Why They Are Critical, When to Schedule Them, and What to Expect
Did you know that regular pediatric eye exams are one of the best ways to help your child succeed in school? According to expert estimates, 1 out of every 10 preschool children has a vision condition. Once kids enter school, that number jumps to 1 out of every 4 children! Keep in mind that about 80% of what’s taught in school is communicated through visual tools. An undetected visual disorder, therefore, compromises your child’s ability to learn and develop properly.
At Wink Eyecare Boutique, our optometrists welcome kids of all ages to come in and benefit from our personalized, comprehensive eye exams. Dr. Rachel Cohn is experienced in performing gentle and thorough evaluations of your child’s vision and eye health – and we treat all of our patients with a smile! It’s important to us that kids have a pleasant, comfortable experience in our Rockville, MD office.
Many visual skills are necessary for learning, and we will examine the full range of your child’s vision system, including eye-hand coordination, eye teaming, eye mobility, peripheral awareness, and near and far visual acuity. If we diagnose an eyesight problem, we’ll work with you and your child to correct it. With total eye care services for kids in Potomac contact us to schedule an appointment for a pediatric eye exam today!
When to Schedule Kids’ Eye Exams
If your child doesn’t need eyeglasses or vision correction, then the AOA recommends follow-up exams every 2 years for school-aged kids. If your child does require eyeglasses or contact lenses, then yearly pediatric eye examinations are strongly advised.
What to Expect at an Eye Exam for Children
Our warm and friendly eye doctor, Dr. Rachel Cohn will greet you and your child and start with some medical history questions. It’s important to share with us any information about allergies, current medications, and family eye diseases. We also want to know if you have any concerns or specific questions about your child’s vision.
The particular testing procedures that we’ll perform during a kids’ eye evaluation in our office are customized to match your child’s age and stage of development.
School-aged children:
The main parts of a complete eye exam at this age include:
- Visual acuity tests: optometric equipment and eye charts will be used to detect or rule out astigmatism, nearsightedness or farsightedness
- Evaluation of eye alignment
- Ocular health will be checked by inspecting the retina with a high-powered lens
Vision Problems Commonly Diagnosed in Kids
There are a number of different vision conditions that we look out for during our complete pediatric eye exam at Wink Eyecare Boutique, in Potomac, CA. The most usual diagnoses found in kids are nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. Other vision disorders include:
Amblyopia, known by many as a “lazy eye”. Treatment generally involves patching the dominant eye.
Strabismus, characterized by weakness or misalignment of the eye muscles. Surgery may be advised.
Eye teaming/binocularity problems, which affects coordination and depth perception.
Accommodation difficulty, trouble with focusing on close tasks that can make reading into a challenge.
Convergence insufficiency, eye alignment is weak and close-up tasks are hard. Vision therapy and eye exercises are generally recommended.
Once your kid’s eye exam is completed, we will consult with you to discuss all of our findings. Together, we’ll determine the best course of treatment or therapy to keep your child’s vision in tip-top shape!
Did your child receive a vision screening at school? Whether they passed or failed the vision screening, make sure you still take your child to get a comprehensive eye exam from an optometrist like Dr. Cohn. Vision screenings only test for visual acuity or distance vision yet testing a child’s eye-tracking skills, close vision, or assessing for double vision or dyslexia are often missed.
We look forward to checking your kid’s eyes with a comprehensive pediatric eye exam in Potomac, MD!