Examining items about children’s eyes

Children’s good performance in school depends highly on their basic visual skills, such as near vision, distance vision, binocular coordination, eye movement skills, focusing skills, peripheral vision and eye coordination. However, there are currently a lot of kids suffering from various visual problems. In detail, it is estimated that 5% of pre-schoolers and 25% of school-aged children are bothered by abnormal vision conditions like myopia and hyperopia.

When do children need eye exams?

Since good eyesight is extremely important for students at different ages, eye examination is strongly recommended for this group. The American Optometric Association recommends that children should receive comprehensive eye exams at six months of age, three years of age and six years of age. After they enter school, eye exams should be taken every two years. Eye examinations at these points would help them detect any vision problems and check the need for prescription eyewear. Early detection and treatment of vision problems are crucial for children.

Simple examination items of children’s eyes

Most children may receive their first eye exam from a family doctor or pediatrician. Once suspected problems are found, parents should take their children to a professional ophthalmologist or optometrist for further examination with more powerful instruments. In detail, items of children’s eye exam include vision testing, eyeglasses determination, eye alignment testing and probably, a parent education.

Tests of color vision, depth perception and pupil function

Infants at three or four months old should receive several eye tests to assess whether they have developed required focusing skills, color vision and depth perception. A test of pupil response can show that whether a kid’s pupils can open and close properly in the absence or presence of bright sunlight. Children may also be tested that whether they can focus and follow moving objectives. Blank and stripe cards can be used to evaluate infants’ preferential looking skills.

Tests of non-verbal reading ability, light response and amblyopia

Eye tests for pre-school children also involve some types of non-verbal symbols. The first type is LEA symbols, including apples, houses, squares and circles. Retinoscopy is used to test the eye’s response to light, and random dot stereopsis is used to test the two eyes’ relation. The assessment of amblyopia for children requires some skills since there is no detectable anatomic damage. Amblyopia can be corrected via eye patching, which is aimed to strengthen the weaker eye. Also called strabismus, misalignment eyes may be caused by disabled muscle control in the affected eye or eyes.

Tests for focus ability, eyelid abnormalities and cornea irregularities

Some other testing items including correct focusing, depth perception, distance gauge ability and color vision are also important. Furthermore, children’s eyelids and lid margins may be examined to find potential abnormal eyelash follicles, bumps, discharge and swelling. And cornea, iris and lens examinations may discover cloudiness or other irregularities. In conclusion, eye problems on children such as lazy eye must be detected and treated as early as possible, since good vision is critical for school performance.

Parents should provide additional health information of their children

It may be unnoticeable that parents also play an important role in children’s daily eye care covering regular eye examinations. Parents should fill in a case history form about their children after making an appointment with the doctor. The form may ask for children’s birth weight, full-term issue, pregnancy or delivery complications, current medications and present allergies. Moreover, parents should feel free to tell the doctor all of their children’s eye conditions, such as frequent eye rubbing, excessive blink, eye contact failure, poor eye tracking skills, diagnosis and related treatments of any previous eye problem, as well as family eye disease history etc.