Childrens Eyecare

Eight is too late!

For what? Eight weeks to your hols and you still haven’t started that diet?...

Well no, it’s never too late, but that’s not what we are talking here!

Eight is too late is the statement that best supports the need for all children to have an eye examination.

“But my child was screened at school/nursery” is the usual response. However, the clue is in the title!

The schools and nurseries providing this service conduct a basic screening. This will highlight the obvious issues; more complex issues could possibly slip through the net. It is also as well to remember that it does not investigate the health of the eye.

Every parents wish is to give their child the best start in life. Your child’s ocular development plays a large part in your child’s overall development. Good eyesight allows for better learning potential and ensures maximum concentration.

And it isn’t all about the classroom. Their ocular performance can directly affect their ability in sports and leisure pursuits.

Healthy eyes, balanced and working together may be the difference between your child scoring that winning goal or becoming the next Andy Murray.

Generally, by the time eight comes around their visual system is fairly set, however if we can assess children pre-eight we have a much better chance of rectifying the majority of issues.

We would like to start the eye care routine for your child from about 2 ½ - 3 years old as we need to ensure that your child’s eyes develop to their full potential and in doing so enable your child the optimum environment to learn and progress.

The problem is that many children are unaware that they have visual difficulties as they have no method of comparison and are often unaware that others see differently from themselves.

This issue is exacerbated unfortunately when the problem is only in one eye, as it is masked by the better eye.

If your child has even a slight prescription in one eye, this can affect the development of both eyes resulting in potential problems affecting their learning abilities, performance in sports, driving and many other day to day tasks.

A thorough eye examination will detect any visual concerns as well as investigate the health of their eyes.

Eye examinations should be a fun experience!

We like our young patients to have an enjoyable time and want to come back and see us again!

Therefore for our very young visitors we have altered many aspects of the eye examination and turned them into fun games to play. Okay, so they won’t keep the average 15 year old amused, but they do appear to be appreciated by the younger children!

You should be aiming to get your child used to regular appointments and building up a good rapport with your opticians’. This has proved that later in life, when they finally fly the nest and become responsible (?) adults, that good eye care will be as normal as routine visits to the dentist or bringing their washing home!

The Scottish government is so aware of the paramount importance of quality eye care that they provide free eye examinations for everybody, not just children.

One of the most important things you can do for your child is to organise them an eye examination, contact us for an appointment today.

Clare Downes is so passionate about children's eyecare that she regularly contributes educational editorials to Families Magazine, to view present and historical articles visit:

http//www.familiesonline.co.uk/Locations/Edinburgh/Articles2/Eye-care-and-Dyslexia