When is it time for your child to have a professional eye exam? This is an excellent and often asked question.

We recommend the following guidelines. Of course, if any concerns arise at anytime, immediate attention is warranted. Let's face it, nothing is more important than our children's health and development!

At Birth

The attending physician conducts checks for general eye health and signs of any congenital problems.

Milestones: All infants are born with underdeveloped visual systems that have the potential to grow and develop- progressing from a blurry world as a newborn to performing complex visual tasks by the time she reaches school age. Early detection and treatment of eye health and visual problems are essential for proper visual development.

 

At 6 Months - 1 year

A thorough eye exam should be done to test for unequal or excessive amounts of refractive error (the need for glasses)- farsightedness (hyperopia), nearsightedness (myopia), and astigmatism, as well as for eye movement ability and presence of eye health problems. This exam can be done without the verbal input from your child!

Milestones: Your child is now starting to focus on near objects, follow moving objects with his eyes, and begin reaching for things. These tasks will increase in accuracy as hand-eye coordination and depth perception develop. His eyes begin to work and focus together laying the foundation for more complex visual skills.

 

At 3 years

A full, formal eye health and vision evaluation should be done to measure visual acuity (how clear your child is seeing), test for nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, and test for eye teaming abilities. At this age, your child is able to participate in formal testing.

Milestones: Both of her eyes should now focus and work together. Her depth perception is becoming more advanced. Distance judgment and the ability to grasp objects with greater accuracy continues to increase. Color vision continues to develop.

 

Before Entering Kindergarten

A vision exam will assess your child's reading readiness skills. The evaluation will include checking for eye health, visual acuity, refractive error (need for glasses), depth perception, ability to see colors, and eye teaming abilities.

Milestones: His hand-eye and eye/body coordination increases dramatically with depth perception. Vision skills are getting fine-tuned with developing eye teaming skills and fine motor skills needed for the foundation to begin to learn to read and write.

 

School Age Children Regular eye examinations are recommended to test for problems that could affect school performance. Milestones:The basic skills needed for her school years are clear distancee and near vision, peripheral vision, focusing skills, eye teaming skills, and eye tracking skills for speed, accuracy and control of her visual inspection.

Symptoms that May Indicate a Vision Problem:

• Jerking, erratic eye movements or lack of fixation in infants
• Avoiding activities that require near vision or avoding use of an eye
• Holding objects close to the eyes or sitting too close to the TV
• Using finger to follow along while reading
• Turning or tilting the head or body when performing visual tasks
• Squinting, closing, or covering an eye
• Rubbing or blinking excessively
• Redness of the eyes, excessive tearing
• Reversing words or letters or numbers when reading or writing
• Omitting words or repeating or skipping lines when reading
• Confusing words with similar beginnings
• Performing below potential