Your child’s eyesight: Why a vision screening is so important for your preschooler
As many as one in four children have an undiagnosed eye condition.
Vision plays an essential role in a child’s education, social and physical development, in fact, about 80% of learning takes place through the visual system.
With up to one in four children having an undiagnosed eye condition, our children’s eye health is an important and growing issue in both Australia and New Zealand.
Children rarely complain of eye problems or realise that they can’t see well. The only way to tell if a child has a vision problem is to have the child’s vision tested one eye at a time.
Early detection and intervention is very important to minimise the impact of an eye condition on a child’s developing visual system.
The preschool vision screening
The StEPS program is an initiative of NSW Health and offers all four-year-old children free vision screening. Similar programs run in other states around Australia; check with your child and family health nurse, preschool or school to see what’s offered in your state or territory.
Greeshma Patel, store owner and optometrist at the Specsavers Sydney CBD store emphasises the need for early childhood vision screenings and says that between the ages of five and eight a child’s visual system is maturing and developing rapidly.
“It’s important that they have their eyes checked before the age of seven because after that any intervention that we employ might be useless. For example, to encourage a lazy eye you’ll often see children with patches on glasses. This is covering the good eye and forcing that lazy, weaker eye to learn to see. If we don’t do that by the right age, it’s too late,” explains Greeshma.
Store owner and optometrist at the Specsavers Sydney CBD store, Greeshma Patel says it’s important children have their eyes checked before the age of seven.
Book an assessment if you’re concerned about your child’s eye health
Greeshma recommends getting your child assessed as early as possible if you have a family history of vision issues or any concerns about their eye health.
“If you have any, any doubt that your child is not seeing perfectly or properly, then getting checked is always good idea. If your child has an eye test earlier than the age of about five years old, we’re not expecting them to meet 20/20 vision standards. We’re expecting that the two eyes have an equal level of vision. And if they don’t, we need to understand why. What is stopping one eye seeing as well as the other eye?
“More often than not, there is a bit of a lag in development. And three months later, things will catch up but sometimes it may need correction. Do we need to give glasses to that child? Is there a muscle issue? Is one eye turning in? Or is one eye dropping down or is the lid obscuring the vision?”
Undiagnosed eye conditions stemming from childhood can have negative long-term effects in adult life.
Undiagnosed eye conditions
Undiagnosed eye conditions can severely impair a child’s education and wellbeing. If left uncorrected, an eye condition can lead to either unilateral or bilateral vision loss or even blindness and can have a lasting impact on the child’s life.
“If one eye has never learned to see properly it can impact your third depth perception – which we call stereopsis – and that can limit the types of jobs you can do, such as being an airline pilot,” explains Greeshma.
Does screen time affect myopia?
Short-sightedness or myopia occurs when light entering the eye focuses in front of the retina instead of on the retina. This is usually because the eyeball is longer than usual.
Spending time outdoors can help lower your child’s risk of developing myopia.
“Screen time, devices and online homework is a big concern,” says Greeshma. “A couple of hours outdoors play per day helps reduce the glare. External daylight quality light and the ability to stretch their eyes and look around and run around is beneficial as it allows children to do something with their eyes that is away from close work and is useful in preventing unnecessary short sight progression.”
Excessive use of digital smart devices, including smartphones and tablet computers, could be a risk factor for myopia.
So, when should your children have a comprehensive eye test?
- Before they start school (at around 5 or 6 years old)
- Every year after that if they have no symptoms, as young eyes change as they grow
- As soon as you can, if you’re worried about their eye health.
If your child has eye or vision problems, an optometrist can work out what the problem is and how best to treat it.
