Eye Exams for Kids at Miamisburg Vision Care
Regular eye exams play an important role in your child’s vision and development. Pediatric eye care uses specialized techniques and technology to support accurate testing and detect early signs of eye conditions.
Experts estimate that 80% of learning is visual, so vision problems can affect your child’s ability to learn. This is especially true for infants who develop and learn about the world around them through their sense of sight. To ensure that your children have the visual resources they need to grow and develop normally, an eye doctor should check their eyes and vision at certain stages of their development.
According to the American Optometric Association (AOA), children should have eye exams at 6 months, 3 years, at the start of school, and every year after that. If your child shows signs of a vision problem or has risk factors such as developmental delays, premature birth, crossed or lazy eyes, family history, or previous injuries, your eye doctor may recommend more frequent exams. A child who wears eyeglasses or contact lenses should have their eyes examined yearly.
Eye Exams in Infants: Birth-24 Months
A baby’s visual system develops gradually over the first few months of life. They have to learn to focus and move their eyes, and use them together as a team. The brain also needs to learn how to process the visual information from the eyes to understand and interact with the world. Vision development supports motor skills such as crawling, walking, and hand-eye coordination.
You can ensure that your baby is reaching milestones by keeping an eye on what is happening with your infant’s development and by ensuring that you schedule a comprehensive infant eye examination at 6 months. At this exam, the eye doctor will check that the child is seeing properly and developing on track, and look for conditions that could impair eye health or vision, such as strabismus (misalignment or crossing of the eyes), farsightedness, nearsightedness, or astigmatism.
If your infant was born prematurely or is showing signs of developmental delay, there is a higher risk of eye and vision problems, and your eye doctor may require more frequent visits to monitor their progress.
Read about InfantSEE, a free one-time eye exam for babies.
Eye Check-Up in Preschool Children: Ages 2-5
The toddler and preschool years are a period of rapid growth in intellectual and motor skills. During this time, they develop fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and perceptual abilities that prepare them to read, write, play sports, and participate in creative activities such as drawing, sculpting, or building. This is all dependent upon good vision and visual processes.
At this age, parents should watch for signs of lazy eye (amblyopia), when one eye does not see clearly, or crossed eyes (strabismus), when one or both eyes turn inward or outward. The earlier we treat these conditions, the higher the success rate.
Parents should watch for delays in object, number, or letter recognition, color recognition, or coordination, as these issues may signal vision problems. If your child squints, rubs their eyes often, sits very close to the TV or reading material, or avoids activities like puzzles or coloring, schedule an eye exam.
Eye Exams in School-Aged Kids: Ages 6-18
Undetected or uncorrected vision problems can affect children and teens academically, socially, athletically, and personally. If your child is having trouble in school or after-school activities, there could be an underlying vision problem. Learning, motor development, reading, and other skills rely on good vision and the eyes' ability to work together. Children who have difficulty focusing, reading, or coordinating their eyes may feel frustrated and exhibit behavioral challenges. Often, they don’t realize their vision is abnormal, so they can’t express that they need help.
In addition to the symptoms written above, signs of vision problems in older children include:
- Short attention span
- Headaches
- Frequent blinking
- Avoiding reading
- Tilting the head to one side
- Losing their place while reading
- Double vision
- Poor reading comprehension
The Eye Exam
In addition to basic visual acuity (distance and near vision, or refractive errors), an eye exam may assess the following visual skills children need for learning and mobility:
- Binocular vision: how the eyes work together as a team
- Focusing
- Peripheral vision
- Color vision
- Hand-eye coordination
- Tracking
The doctor will also examine the area around the eye and inside the eye to check for any eye diseases or health conditions. You should tell the doctor any relevant personal history of your child, such as a premature birth, developmental delays, family history of eye problems, eye injuries, or medications the child is taking. This is also the time to address any concerns that may indicate a vision problem.
Children's Eyeglasses, Contacts, and Other Treatments
If your child has a vision problem, the eye doctor may recommend options such as eyeglasses, contact lenses, an eye patch, vision therapy, or ortho-k, depending on the condition. Since some conditions are much easier to treat when we catch them early, while the eyes are still developing, it is important to diagnose any eye and vision issues as early as possible.
Following eye exam guidelines and watching for signs of vision problems can help your child reach their full potential.