Children's Vision

Infants Vision

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 develop. First, proper prenatal care and nutrition can help your baby’s eyes develop before birth. At birth, your baby’s eyes should be examined for signs of congenital eye problems. These are rare, but early diagnosis and treatment are important to your child’s development.

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. Theses 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 examination should be around age three, and then again before he or she enters school. Between birth and age three, when many of your baby’s vision skills will develop, there are ways that you can help. To learn more, click here.

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 preschooler’s vision develop as it should.

To learn more, click here.

School Age
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.

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 smoothly 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 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.

1. Loses their place while reading;
2. Avoids close work;
3. Holds reading material closer than normal;
4. Tends to rub their eyes;
5. 5 Has headaches;
6. Turns or tilts head to use one eye only;
7. Makes frequent reversals when reading or writing;
8. Uses finger to maintain place when reading;
9. Omits or confuses small words when reading;
10. Consistently performs below potential.