Children’s Eye Exams | Practice/Clinic Name

Focusing on Your Family

It’s never too early to focus on your children’s eye health and vision. Their sense of sight is important at every age and every stage of development.

It’s common for kids to be nervous about their first eye exam. Our optometrists are experienced with children and can put them at ease. Many kids even think their eye exams are fun! And, if your child does need glasses, we offer a wide selection of colours and styles in durable materials that will make you smile, too!

Book their appointment today to help set them up for a lifetime of healthy vision.

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When Do Children Need Eye Exams?

Your kids' eyes are constantly changing and growing, and consistent eye exams are important to monitor their eye health and visual development. Our team can recommend an eye exam schedule for your child based on their unique needs.

Clear vision can help children succeed in life and academics. Beyond just seeing what’s in front of them at school, visual skills are needed for social, cognitive, and motor skill development.

Valuable Visual Skills

Children aren’t born with the visual skills they need. They develop them over time, just like they develop the ability to walk and talk.

Good visual skills are essential to learning. Approximately 80% of what children learn happens through their vision. Whether it’s reading, interacting with other kids, throwing a ball around outside, or seeing what the teacher writes on the board, eyesight is involved.

If you want to set them up for success, their visual skills must be developing normally. Children who start school with undiagnosed vision problems may struggle to keep up in class. They may be misdiagnosed with ADHD or another behavioural disorder.

Undiagnosed vision problems can also lead to:

Learning at a slower rate than their peers
Behavioural and disciplinary problems
Higher risk of dropping out of school

Stages of Sight

There are many milestones in a baby's visual progression. Here's what to expect at some important stages:

Birth to 1 Month: Your baby should be staring at bright lights or faces, albeit for a short period.
1 to 3 Months: They'll begin to look toward sounds and follow objects horizontally.
3 to 5 Months: Babies begin to reach for objects and see differences between colours.
5 to 7 Months: Hand-eye coordination will begin to develop, and your baby should start looking at distant objects.
7 to 12 Months: Depth perception, focusing, and other visual skills should be developed, and your baby might begin to copy facial expressions they see.

As children get older, you can encourage their healthy visual development by playing look-and-find games like Where’s Waldo, doing word searches and maze games together, and limiting their screen time.

To help monitor your child’s visual development, bring them in for comprehensive eye exams regularly.

How Do I Know if My Child Needs Glasses?

If children are experiencing a vision issue, they are often unable to articulate the problem. They might not even know there is a problem. Unlike adults, children have not established a baseline of what proper vision looks like for them.

Kids can experience signs or symptoms that may not seem visual, like tiredness, poor concentration, or difficulty keeping their place while reading. They may develop vision problems that standard glasses can’t correct alone, like strabismus (eye turn) or amblyopia (lazy eye). Even uncorrected myopia (nearsightedness), a common visual condition, can impact their healthy visual development.

Bringing your child for regular eye exams can help establish that baseline. We can detect vision problems early on, whether they need glasses or other personalized vision care. Book their appointment today!

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