How Can I Tell That My Child Needs Glasses?

1 in 4 school age children have a visual disorder. The symptoms are often missed. Here are some pointers to possible refractive error needing evaluation and likely spectacle wear.

• Frequent blinking
• Watering
• Eye aches and/or headaches.
• Reading very close to face or needing to move very close to watch the television.
• Squeezing eyelids together when focusing on a near or distant object.
• Shutting one eye constantly or at intervals.
• Frequent rubbing of eyes.
• Abnormal rhythmic eye movements.
• An eye turning in or out.
• A child avoiding reading or other activities done at close distance.
• Slow pace of reading or copying from the board with resulting poor academic performance.
• Disinterest in academic activities and inattention in class.
• Seeing double.
• Skipping lines whilst reading
• Substituting one letter for another, for instance pronouncing ‘Mat’ as ‘Met’.

Your child may have one or more of these features.

The proper approach to child eyecare and vision testing

1. Have an infant’s eyes checked at 6 months, or earlier if there are any symptoms such as a squint or abnormal eye movements.
2. Pre-school eye check at the age of 3 years.
3. Vision and eye checks every year thereafter unless if specified to be done more frequently by the Ophthalmologist.