Yesterday Samuel had his first-ever visit to the eye doctor. I started telling him about this appointment a few weeks ago. I have learned that it is best to inform Samuel ahead of time of these things so that he has plenty of opportunity to voice any concerns or objections! He expressed concern about having to get a shot and also asked, "Will it hurt?" His concerns were very easy to answer and I am convinced that talking about them helped the exam to go smoothly.
The in-home helper who is with us during the morning and afternoon has become very good at picking up what is going on with Samuel and he makes upcoming events a part of their conversation as they play together. He even suggested that they act out an eye exam, since we have an eye chart as part of our toy doctor kit.
When I scheduled the appointment I informed the receptionist that Samuel was autistic. Just a few hours before the appointment I called the office to remind them of this and the receptionist was once again very reassuring, telling me that they have seen other special needs patients and that there are ways of checking vision if the patient has difficulties communicating.
Samuel did very well! I went in to the office to fill in paperwork while Samuel and his helper waited in the car. I called them in once I was finished. There were some toys in the waiting room and I remembered how Samuel likes to check those out. We have had issues in the past at dentist visits if he doesn't have time to look at the toys! He voiced some last minute concerns about the exam, which we (his helper, the office staff, and I) were able to talk to him about. I was relieved to find we were the only ones in the waiting area. The appointment was right after the office had reopened after lunch.
After just enough time to look at the toys he was called back. Samuel went along with the examiner just fine. His helper and I both sat in the room. His helper was terrific in assisting Samuel. Sometimes I feel like I don't let his helpers do enough. It took some effort yesterday but I made myself sit back and tried to let him take care of Samuel getting through things. It was a challenge at times to get Samuel sit still, but his helper and the examiner were able to explain things and Samuel cooperated very nicely!
Once some measurements were done and photographs of the inside of Samuel's eye were taken, we were then moved to another room. This is where the optometrist examined Samuel. It really helped that we did not have to wait very long. Once again it was challenging to get Samuel to sit still, but somehow he did long enough to get the exam done. There were issues with the chair needing to be moved, getting Samuel to properly cover one eye so that he could look out the other eye, and also with getting him to look through the viewing lenses correctly. He was in a very good mood and was making the funniest comments! (To the doctor, "This isn't so bad!" "I love this, I love you!") Most amazingly of all, the doctor had a laptop computer sitting on the counter that Samuel did not disturb at all, even though there was a slide show of photos being displayed on it!
The end result, Samuel needs glasses. I am not surprised. He has been squinting the past few weeks. I'll be curious to see if he notices and tells us about his improved ability to see once he gets his glasses, which will be in about a week and a half.
Factors that contributed to the success of this appointment: informing Samuel ahead of time, letting Samuel voice his concerns and discussing them with him, having good assistance from his in-home helper, timing the appointment well during the day, leaving his siblings with a very generous friend (I almost brought them along!), Samuel's previous experience with visits to the dentist.
This appointment was followed with a quick visit to a video store and the grocery store. There were a few bumps in these, separate post to follow.
9 comments:
I am happy that things went well. You are right, the "specialty" doctor appointments like for hearing, vision, dentist...can often be the hardest. Great planning.
I also plan ahead, it as you have shown can sometimes make all the difference!
Congratulations on a nice, smooth appointment! Yea! :)
Great work! Thanks for allowing me to step through that appointment. I often wonder how those types of visits will go when Nathan is older.
That's terrific! Good for Sam. We had a horrible time at the eye doctor's. It had to do with pragmatic language. We were trying to see if he could cross his eyes. He couldn't because the doctor said, "Watch the pencil." He did.
He didn't cross his eyes until he saw me do it at the dinner table.
Also, our PPO recommended doctor never worked with kids before...I could go on and on.
Anyway, I'm so pleased it worked out for you guys!
Yay, Sam!
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The success of this appointment was built up through trial and error in other appointments, strategies learned from our former in-home helpers (a therapist accompanied us to a dentist appointment several years ago. She came armed with a visual schedule and she was so helpful!), a dentist who was kind enough to let us visit every 6 - 8 weeks until Samuel finally accepted sitting in the exam chair and let people look in his mouth and brush his teeth. Even though we go forward in small steps, there is progress!
Timing and good planning can be everything!!!
So great to hear that your appointment was successful!
I am so impressed with Samuel,he did really well.I think that our next visit to the optician will be a lot better as Beauty has had a huge developmental leap since the last visit and this time should really be able to participate more.
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