There’s a very sweet and interesting story over on the Today Show website that I’ve seen shared by quite a few friends this evening.  A young girl, Emme, 3 years old, was just admitted to the Mensa (a society for people with a high IQ) as their youngest member.  But that’s not why I’m writing about her.  The first part of Emme’s story talks about how worried her parents were when she was an infant because she didn’t make eye contact, never reached for toys, and wasn’t crawling.  That will sound familiar to a lot of us, I think.  Her mom trusted her gut and brought her in for a vision exam and they lo and behold, she needed glasses.  And once she had those glasses – once she could finally see – that’s when she really transformed.  The quotes from her mother echo quotes I’ve seen on this site from parents when their child really sees for the first time:

“We walked past a foyer table with family photos in frames, and she physically pulled on me to stop,” Horne said. “She looked at those pictures as if she’d never seen them before.

“After that, she showed an obvious want for things — grabbing at things, trying to get to toys, fussing for things that she couldn’t reach — and she started crawling within a few weeks.”

(quotes like that always get me just a little teared up).

It’s nice to see such a positive story about a young child in glasses in the media, and Emme is even shown patching her eye for amblyopia in the last photo (and sporting a super-cute patch at that!).

The whole story is definitely worth a read, and is a great one to pass along to friends who might wonder why it’s important that kids get their eyes examined, and get glasses as treatment if it’s needed.

As Emme’s mother says at the end of the story:

“’This could be a call to parents: Advocate early!’ Horne said. ‘If I hadn’t pushed … I’m not sure our outcome would be as good.’”