Children’s Vision

The American Optometric Association (AOA) issued guidelines for how often children should go to an eye doctor for a comprehensive eye exam. According to these recommendations, infants should have their first ocular evaluation at 6 months of age. Routine eye exams should then follow at 3 years old and at 5-6 years old (prior to entering kindergarten or first grade). School-aged kids should have a complete eye assessment done every year. At Optics, we are happy to start seeing your children as young as 4 years old.

Eye Exams and Children

If your child is having developmental delays or trouble in school there could be an underlying vision problem. Proper learning, motor development, reading, and many other skills are dependent upon not only good vision, but your eyes functioning together. Children that have problems with focusing 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. Many conditions are much easier to treat when they are caught early while the eyes are still developing, so it is important to diagnose any eye health and vision issues as early as possible.

Vision Screening vs. an Eye Exam

When we recommend regular eye exams, this should not be confused with a vision screening. A vision screening is a basic test that indicates if you have difficulty seeing and require further assessment and corrective measures. It can be performed by anyone, whether it is a school nurse, a pediatrician or even a volunteer at a vision clinic. A vision screening usually only checks vision, it does not check eye health. Also, most vision screenings for kids only check for nearsightedness (when you can not see far), but what happens when the majority of children are farsighted? Most of the time many of these kids get overlooked.

We would love to see your children to ensure that they have the best possible vision to assist them in their development and learning. Please schedule an exam today at (480) 991-0509.