A children’s eye test is an expert assessment of your child’s eye health and vision performed by an optometrist or an ophthalmologist. Studies have shown that 80% of learning is visual, which means that if your child is having difficulty seeing clearly, his or her learning can be affected. To ensure your children have the visual resources they need to grow and develop normally, their eyes and vision should be checked by a children’s eye doctor at certain stages of development.
According to the American Optometric Association, children should have their eyes examined by an eye doctor at 6 months, 3 years old, at the start of school, and then at least one every 3 years after that as children's eyes can change rapidly as they grow.
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. With the development of eyesight, also comes the foundation for motor development such as crawling, walking and hand-eye coordination.
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 exam at 6 months. At this exam, one of our optometrists will check to ensure the child is seeing properly 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 for babies born prematurely or show signs of developmental delay, the doctor may require more frequent visits to keep watch on his or her progress.
Ages 2 – 5
The toddler and preschool age is a period where children experience drastic growth in intellectual acumen and motor skills. During this time, they will develop the motor skills, hand-eye coordination and perceptual abilities that will prepare them to read and write, play sports, and participate in creative activities. 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 turns inward or outward). The earlier these conditions are treated, the higher the rate is for successful treatment. Parents should also be aware of any developmental delays having to do with the recognition of objects, numbers, or letters as well as color recognition or coordination, as the root of these problems is often vision related.
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 in afterschool 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
In addition to basic visual acuity (distance and near vision) a pediatric 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. Please also inform the doctor about any relevant personal history of your child such as a premature birth, developmental delays, family history of eye problems, eye injuries, as well as medications the child is taking.
If one of our eye doctors determines 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 eye and vision issues as early as possible.
Following the guidelines for children’s eye exams and staying alert to signs of vision problems will help your child to reach his or her full potential.