HI,

Just wondering if anyone out there has any advice. My ten year old son has ocular albinism and is doing really well, but sometimes I worry about secondary school. He has a computer and camera in school which is great but since he went back in Sept I find he is less happy to use it, tho he needs it badly as he cant read the board from more than 2 feet away. Just wondering if any one has any advice on the dealing with childrens fears of being different etc. He was fine in school in the early years as I find children are a lot more accepting then.

My… not so much advice, but view, I suppose, on the subject is that he should be happy and secure in who he is. If people are going to be mean because he’s not the same, then they’re not worth it as friends. Everyone that knows me knows by now what I can and can’t see. They see my telescope, close viewing of my laptop/paper, etc. as part of me and are used to it. It’s always hard at the start, particularly in the early years of secondary school, but it’ll get easier. If he ignores it when he thinks people are staring or whatever, eventually they will too.

Thank you, you are right. sometimes i feel he falls between two stools in the way people treat him in the sense that he is not quite visually impaired enough for people to mind what they say, like they wouldnt want to be seen being mean to a person who is blind, but they re not sure about him. I am very appreciative that my son plays chasing, football etc and during these times doesnt seems like he has vision problems at all but he does look different and deal with work in class differently and most probably the most significant factor of all is that he is very shy and self conscious and always has been.  I am very positive in general about his progress however. Thanks for your response - its nice to have a sounding board, it seems you would use similar equipment to Luke.

Hi Newbie,
Been a while since you posted but thought I’d throw in my tuppence worth anyway. It can be really hard at this age as peer acceptance is so important, especially starting secondary school when children start to go off into groups and really judge each other on appearance. Its not the time when anyone wants to be different.
I’m partially sighted and went through similar feelings at school. They didn’t have the same supports back then so I just had to manage without being able to read the board and pretending I was just clumsy at sports rather than keep saying that I couldn’t see the ball. Even though I told people about my bad eyesight I don’t think people really understood what that meant and because I could manage quite well I think they just assumed I was particularly short-sighted. I blended in at school pretty well but then I had to deal with the same issues as an adult. It took a while to get comfortable with identifying myself as someone with a visual impairment to people and using assistive technology in public.
So in a way I think its good for your son to be dealing with this now, its an important life skill that he’s going to have to learn some time and its great that he has your support to do it. I don’t think you can force him to use his equipment at school but if he can even pretend to be comfortable with it the other kids might take the lead from him and it will soon seem normal to them. If he can pal up with even one or two mates and maybe have teachers allow them to sit near other other in class that might make it easier. It can help to have a buffer in the form of a buddy to field some of the questions or comments others might make. He can even show others how the equipment works which is pretty cool really and let them try it out for a few minutes so it becomes something of an interesting talking point and not just something that marks him out as different.

Thanks Beeps,  I think we should all use this site more! Its really nice to be able to chat about stuff. I ll get my son on to it next! Am curious about article mentioned in previous post, is it anything relevant to the site etc..

Thanks again,

Mameecat

Hi article mentioned above it a total spam. Its very hard to check weather someone is a genuine member or somone looking to advertise. This is what they do, say great article check out this link and its some advertisment. Will get on an delete them. Let me know if you see anymore.