Why are eye exams for children important?
1. A full eye exam can check your child’s vision and eye health more than a store sight test or a school vision screening.
Full eye exams from a doctor of optometry can be used to:
- Diagnose, treat and help prevent diseases and disorders affecting your child’s eye health
- Identify health conditions that are often first detected through an eye exam,
- Refer your child to specialists and help manage post-eye-surgery health.
If your child has had a sight or vision screening at school, know that not all eye tests are created equal, and that this should not replace a comprehensive eye exam. Tests or screenings done at school cannot be used to diagnose eye-health or learning related vision problems. Studies show that vision screening tests have high error rates with many children with vision problems being able to pass a vision screening test.
2. Visual abilities play a key role in early development
For school-age children, several different visual skills must work together so they can see and understand clearly. If any of these visual skills are lacking or impaired, your child will need to work harder and may develop headaches or fatigue. The increased visual demands of schoolwork can often make greater demands on a child’s visual skills, pointing out a vision problem that was not apparent before school.
3. Your child may not realize they have a vision problem
They may simply assume everyone sees the way they do.
How many eye exams should my child have?
Doctors of optometry recommend:
- having their first eye exam at six months of age
- a complete optometric eye exam between six and nine months of age
- at least one eye exam between the ages of two and five and yearly after starting school
A doctor of optometry can complete an eye exam even if your child doesn’t know their ABC’s! A doctor of optometry can use shapes, pictures and other child-friendly ways to evaluate vision and eye health.
What happens during a child’s eye exam?
During a comprehensive eye exam, your child’s optometrist will perform a series of tests that will determine the quality of their vision and overall health of the eye. These tests may include:
- Slit lamp: This is a high-powered microscope that allows the optometrist to look deep inside your child’s eyes, ensuring the cornea, iris, lens and blood vessels in each eye appear normal and healthy.
- Manual refraction using a phoropter: A phoropter is a machine that allows your child to view objects through a variety of lenses to see what combination is the clearest. It helps determine if your child requires a prescription for glasses or not.
- Stereopsis: Various tests are used to see whether your child’s eyes are working together, one of those tests uses 3D glasses.
- Visual acuity: Using eye charts made up of letters, symbols, tumbling E or pictures, your optometrist will ask what your child can see. This helps the doctor determine how clear your child’s vision is.
- Colour-blind test: Using a variety of patterns and colours, your optometrist will ask your child to identify the objects or numbers hidden within. If your child is colour blind, the patterns will appear different than they would for a person with normal colour vision.
- Retinoscopy: Your optometrist will use a target and ask your child to focus on that target while the optometrist shines a light in their eye. The optometrist will flip through a variety of lenses. This test helps determine the lens prescription.
- Binocular Vision Testing: This includes a number of tests including a ‘cover test’ and checking that all of the extra-ocular muscles are functioning properly.
In addition to scheduling your children for regular comprehensive eye exams, your Doctor of Optometry is available to talk to you about various topics. Many are available for urgent care appointments (pink eye, eye injuries, etc.), they can help treat allergies, and can discuss eyewear solutions with you.
Book an eye exam for your child
Most provinces in Canada offer a level of coverage for regular comprehensive eye exams for children. Contact your local optometrist, or find one close to you using the ‘Find an Eye Doctor’ tool to learn more about coverage and to book your child’s regular comprehensive eye exam today.