Children’s Eye Tests for Back to School
It’s back to school season! You’ve got the new uniform and new shoes but have you forgotten about the potentially most important back to school essential? Ensuring that your child has clear and comfortable when in the classroom. Good vision is critical if you want them to achieve their full potential in and around their school surroundings.
Why Regular Children’s Eye Tests are so Important
Approximately 20% of children, under the age of 18 have a diagnosed eye condition. What’s even more staggering is, that an estimated further 20% have an eye condition that is not yet diagnosed. This has a huge impact on a child’s ability to focus and absorb information. This, if left untreated, could potentially lead to a child not reaching their full academic potential; which makes perfect sense. Being able to see and learn from the world around them is one of the key ways in which a child’s brain develops. Removing this ability will likely affect the amount a child is willing to engage with learning!
This also has an effect on their eye health in general. It’s always best to treat a condition as soon as you start noticing signs. Finding conditions when a person is younger often means it has little to no time to develop into more serious issues. For the majority of children, this will not be the case and they will have exceptional vision. In some cases, however, there are problems and if not picked up at an early age could lead to permanent damage.
Suffering from an untreated eye condition will also have the potential to affect the child’s social development. Facial expressions are a key means of communicating mood or intent. If a child has a poor level of vision they may struggle with recognising minor, fine detail movements that we don’t consciously notice; yet are incredibly important. This could lead to them missing important social cues or struggling with establishing the social context.
Additionally, it makes participating in outdoor activities or sports that much more challenging. Anyone who has grown up with poor eyesight can testify how much more difficult sports become when you can’t see what’s happening. It can be incredibly frustrating for the child as they could fall behind their peers due to them having an unfair disadvantage. The majority of recreational activities are not designed with low vision in mind. Despite this, sports such as wrestling, swimming or judo are all great options.
Signs to Look Out For:
6 weeks +
- Inability to follow something with their eyes
- Lack of focus on you
- Wandering eyes
Toddlers
- Clumsiness
- One eye that turns in or out
- Squinting whilst reading or watching TV
- Eye rubbing
- Watery eyes
School-age
- Avoidance of reading, writing or drawing
- Lack of concentration
- Complaints of pain, tired eyes or blurry vision
- Holding books or objects close to the face.
- Sitting excessively close to the TV
What we Offer
As well as our standard eye tests, we offer a specialised service called ‘School Vision Assessment.’ This is an assessment to explore possible sight reasons, if a child is having difficulties at school. More specifically, it looks at reading difficulties and dyslexia, allowing practitioners to dramatically alter learning outcomes for those affected. Muscle balance, eye dominancy, tracking, reading speed and colour preferences are all assessed. Along with our children’s eye tests and the need for spectacles to aid clear focus when reading.
We recommend that children with healthy and normal vision should have eye tests every two years. Those with refractive errors should visit more regularly, once every year. Eye tests are critical for treating correctable errors and diagnosing disease.
Looking to Book a Children’s Eye Test
Children do not have the ability to communicate any issues or pain they are suffering with. It’s the responsibility of the parents to book their children’s eye test and ensure their children’s eyes are healthy. It’s never too early to have a sight test, visiting an optometrist will mean you can spot and manage vision problems that may affect your child’s development.
They also don’t have to be at reading age – we have picture tests as well!
If you’re curious about why children’s eye tests are so important, feel free to get in touch with us if you have any further questions. Give us a call on 01323 442 062 or email us info@focusmedicaleyecentre.co.uk and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.