Protecting Your Child’s Vision

Vision plays an essential part in your child’s learning and development. If your young one isn’t seeing their best, their ability to learn, play, and perform basic tasks is affected.

We want to help your child find success both inside and outside the classroom. Schedule your child’s next eye exam today.

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Why Are Children’s Eye Exams Important?

Vision is more than seeing clearly. The better vision your child has, the better their ability to understand what they see. Children, in particular, are not always able to voice their vision problems because they lack a frame of reference.

Signs your child is having vision problems include:

  • Excess squinting
  • Headaches
  • Covering one eye to see
  • Tilting their head
  • Double vision
  • Difficulty reading or poor comprehension
  • Rubbing their eyes frequently
  • A misaligned eye
  • Poor hand-eye coordination

A comprehensive eye exam can help detect common eye conditions in children such as myopia, amblyopia, and strabismus.

How Often Should My Child Get Their Eyes Examined?

As children grow, their eyes change rapidly. Scheduling regular eye exams at specific points in your child’s development can track changes and detect possible eye diseases or conditions.

 

 

Infants

At around 6 months, your baby should visit an optometrist for their first examination even if no signs or symptoms are present.

Important visual milestones can occur between 5–8 months, including depth perception and eye-body skills such as crawling. Eye examinations can ensure their visual progress and developmental skills are on track.

The optometrist will test for any eye conditions, eye movement ability, eye alignment, and check overall eye health.

Children between the ages of 2–5 should come in for at least one eye exam. At this age, they fine-tune their visual skills. Introducing activities such as stacking blocks, rolling or catching a ball, and colouring can help improve visual skills.

An in-depth examination will check for proper vision development and any evidence of eye disease.

Around 6 years old up until age 20, children should come in for annual eye exams. More frequent exams may be recommended based on your child’s needs.

Vision skills essential to your child’s learning include visual acuity, eye focusing, eye tracking, and eye-hand coordination.

Protect Your Little One’s Eyes

Your child’s eyes are a window to information about the world around them. If their vision isn’t at its best, it can affect their ability to recognize, comprehend, and retain that visual information. Visit our team at Forest City Optometry to ensure your child is learning to the best of their ability in the classroom.

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