Hello,

I have been teaching a young lady of nine years old for the past six weeks or so. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that she needs to get quite close to the music..as if she can't see the notes properly. I asked her if she was alright, and she said her eyes were "fuzzy". I asked when she last had her eyes tested and she couldn't remember. I asked her if she could see notes that I had drawn, and she said she could because they were bigger and clearer.

I then asked her if she would be happy for me to mention it to mum. She said yes.

After the lesson, I said to mum about it, and she said "Well, she doesn't have this problem at school or with us". When she asked my student, she said the notes were fuzzy. Mum just said "Thanks for telling me. I'll look into it."

So, here we are two weeks later..no eye test booked, and the girl still struggling to see.

Do I mention it again, or wait to see if mum tells me that her eyes have been tested? It's now affecting her playing.

Thanks folks.

I know this might not be the exact same thing BUT. I have seen some people move closer to the music if they play a wrong note as if to say "oh i'll have to look closer to see what happened there" and this is often completely subconscious. I don't know whether it could be this if she doesnt do it all the time.

But if i were you i would be careful not to offend the parents. Tell them again in a few weeks. You could concentrate on a memory techniques with her until then or something if you feel you cant go any further.

It could be the pupil has tracking problems with her eyes. 2 of my children have perfect vision but lose track of where they are when reading etc. One has described it as the words going fuzzy around the edges. When you test her eye sight it is perfect.

I would mention it again, and make it sound a bit more urgent, if you can. If there is an eyesight problem, the child's overall education is going to suffer, and some conditions need early intervention to help eyes work properly later in life. It is perfectly possible for a kid to adapt to really fairly appalling eyesight before anyone notices, and they will miss out on a lot if it's not sorted. I should know, it happened to me. I also didn't thank the rather vocal "train-em-to-manage-without-their-glasses-and-their-eyesight-will-improve" lobby which was so active when I was a kid - I vividly remember the first time I could see individual leaves high up on a tree, or the patterned tiles on the hall floor at home when I was ten, and really resented being asked to do without these delights for prolonged spells during the day.
So never mind offending parents, I would gently suggest an eye test again, and back it up with my story, if you wish .

It also happened to my daughter. I made an appointment to have her eyes tested because she kept moving the music stand closer and closer when playing the cello. I picked her up a bit early from school and her teacher couldn't understand why I was worried about her sight. However when she was actually tested the ophtalmologist wanted to know why I hadn't brought her earlier as she is really quite short-sighted. Once she got glasses she realised that notes do look different when they are on a line or in a space (something she could never "understand" before); from always being the last one at school to finish copying from the blackboard she became the first one to finish. I still feel guilty about not having realised earlier.

I have three students who lean in towards the music. Two have had their eyes tested and there is no obvious problem with seeing the notes. As little children they couldn't understand why they did it but now they're older they admit it seems to "help" their concentration if they lean into the music to look at it. I am busy trying to train this out of them (gently of course) but it's a problem for them and is so unbalancing to the posture when they do it.

The third youngster also had her eyes tested and no problems were found. However, what did subsequently come to light were dyslexia problems and, since she's been getting help at school with visual spacing etc, her tendency to do a "leaning tower of Pisa" impression has all but gone.

If nothing happens about the eye-test by Christmas, I would be inclined to mention it gently in any end-of-term report you might write (if you do them) or, if not, in a letter to her Mum in the early new year. Make sure though the angle is your concern that it's holding the child back - not that she is a failing mother!

It could be that a one-to-one tutor is more likely to notice little things like this that a classroom teacher with lots of pupils?

Sometimes I lean in to the music a bit (as someone said - to double check something!) but if she's constantly close to the music (also, is she squinting?) she may need glasses. If it's not checked out she could be doing more damage by straining her eyes.

My eyesight is shocking and if I didn't wear my glasses I'd be leaning in like that all the time, or else get a headache

All you can do is report what you've observed in lessons though, but it's up to the parents to choose whether to act on it or not. That can be quite frustrating, but maybe mention it again in a few weeks.

Don't feel guilty...though I do know, also from own experience, that it's almost impossible for parents not to . One of my eyes had -3 dioptres of short-sight at my first test - so I could only see text at an eighth of the distance a normal-sighted person could manage, and the better eye was not that much more use either. I'd managed for years with all sorts of tricks and ruses. Couldn't do that now - I have to have rather powerful lenses these days...

All kids should have annual eyesight tests. I can't understand why parents don't take them - they are free after all. Our family almost all have to wear glasses and I have taken my daughter for an annual test since she was 3 - she's now 6. Thing is, she actually WANTS to wear glasses, and as yet she doesn't need them. Every time we go she tries on the kids frames and prances about in front of the mirror!!

My daughter did have annual eyesight tests in school. (We live in France and children can't be tested by an optician for free, although adults can, they have to be taken to an ophtalmologist). After the school eyesight tests my daughter always brought home a piece of paper with the "no problem" box ticked. After the ophtalmologist diagnosed her shortsightedness I said to my daughter I couldn't understand why the school eyetests hadn't picked anything up. At which point she said that she had kept giving the wrong answers but they had said this was "normal" because she is English. You'd have thought they might just have let the parents know that her answers had been wrong and suggested we take her for a more detailled examination somewhere (or even have an eyetest done in English).

