Children's care

Children's Care

When should your child’s eyes be tested?
We recommend that you bring your child in for an eye assessment during their prep year, ie in the year before school starts*. There are many circumstances where “forearmed is forewarned” and steps can be taken to address many concerns that may impact on your child’s schoolwork. As a simple example, if your child is colour-blind, no effective treatments are available but you and your child’s teacher can at least be made aware of the limitations of what your child can see. One in twelve boys is colour-blind (it’s much rarer in girls), and although this does not usually mean they can’t see any colour at all, it does mean that certain colours (commonly khaki green and rusty red) will be indistinguishable from each other, making tasks difficult if those colours are mixed.

Many children will have convergence insufficiency, meaning that their eyes don’t go “cross-eyed” as easily as they should when viewing near objects. This can result in difficulty learning to read, as print can “double” easily. If children can have these simple problems
assessed and addressed, their reading and learning career can get off to a great start. Treatment is usually very simple, and typically glasses are not necessary for this. Most children do not need glasses. When they are required, they can make a huge difference to a child’s learning experiences, getting them off to a great start in these vital years.

*If you’re wondering about any vision issues that your pre-prep child may have – for example, if an eye appears to “turn”, or your child is “squinting” at things to see them – please bring your child in for assessment before the recommended “prep year” test.