uncontrolled movements of the head and blinking

[Onedp]

My 14 year old son frequently moves his head in a circular fashion and blinks his left eye.  It almost looks like he is trying to re-focus his eyes.  He says this is not the case and that he sees fine.  As a baby he had strabismus and upon the advice of a pediatric eye surgeon he had surgery (at about 3 years of age) on both eyes to move the muscles that controlled alignment.  A couple of years later his eyes still were not aligned properly and the same surgeon performed another surgery on one eye to correct the alignment. About 7 years passed and he still had a droopy eye that also pointed out, especially when he was tired. Our optometrist reccommended he see a specialist in another city who did a third surgery on one eye a little over 2 years ago.  His eyes are now aligned very well to the point you would not notice unless looked very closely and knew his history.  We are not sure what to do.  His optometrist says he has 20-20 vision and hasn't seen enough of the movement and blinking to make a diagnosis.  We are worried that the uncontolled movement and blinking will become an issue with schoolmates and others in the future and that it will cause him undue ridicule.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Dear Onedp,

An evaluation by a pediatric neurologist would be in order, to consider the possibility that these movements are motor tics or otherwise neurologically-determined, and do not really relate to vision.