When to get your children’s eyes checked?
This is a great question, and one we get asked on a daily basis as optometrists. When does your child need to get their eyes checked exactly?
According to the Canadian Association of Optometrists, children should have an eye exam under the following schedule:
Age 6-9 months: initial visit.
- At this visit we ensure the eyes are aligned, and developing evenly in terms of their refraction/prescription. This is not to say they will need glasses, but we do want to ensure one or both eyes are not developing a large corrective error. When one or both eyes do not produce a clear image on the retina, the brain does not properly develop the visual pathways. This can be detrimental to your child’s ability to see as they grow. The eye health is also examined in order to look for undetected ocular diseases.
- These may include congenital cataracts and even rare tumours!
Age 2-5: At lease one eye examination.
- in these years. We again examine the eyes for developing prescription and ocular diseases. We ensure the child is meeting the milestones of visual development.
- Fun fact: the BC government will chip in for a portion of your child’s eye exam for every year until they reach the age of 18.
School Age 6-18 : one eye exam per year.
- As children learn to read, having optimal correction is very important. Many disorders related to what was once called dyslexia can be attributed to issues with either a glasses prescription, a binocular visual disorder (aka eye-teaming) or issues with visual tracking.
Being able to tackle these issues as they arise can be crucial in your child’s learning and development. What could be more important? If you or your children require an eye exam please follow this link to book an appointment. One of our highly skilled optometrists would be happy to help!