I agree with that.
One of my work friends was a chatterbox at school (still is, to be honest ) She was distracting other students because of this. So in every class she was brought up to the front of the room for the teacher to keep an eye on her. She was less disruptive when sat there, so that all worked out well.
What nobody figured out for years and years was that when she was sat at the front of the room, she could see the blackboard! When she'd sat elsewhere, she'd not been able to see properly so she chatted along to give herself something to do.
I also think that as a child you naturally assume that the world of your eyes (ears/nose/etc) is the same as it is for everybody else, so you don't think to say 'but I can't see'...

That would be really annoying!



I figured out I had bad eyesight when I was about 8. We were having a routine school test and, waiting in the queue, everyone was practising covering up one eye and looking through the other. When I did the same I realised that, while I could see fine with my right eye, the world was very blurry through my left. Turned out my right eye had been compensating all the time. That was also why I couldn't catch balls, because I wasn't seeing in stereo.

That was why I realised though - because they were different. It was good though in the end because, when I had laser surgery to correct my eyesight, only the left needed doing, so I saved money!!

When I was young, my right eye saw up to about a foot in front of me, and my left eye from there onwards, so I too was always using one eye, with my brain blocking the signal from the other eye.
They figured this out when I was about 10, because for the first time ever, someone gave me an eyetest where they tested my right eye first.
In all previous tests, they'd done my left eye first, and then my right eye - and I promptly gave the correct answers from memory (hey, it was a test, so I was just getting as much of it right as possible).

I now have both eyes being stupidly short-sighted (my left eye is now about 18 inches, my right eye about 8 inches, before it goes blurry). I still have the same optician since way back then, though, and he still always always always tests my worst eye first - even though I don't cheat anymore. I hope he doesn't have it in my notes, though, that he figured out I was a child who inadvertantly "cheated" on eye tests

(Sorry, veering off topic)

Thanks for your replies.

I guess the reason I'm so keen for this girl to have her eyes checked, is because I too have bad eyesight. I remember very cleary going to a circus when I was 5 and squinting at everything. It seemed that within days my mum had got me to the optician where it was confirmed I was shortsighted. I wore specs for years before changing to contact lenses.

This mum even said about her daughters fringe being long and flopping into her eyes. But has she had it cut? No.

Maybe I expect too much too soon, but if someone had mentioned a worry with my childs eyes, I think I would be sorting it out quicker than this. But I'll be patient for now, as maybe she is making plans to have it done.

It wouldn't hurt to keep mentioning it, I suppose - you can only die of embarrassment!

I know that when Viohazard first needed glasses, I kept asking if he could see the blackboard, and he kept telling me he could...and copying everything down wrong. Finally under close interrogation he admitted that while he could indeed see the blackboard, he wasn't so hot at working out the stuff the teacher wrote ON the blackboard.

My other son Airman, while not so pedantic, was also confident that he could see better than he could, and I remember feeling the same way - just assuming that everybody else must be seeing things the same way that I saw them. And considering the expense of glasses, Mums might be over-eager to believe their kids' assurances.

Am I right in suggesting that things seemed okay to begin with? - In which case this is either a problem that is rapidly worsening, or she is struggling more as the music gets more complex. I think in this situation I would mention to the mother that regardless of how well she can supposedly see at school / home etc, she cannot see well enough in your lessons to make good progress.

I taught a young lad for a while who had very, very short sight about which nothing could be done, and by the time he came to me he had already dropped out of school lessons because of it. I used to reproduce music on wipe-off white boards (usually only three staves per board) or write it out on A3 paper - but enlarging it on a photocopier would also work. If this helps your student to see the music, at least she will be spared the frustration of not making progress - although you may have to invent tactful ways to explain to Mum why you are doing this!

Good luck!

Yes, you are right. She seemed fine when I first started, but has been getting closer to the piano over the past few weeks. Playing wise, she is still on the basic elements, because we alternate a week of practical with a week of theory. When doing the theory, she likes me to draw diagrams of notes bigger than in the book. She says it helps her to understand, but the more I think about it, the more I believe it's her sight.

I'll speak with the mum again when I see her next week.

Thank you!

I remember reading something, probably within the last year and I think on the Forums, about some specific eye test that isn't always done. I think it was in connection with having problems with music-reading. Does that ring any bells with anyone? I've tried searching on "eyesight" and "eye test" without finding it. I thought I had kept it, but can't now find it.

I'm pretty efficient at some things. Filing isn't one of them. I shall keep looking.

Just thought I would give you an update on this situation. This morning I went to this young lady for her last lesson of the year. I was pleased to see she was wearing a very trendy pair of specs, which she got last Tuesday!! Needless to say, her playing improved as the lesson went on!

Thanks for your posts!
DC x

It was our son's trumpet teacher who alerted us to his bad eyesight, and I was extremely grateful to her.

I hope the girl's parents thanked you!

Steve

I don't think you expect anything too much, it is a perfectly reasonable request that a parent has his/her child's eyes tested on a yearly basis, after all it's FREE on the NHS! It sounds like this child never had her eyes tested, no excuse for this really!

Haha! Not quite! They said thank goodness the optician picked up on it!!!

**They did look a tad embarassed though.**

I did think to myself I would be worried if an optician hadn't picked it up!!!!

Still, she's wearing her specs, so that's the main thing..

That's one step ahead of me then......