Children's Vision Month occurs annually in October and is dedicated to raising awareness of the impact undiagnosed vision problems can have on children's learning and development. It is an initiative of the Canadian Association of Optometrists and the 10 provincial optometric associations.
One in four school-age children has a vision problem that, if left untreated, can affect proper learning and development. During Children's Vision Month, Doctors of Optometry Canada are reminding parents of the importance of regular eye exams to help ensure their children reach their full potential.
At birth, your baby can see blurred patterns of light and dark. During their first four months, your child's vision becomes clearer, colour vision begins to develop, and their eyes start to work together. By the time they're six months old, your baby will acquire eye movement control and start to develop eye-hand coordination skills.
Doctors of Optometry recommend that babies have their first eye examination between six and nine months of age, to determine their eyes are healthy, eye movements and alignment are developing properly, and the eyes are focusing together.
Visual development continues into the preschool years - depth perception, eye-hand coordination and visualization skills are all developing at this time. It's important to remember that your child is not likely able to identity that their vision is abnormal, as they have no point of comparison. Parents want their children to do well at school. And since 80 per cent of learning is through their eyes, your child's vision is crucial to a good school experience. A school-age child's eyes are constantly in use in the classroom and at play. For school-age children, several different visual skills must work together so they can see and understand clearly.
Clear vision in the distance and up close
The ability to maintain focus accurately at any distance
Good focusing flexibility to allow rapid change from one distance to another
Binocular vision skills, including control of eye position, movement and tracking
Peripheral vision and eye-hand coordination
Colour vision determination
If any of these visual skills are lacking or impaired, your child will need to work harder and may develop headaches or fatigue. Often, the increased visual demands of schoolwork can make greater demands on a child's visual skills, uncovering a vision problem that was not apparent before school. You can't assume your child has healthy eyes because they have passed a screening test. Children may have one eye that is doing most of the work, hiding the fact that the other eye is not functioning properly.
While it's impossible to know if a child's vision is developing normally until a proper exam is conducted, there are signs of potential vision problems that parents can watch for:
Headaches, sensitivity to light, squinting, rubbing the eyes or excessive blinking
Covering or closing one eye or tilting the head to look at things
Holding objects too close
Avoiding books and television
Trouble reading, including losing place or tracking words with the finger, omitting or confusing small words
Irritability, short attention span or performing below potential
Working with your Doctor of Optometry, from the initial eye exam to the final eyewear fitting, will ensure your child receives accurate, safe and quality manufactured materials that are best suited to them.
Your child's prescription is only one piece of information that will be used to determine the final composition of their eyewear. During the normal process of selecting and being fitted for new eyeglasses, your Doctor of Optometry will take into account a number of things to ensure your child's eyewear is customized to give them clear and comfortable vision while ensuring they look great.
When choosing their first pair of glasses, it's important that your child likes the style and colour of the frames being selected. A child will be more inclined to wear their glasses every day when they are happy with their appearance.
For a child to keep their new glasses on, the frames need to provide a comfortable fit. The frame should be level and properly positioned. The first priority of lens selection for children is safety. Lens materials such as polycarbonate and Trivex carry significant impact resistant qualities in addition to providing UV protection. Your child's prescription may necessitate lens features such as aspheric surfaces or high index materials to keep them thin and light. All lenses should be provided with a good quality scratch-resistant coating and in some cases anti-reflection coatings, although the latter will require frequent cleaning to ensure the maximum benefit and are more of a necessity as the child gets older or the prescription increases.
