Paediatric Eye Examination: Types, Symptoms And Treatment Of Paediatric Eye Problem

Every parent refuses to have their children got left behind at school just because what was written on the board by the teachers cannot be seen clearly. Studies showed that many preschoolers and school-aged kids have vision issues. That is why it is ideal to get an early pediatric eye exam for your child to detect any signs of vision problems. Normal visual development occurs during the first 6 months of life and continues for the first 10 years. Have their eyes checked at the age of 3 and another check before entering preschool around the age of 5 and 6. And when they are school-aged, have their eye tested at least every two years if no vision correction is required. Since the attention span of a child is pretty limited, getting them to complete the eye exam could be challenging, especially for the first-timers. Take a look at the information below in hopes to provide some basics and helpful tips when getting an examination of a child’s eye.

 

Types & Symptoms Of Paediatric Eye Problem

Early detection of eye problems can help alleviate possible damage and make treatment more efficient and successful. Now, let’s go through the types and symptoms a pediatric examination could rule out: 

1. Myopia and Hyperopia

Myopia causes objects to look clear when they are near but blurry when they are further. In other words, shortsightedness. Hyperopia, on the other hand, is long-sightedness in which distant things are more clear than near ones. There is a high chance of your children inheriting myopia if both parents have it. In terms of signs, children may complain about having headaches, eyestrain, and blurry vision. If they are not saying anything, you may observe by yourself whether they are squinting when looking for near or far objects. Of course, the easy and fast way to measure visual acuity is through the Snellen chart.

2. Strabismus

Strabismus is crossed eyes – when the two eyes do not line up with one another. If this misalignment is left untreated, it may result in permanent blindness from impaired depth perception, the amblyopia.  You can easily notice strabismus in your children especially when it is severe. Their eyes do not look in the same direction at the same time or move together. Also, your children could frequently be squinting or closing one eye, tilting or turning their head to look at an object, complaining about double vision, or bumping into objects.

3. Amblyopia

Also called lazy eyes, this is a type of poor vision that happens in just one eye. To simplify, the brain tries to use the good eye and ignores images from the eye with the worse vision. But the person with lazy eyes is not lazy, they just cannot control how their eyes work. If left untreated, permanent vision loss may occur. Although it is quite hard to notice the symptoms, you should get an eyeful of your children whether they keep squinting, shutting an eye, or tilting their head. But in many cases, parents do not often realize their kids have lazy eyes. This is why pediatric tests are necessary.

Treatment Of Paediatric Eye Problem

There are multiple pediatric eye examinations often used by ophthalmologists and optometrists. The assessment of the eye test will depend on the age of the child. These are some of the tests conducted:

1. Visual acuity

Children will be exposed to a lot of life-learning experiences such as reading a book, staring at the computer screen, and looking at the board in class. This test is to assess the ability of children to see objects at three different distances – near, intermediate, and far.

2. Eye focusing

In school, children will look at the notebook on the desk, look up to see what is written on the board, and look at their notebook again. The shifting of the focus from near to far is a necessary skill for the children. So, this test is to see whether the children have the ability to maintain clear vision when switching focus. Aside from this, it is also crucial to know whether your children are able to maintain a clear vision for a long time, say, completing their homework.

3. Eye-tracking

Eye-tracking is the ability to move the eyes to follow a line of text on a page from left to right or even follow a moving object like a ball thrown in the air. The movement of the eyes should be smooth and consistent, potentially to complete the whole track quickly.

4. Eye teaming

Simply put, our two eyes must work together as a team. The eyes must be in coordination when looking at things. As such, when reading a book, both the eyes should be used together to track and focus on the words displayed.

5. Eye-hand coordination

When the control of the eye movement is coordinated with hand reaction, this is the ability to use visual information to accurately direct the hands. For example, when hitting a ball or drawing a picture, it requires the eyes to coordinate with the hand movement.

Final Say

Proper vision testing at a young age is undoubtedly essential in ensuring your child has the visual skills required to perform well in school. Vision problems are best treated if they are detected and corrected as early as possible while the child’s vision system is still developing. You may bring your child to VISTA Eye Specialist Centre for an eye examination check-up. All of our eye specialists are qualified and highly experienced to perform these procedures.