Children’s Vision Examination
Since birth, the eye starts to develop according to age, heredity, health conditions and environmental influences.
A comprehensive eye examination can start at the age of 3 and latest before the age of 6 as this is the critical period for vision development. Refractive errors, lazy eyes, abnormal eye conditions can be detected, corrected, managed and treated early enough to avoid permanent damage to vision. An eye examination as early as 6 months can also be conducted to rule out unusually high refractive errors, eye muscle incoordinations or congenital conditions such as cataract.
Common children’s vision problems include:
- Blurred vision: short-sightedness, long-sightedness, astigmatism
- Muscle imbalance between the two eyes: squint (cross-eye), poor depth perception.
- Weakness in accommodation: poor focus at near
- Learning difficulty
Lazy eyes or amblyopia, if diagnosed and treated before the age of 8, the prognosis can be very satisfactory. Beyond this critical period, it might be extremely difficult to restore good vision.
Children’s vision examination is no different from a primary eye care examination for adults except that a cycloplegic refraction test (using eyedrops) is necessary to confirm a true refractive error by eliminating a possible misdiagnosis of pseudo-myopia caused by overacting eye muscles.
