Glasses - Down’s Syndrome

EllaB

My DS daughter refuses to wear her glasses, I would love to hear any suggestions because she really needs them to see properly.

Emma

Hi EllaB,
Great to hear from you - do go and look in our tips clothing & accessories>>hats & glasses,
we have some good tips for this issue. We have pulled out this particular tip for you because it relates specifically to DS •
Down's syndrome
George has down's syndrome we found that glasses don't fit the shape of his face well. We changed the 'bridge' to one long plastic piece which fits better.

We hope that you may get some other good responses here which we can add to our tips.
Good luck.

JimJams

Try and get dvds of characters who wear glasses, little einstiens leo wears glasses, or stuart little, the wee boy in that wears glasses. This type of association to tv characters helps my son with different things. He only started eating pizza and lasange as garfield eats it. Hope this helps

Willow

You could make it motivating to wear them, eg if she finds hidden smarties or treasure hunt clues.
Or reward her wearing them with praise/ stickers/ star chart- whatever motivates her. If need be you could start with a 1 minute timer and a reward, then build up.
Maybe elastic would make them feel more secure.
Or customise them eg put Hello Kitty stickers on the sides.

hfitz12

Are your daughters glasses comfortable for her to wear? We were told often it is a problem with the glasses fitting properly which makes children reluctant to wear them. There are special frames that you can get that are specifically designed for children with downs syndrome and so fit properly. My daughter is getting a pair of these in a few weeks and they certainly seemed to fit better when we tried them on. They were designed by a lady in America who is an opthamologist (?) and who has a daughter with downs syndrome and who was fed up with ill fitting glasses for her daughter. the website is
www.specs4us.com and the frames are called Erins world. the Uk distributors email address is stevenanthony@btconnect.com With my daughter Emily lots of positive praise and reinforcement did the trick. Hope this helps

EllaB

Thank you so much everyone for your helpful advice - especially hftiz12 - I'm going to look up those specs now! Really kind of everyone to take the time to help me. Love Netbuddy - such a great idea for a website!