Children with uncorrected vision conditions or eye health problems face many barriers in life, academically, socially, and athletically. High-quality eye care can break down these barriers and help enable your children to reach their highest potential!

As a parent, make sure you are giving your children the eye care they need. The American Optometric Association recommends comprehensive eye evaluations by an optometrist at ages 6 months, 3 years, 5 years, and every year while the child is in school.

Not all eye doctors are created equally. At our office, we have special equipment and training to give your child a great experience while testing his eyes thoroughly during his exam.

          Infant Vision   

Because of the importance of early detection for vision and ocular health conditions, Dr. Gina Gabriel is a provider for the InfantSEE™ program, which provides a complimentary comprehensive vision and ocular health evaluation for children less than 12 months of age.

Your baby has a whole lifetime to see and learn. But did you know your baby also has to learn to see? As a parent, there are many things that you can do to help your baby’s vision develop.

When your baby is about six months, you should take him to your doctor of optometry for his first comprehensive eye examination. Things that the optometrist will test for include excessive or unequal amounts of nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, lack of eye movement ability, as well as other eye health problems. These problems are not common, but it is important to identify children who have them at this stage. Vision development and eye health problems can be more easily corrected if treatment is begun early.

Unless you notice a need, or your doctor of optometry advises you otherwise, your child’s next eye exam should be around age three, and then again before he or she enters school.

During the first four months of life, your baby should begin to follow moving objects with the eyes and to reach for things, first by chance and later more accurately, as hand-eye coordination and depth perception begin to develop.

To help, change the crib’s position frequently and your child’s position in it; talk to your baby as you walk around the room; and alternate right and left sides with each feeding.

Between four and eight months, your baby should begin to turn from side to side and use his or her arms and legs. Eye movement and eye/body coordination skills should develop further and both eyes should focus equally. Enable your baby to explore different shapes and textures with his or her fingers; give your baby the freedom to crawl and explore; move toys closer and farther from your baby’s face while she grabs at them; and play “patty cake” and “peek-a-boo” with your baby.

From eight to twelve months, your baby should become mobile, crawling and pulling himself up. He will begin to use both eyes together to judge distances and grasp and throw objects with greater precision. To support development do not encourage early walking – crawling is important in developing eye-hand-foot-body coordination; give your baby stacking and take-apart toys; point to objects far away (airplanes, etc) and have your baby find them with his eyes; and provide objects your baby can touch, hold and see at the same time.

From one to two years, your child’s eye-hand coordination and depth perception will continue to develop and he or she will begin to understand abstract terms. At this age you want to encourage walking; provide building blocks, simple puzzles and balls; also provide opportunities to climb and explore indoors and out.

There are many other affectionate and loving ways in which you can aid your baby’s vision development. Use your creativity and imagination.

Click here to learn more about vision in infants.

Pre-School Vision

During the infant and toddler years, your child has been developing many vision skills and has been learning how to see. In the preschool years, this process continues, as your child develops visually guided eye-hand-body coordination, fine motor skills, and the visual motor skills necessary to learn to read.

As a parent, you should watch for signs that may indicate a vision development problem, including a short attention span for the child’s age; difficulty with eye-hand-body coordination in ball play and bike riding; avoidance of coloring and puzzles and other detailed activities. There are everyday things that you can do at home to help your preschooler’s vision develop as it should.

These activities include reading aloud to your child and letting him or her see what you are reading; providing a chalkboard, finger paints and different shaped blocks and showing your child how to use them in imaginative play; providing safe opportunities to use playground equipment such as a jungle gym and balance beam; and allowing time for interacting with other children and for playing independently.

If your child has not had an infant eye exam, by age three your child should have a thorough optometric eye examination to make sure your preschooler’s vision is developing properly and there is no evidence of eye disease. If needed, your doctor can prescribe treatment including glasses and/or vision therapy to correct a vision development problem.

Here are several tips to make your child’s optometric examination a positive experience:

1. Make your appointment time one when your child will be alert (not during nap-time) and not hungry. Allow about an hour and a half.
2. Talk about the examination in advance and encourage your child’s questions.
3. We often dilate your child’s pupils at his or her first eye examination.

Unless recommended otherwise, your child’s next eye examination should be at age five. By comparing test results of the two examinations, your optometrist can tell how well your child’s vision is developing for the next major step. . .the school years.

School-Age Vision

A good education for your child means good schools, good teachers and good vision. Your child’s eyes are constantly in use in the classroom and at play. So when his or her vision is not functioning properly, all visual activities (learning, educational, and recreational) will suffer.

