. She can make eye contact from across the room. So why is she running into things with seemingly no perception that they are coming as fast as they are?

This morning we visited my family’s eye doctor. We’ve all been going to see him since, well, probably before I was even born. He’s a wonderful guy and, though he may be more expensive than the value places, a fantastic doctor. The man is worth his weight in gold, if you ask me.

At first The Princess wasn't sure what to think, so she bounced off the walls like a fly trying to escape a car through the windshield. Once Dr. Bert sat down and handed her something to play with, he was immediately allowed into the club. The Princess sat patiently in my lap and looked obligingly at Dr. Bert. She tracked a light in both lit and dark conditions. He checked her pupils, and she giggled for him. He pulled out this barrel that they use to gauge non-verbal patients’ eyesight – about as big around as a coffee can, a little taller, with vertical black and white lines across the surface – and spun it in front of her. The Princess thought this was the coolest part, and she cackled heartily.

Now, I don’t claim to be an expert of any kind in eye-doctor-type stuff, but I believe Dr. Bert when he tells me something. The man has never steered me wrong before, after all. So when he told me that The Princess’s vision is, at the very least, 20/40…well, let’s just say I was happy to hear it. It's hard to gauge anything more specific than that at this stage, but I'm happy to report that her chances of becoming a fighter pilot are still pretty good. 

We'll make sure she gets fairly regular checkups going forward, just to make sure everything stays on track...but how cool is it that she doesn't need glasses?!

So why the clumsiness? It could have something to do with her ears, and Dr. Bert recommended that we see an audiologist to get a full checkup done just in case. From what he said and some things I’ve read, it seems many autistic individuals have issues with eyes, ears or both. It can’t hurt to check, right?

And if her ears are fine, maybe we just need to accept the idea of having a world-class klutz on our hands. She wouldn’t be the first in the family, and I’m sure she won’t be the last!