August is traditionally the time when families start getting ready for the new school year. Apart from new notebooks, backpacks, clothes and shoes, your kids should also have a thorough eye exam to ensure that there are no vision problems that could affect the way they learn. Remember, in-school vision screenings are no substitute for comprehensive eye exams.
Here’s why you should make an eye appointment before your kids go back to school.
Changes Happen Fast
Children grow quickly, changing and developing in many different ways. Their eyes can change just as fast, even within a few months. A child’s eye health needs are different from an adult’s. Their eyes are constantly developing until they’ve finished growing and they can be subject to conditions you wouldn’t even know to look for.
This past summer may have seen changes to your children’s vision so, before they head back to school, think about making an appointment with their eye doctor for a comprehensive eye exam to ensure that their eyes are healthy, functioning as they should and seeing clearly.
Common Childhood Eye Problems
- Myopia or nearsightedness often develops around the age of 6 or 7 and causes blurred vision when looking at distant objects
- Hyperopia or farsightedness means a child may have good distance vision but struggled with reading close up
- Amblyopia is also known as lazy eye. One eye has stronger vision than the other, which causes the brain to favour the stronger eye and that makes the weak eye turn up, down or to the side
- Strabismus is an eye issue that causes misaligned eyes.
Because children often don’t realize that their vision isn’t normal, they are unable to notice or properly explain a change in their eyesight. But, with routine eye exams, an optometrist can find problems and prescribe what your child needs to see clearly so they can succeed at school.
Visual Learning
During their elementary and middle school years, children are usually visual learners, so the ability to see clearly is crucial to their education.
Vision problems can cause the following difficulties for children:
- Chronic headaches from squinting
- Trouble paying attention to teachers
- Difficulty completing homework
- An inability to see what’s written on the chalkboard
- Poor overall school performance
- Trouble reading, writing and doing presentations
- A reluctance to go to school at all
A complete eye exam to determine if their eyes are healthy and seeing well before the beginning of the new school year, will ensure that these problems won’t affect your child’s ability to perform well in school. A yearly eye exam will also give you the opportunity to get updated prescriptions for your child and ask your eye doctor any questions you may have.
