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Mom Invents Singsong DVD To Help Son's Lazy Eye

Marinella Mozzicato, USF

Kelly Harmsen of Bradenton created ''The Eye Patch Kids,'' a DVD for children with amblyopia.

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By MARINELLA MOZZICATO and MARIA JOSE SUBIRIA, for The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 27, 2007

News Channel 8 Report

Video: Family Interview

Video: Kelly Harmsen Interview

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BRADENTON - Joshua Harmsen needs an eye patch to save the vision in one eye, but five years ago the 2-year-old wouldn't wear it for more than 30 seconds.

That is, until he saw a cartoon pirate on television. Joshua went running to the kitchen drawer for the patch he had torn off just minutes before.

The pirate, it turns out, inspired both Joshua and his mom, Kelly Harmsen of Bradenton. She realized she could make a show of her own to encourage Joshua to wear the patch.

Joshua has amblyopia, or lazy eye, which occurs when the brain and one eye don't work together properly. Although the affected eye may appear normal, the brain favors the other eye.

Left uncorrected, the condition can make the "lazy" eye go blind. Amblyopia is the most common childhood visual impairment, affecting 3 percent of youngsters, according to the National Eye Institute.

Covering the good eye with a patch is one method of treating the condition. It forces the weaker eye to work harder.

A camcorder, a few sock puppets and a couple of silly songs were all Kelly Harmsen needed to get Joshua into the routine of putting on his patch every day. Even with no storyline, the puppet singing, "Wear your eye patch," got Joshua to comply.

Harmsen eventually realized her puppets could help other children.

"I started researching it further, and I realized there were so many other kids out there that didn't want to wear it either," she says, noting online forums filled with parents begging advice from one another.

Harmsen, a hairdresser at the time, started putting together "The Eye Patch Kids" DVD. She wrote a script, hired a professional camera crew and created her own business, Bjort and Co., named so simply because it sounded fun.

She drew inspiration from famous puppets such as Miss Piggy and knowledge from watching children's shows with her son.

Her sister helped with the script, and her husband, Allen, a manager for Verizon in Tampa, funded the $10,000 project. A friend provided the voice of the main character, Princess. Her boss, a musician, collaborated on the songs.

Princess, a sock puppet, is diagnosed with amblyopia and is nervous about being different if she wears a patch. She's reminded that her patch is important, and even cool, through "The Every Day Song," "The Bjort Bop" and "The Eye Patch Rap."

By the end of the show, Princess is confident enough to wear her patch to school and makes the "Eye Patch Promise":

"I promise to wear my eye patch and to keep it on for as long as my mom and dad ask me to because I know it will help my eye to get better."

Though amblyopia is a common condition, Harmsen says the patch still can make kids feel an oddball.

"It's not likely they walk into a classroom and there's other kids wearing it," she says.

Often, Joshua felt uncomfortable wearing his patch out in public. Other children made comments.

"That's the stigma nowadays: People wear it, other people stare," Harmsen says.

Now with more than 1,500 copies of the DVD sold, other parents are thanking her.

Andrea Smith of Piedmont, S.C., Harmsen's first customer, says her 2-year-old son kicked and screamed when she put on his patch.

"It was hell," Smith says. "We felt like child abusers even though we knew we were doing the best thing for him."

James would cry so hard that even if they got the patch on, it wouldn't stick. They tried putting it on him at night while he was sleeping to avoid the battle.

Smith found Harmsen and "The Eye Patch Kids" through the Lazy Eye Yahoo online support group. She ordered a DVD.

"It took a while, but once James saw the entire DVD all the way through a few times, he started looking forward to watching it," she says.

Soon, he didn't even need the DVD to sing the songs. Now all Smith has to do is say, "Patch time," and James, 5, lets her apply it.

"This is a very fun way to make them feel like they're not the only person in the world that has to go through this," said Nathan Bonilla-Warford, an optometrist at Bright Eyes Family Vision in Tampa.

"The Eye Patch Kids" was a finalist in the 2005 Telly Award, which honors local and regional filmmakers.

Harmsen's next project is a DVD for children about food allergies; Joshua is allergic to peanuts. She'll use the same puppets — except without eye patches.

"The Eye Patch Kids" is available for $15.99 plus shipping and handling at bjortandcompany.com.

Reporters Andy Nguyen, Melissa Lee and Shana Giafaglione contributed to this report.

ABOUT THIS REPORT

This report is part of a multimedia project produced by a University of South Florida journalism class in cooperation with The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8.

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