INFANT’S AND CHILDREN VISION

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. The following information helps your children about eye care they need:

Infant’s Vision

At about age six months, you should take your baby to your doctor of optometry for his or her first thorough eye examination. Things that the optometrist will test for include excessive or unequal amounts of nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism and eye movement ability as well as 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.

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.

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.

Unless your doctor of optometry advises otherwise, your child's next eye examination should be at age four. 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...into the school years.

School-Age Children

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, learning and participation in recreational activities will suffer.

If your child’s vision skills are lacking or not functioning properly, your child will have to work harder. This can lead to headaches, fatigue and other eyestrain 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:

• Loses their place while reading;
• Avoids close work;
• Holds reading material closer than normal;
• Tends to rub their eyes;
• Has headaches;
• Turns or tilts head to use one eye only;
• Makes frequent reversals when reading or writing;
• Uses finger to maintain place when reading;
• 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 at least 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.

Binocular Vision (Two eyes working as a team)

Each eye forms its own image, and it is the brain’s job to fuse the two images into one. For the brain to do its job the eyes must be aligned, move together, and produce images of similar size and shape. When the eyes are not coordinated, they have to work hard to see clearly, often causing eyestrain or headaches. Although you might know it, Dr. Tony Tao performs a whole series of tests to access the ability of the eye muscles to keep the two eyes working together as a team.