The basic vision skills needed for school use are:

• Near Vision: The ability to see clearly and comfortably at 10-13 inches.
• Distance Vision: The ability to see clearly and comfortably beyond arm’s reach.
• Binocular coordination: The ability to use both eyes together.
• Eye movement skills: The ability to aim the eyes accurately, move them across a page and shift them quickly and accurately from one object to another.
• Focusing skills: The ability to keep both eyes accurately focused at the proper distance to see clearly and the ability to change focus quickly.
• Peripheral awareness. The ability to be aware of things located to the side while looking straight ahead.
• Eye/hand coordination. The ability to use the eyes and hands together.

If any of these or other vision skills is lacking or does not function properly, your child will have to work harder. This can lead to headaches, eyestrain, fatigue, and other problems. As a parent, be alert for symptoms that may indicate your child has a vision or visual processing problem. Be sure to tell your optometrist if your child frequently:

• Uses finger to maintain place when reading
• Loses his place while reading
• Avoids close work
• Holds reading material closer than normal
• Tends to rub his eyes
• Has headaches
• Turns or tilts head to use one eye only
• Makes frequent reversals when reading or writing
• Omits or confuses small words when reading
• Consistently performs below potential

Since vision changes can occur without you or your child noticing them, your child should visit the optometrist every year, or more frequently if specific problems or risk factors exist. If needed, the doctor can prescribe treatment including eyeglasses, contact lenses, or vision therapy.

Remember, a school vision or pediatrician’s screening is not a substitute for a thorough eye examination by an optometrist.

Protective Eyewear and Sunglasses

Please do not overlook the importance of safety eyewear when playing sports. Each year, hundreds of men, women, and children are injured when playing sports. To help prevent sports-related eye injuries, athletes should use protective athletic eyewear whether or not prescription eyewear is needed. One choice is a sports frame with prescription or non-prescription polycarbonate lenses. Baseball or softball players who are hit in or near the eye, or suffer a blow to the head, should seek immediate care at a hospital emergency room or from an eye care professional.

It is also very important that children of all ages wear sunglasses. Many eye diseases that adults get are caused by cumulative UV damage over their lifetime. We carry sunglasses in our optical that are safe for kids and come small enough to fit newborns!

Children and Contact Lenses

The important thing for parents and their children who wear contact lenses to remember is that contacts are prescribed medical devices. Contact lenses are not a cosmetic accessory. While the wearer may be happy about his or her new look, it is extremely important that the lenses be properly cleaned and worn according to the instructions of the optometrist.

MOST COMMONLY ASKED CHILDRENS VISION QUESTIONS

Is a school vision screening just as effective as a full eye examination by a doctor?

Vision screenings at your pediatrician or school are useful to pick up gross problems, but they do not take the place of full eye exams. A study that was funded by the National Eye Institute and was published in the April 2004 issue of Ophthalmology found that 36-39% of preschool children with one of the targeted vision disorders was missed. The requirements for grade school vision screenings consist of testing the distance visual acuity. Even near vision, which is a critical component in learning, is sometimes not tested. Farsightedness can easily be missed. Many other important tests especially for the at-risk students are left out. Thus it is very important to have a full eye examination at least before kindergarten.

How do you test an infant or toddler that can not talk?

We have many tests that look at their prescription, eye alignment, basic visual acuity, eye health, focusing and tracking. One test for infants involves two cards. There are black and white stripes on one card and only a gray color on the other. Babies tend to look at the more interesting target (the stripes) and will do so if they can see them. The size of the stripe-pattern is varied to help determine how well they can see with each eye.

Another example is a test for a two year old. We use the Lea chart, which has simple pictures of a house, heart, square and circle. When they are presented, the child points to a card on his or her lap that matches the shape they see.

My child is struggling in school but his last eye doctor said his eyes are fine. Is there anything that could have been missed?

Unfortunately all examinations are not created equal. Most exams include eye clarity, eye health and gross eye alignment. Other tests that are equally important will look at fine eye alignment, depth perception, color vision, eye tracking and focusing. These additional tests can help determine if vision is a component in a child’s learning struggles. If these tests are not performed, visual problems can be overlooked leading to frustration for the child and the teacher.

My child can see airplanes and street signs that I can't see. Does he still need an examination?

Yes! This shows that the child can see well at a distance out of at least one eye. The other eye may be very blurred and the child will not complain because they are unaware. Children can have double or blurred vision with reading and not complain because it has always been that way. They believe that everyone sees the way they do and that their vision is normal, even when it is not.