How well does your child see? Vision is extremely important for children. It’s what lets them develop motor skills, see the board at school and learn about the world around them. If your child hasn’t had an eye appointment or it’s been a couple years since your child’s last eye health and vision exam with our optometrist, you may want to consider scheduling an appointment at Family Vision Center.
Eye Exams in Infants: Birth – 24 Months
A baby’s visual system develops gradually over the first few months of life. They have to learn to focus and move their eyes, and use them together as a team. The brain also needs to learn how to process the visual information from the eyes to understand and interact with the world. The foundation for motor development such as crawling, walking and hand-eye coordination also comes with the development of eyesight.
You can ensure that your baby is reaching milestones by keeping an eye on what is happening with your infant’s development and by ensuring that you schedule a comprehensive infant eye examination at 6 months. At this exam, the eye doctor will check that the child is seeing properly and developing on track, and look for conditions that could impair eye health or vision (such as strabismus (misalignment or crossing of the eyes), farsightedness, nearsightedness, or astigmatism).
Since there is a higher risk of eye and vision problems if your infant was born premature or is showing signs of developmental delay, your eye doctor may require more frequent visits to keep watch on his or her progress.
Read about InfantSEE a free one-time eye exam for babies.
Eye Check-Up in Preschool Children: 2-5
The toddler and preschool age is a period when children experience drastic growth in intellectual and motor skills. During this time they will develop the fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and perceptual abilities that will prepare them to read and write, play sports and participate in creative activities such as drawing, sculpting or building. This is all dependent upon good vision and visual processes.
This is the age when parents should be on the lookout for signs of lazy eye (amblyopia) – when one eye doesn’t see clearly, or crossed eyes (strabismus) – when one or both eyes turn inward or outward. The earlier these conditions are treated, the higher the success rate.
Parents should also be aware of any developmental delays having to do with object, number or letter recognition, color recognition or coordination, as the root of such problems can often be visual. If you notice your child squinting, rubbing his eyes frequently, sitting very close to the tv or reading material, or generally avoiding activities such as puzzles or coloring, it is worth a trip to the eye doctor.
Eye Exams in School-Aged Kids: Ages 6-18
Undetected or uncorrected vision problems can cause children and teens to suffer academically, socially, athletically and personally. If your child is having trouble in school or after school activities there could be an underlying vision problem. Proper learning, motor development, reading, and many other skills are dependent upon not only good vision, but also the ability of your eyes to work together. Children that have problems with focusing, reading, teaming their eyes or hand-eye coordination will often experience frustration, and may exhibit behavioral problems as well. Often they don’t know that the vision they are experiencing is abnormal, so they aren’t able to express that they need help.
In addition to the symptoms written above, signs of vision problems in older children include:
- Short attention span
- Headaches
- Frequent blinking
- Avoiding reading
- Tilting the head to one side
- Losing their place often while reading
- Double vision
- Poor reading comprehension
The Eye Exam
In addition to basic visual acuity (distance and near vision, or refractive errors) an eye exam may assess the following visual skills that are required for learning and mobility:
- Binocular vision: how the eyes work together as a team
- Focusing
- Peripheral Vision
- Color Vision
- Hand-eye Coordination
- Tracking
The doctor will also examine the area around the eye and inside the eye to check for any eye diseases or health conditions. You should tell the doctor any relevant personal history of your child such as a premature birth, developmental delays, family history of eye problems, eye injuries or medications the child is taking. This would also be the time to address any concerns or issues your child has that might indicate a vision problem.
Children’s Eyeglasses, Contacts & Other Treatments
If the eye doctor does determine that your child has a vision problem, they may discuss a number of therapeutic options such as eyeglasses or contact lenses, an eye patch, vision therapy or Ortho-k, depending on the condition and the doctor’s specialty. Since some conditions are much easier to treat when they are caught early while the eyes are still developing, it is important to diagnose any eye and vision issues as early as possible.
Following the guidelines for children’s eye exams and staying alert to any signs of vision problems can help your child to reach his or her potential.
- Kids' Vision & Learning Vision plays a crucial role throughout childhood and beyond. Many parents don't understand how vision helps their children develop appropriately.
Common Childhood Eye Problems
Children often do not realize that they cannot see well because they do not have a way to compare their vision with normal visual acuity. Therefore, it is very important to have your child visit our doctors to determine if your child’s eyes are developing normally and if they can see clearly.
- Color Blindness – Color blindness is the inability to see colors clearly. The most common type is red/green color blindness, but children can also be blue/yellow colorblind and completely colorblind. While there’s no cure, certain lenses and phone apps can help individuals cope with this eye condition.
- Childhood Cataracts – Babies can be born with cataracts and children can develop them. Glasses can usually correct vision, but in severe cases, eye surgery may be needed.
- Depth Perception Problems – If your child has trouble with hand/eye coordination or catching or throwing balls, it could be due to a depth perception problem. When diagnosed early, vision therapy may help improve depth perception.
- Eye Tracking and Teaming – Vision therapy can help with tracking and teaming problems, which can make reading difficult, result in double-vision and cause problems focusing.
- Farsightedness – Farsightedness is the inability to see objects up close. Children with farsightedness may hold objects, books and papers away from their face in order to see them more clearly. Corrective lenses can help with this refractive error.
- Lazy Eye – A lazy eye usually develops prior to the age of six. This condition causes one eye to be significantly weaker in vision than the other eye. Eye patching and vision therapy can help strengthen a weak or lazy eye.
- Nearsightedness – Nearsightedness is getting more common in children. This is the inability to see objects at a distance. Glasses can help correct this refractive error. Ortho-k lenses may also be able to help stem the progression.
- Eye Infections – Pink eye and styes are common childhood eye infections. Our optometrist can diagnose eye infections and recommend the appropriate course of treatment.
- Strabismus – Crossed eyes occur in about 5 percent of children and can result in double-vision. Treatment usually begins with vision therapy. However, in some cases, surgery may be needed to correct the crossed eyes.
Pediatric Eye Exams
Childhood eye exams can catch eye problems early so that they can be corrected before they affect your child’s ability to develop hand/eye coordination, learn and read. Children should have their first eye exam at our office when they are six months old. This helps check the development of the eyes and diagnose problems with eye movement and focus. Your child’s next exam should be scheduled when they are 36 months old. If there are no eye problems or vision problems detected, your child won’t need another eye exam until the age of five or before they start preschool or kindergarten. Children, who need corrective lenses or vision therapy, will need to have eye exams every year. For school-aged children with no vision problems, we recommend scheduling an eye exam every two years.
To schedule your child’s next comprehensive eye exam with Dr. Wagner, O.D. to check for vision and eye health and movement problems, call us today at (303) 427-2020.