Your child's vision

The first three years of a child's life is the critical period of development for the visual system. Despite this, a baby's vision is not always tested as part of a post birth screening.

Research has revealed that less than a fifth of all children aged five to 14 years were tested in the period from July 2006 to June 2007.

As a parent, your child's health is top priority and it can be an overwhelming job to make sure all bases are covered. Protecting your child's vision starts from infancy, with the simple step of scheduling regular eye examinations.

Optometrist Helen Venturato has over 20 years experience in the field and is conscious of the role that eyesight plays in a child's overall development, learning and behaviour. Helen points out that poor eyesight does not just affect a child's ability to see but may impact on their general awareness, attention span and ability to concentrate. 

"Despite the range of complications poor eyesight can cause, it is rarely considered the source of a problem until all other avenues are exhausted. I experienced this situation first-hand when I helped a young girl - with an assumed learning disability - to read, through vision improvement. This came after years of the child undergoing special education classes, IQ tests, hearing tests and therapy. This could have been avoided with a simple childhood eye exam. 

It was one of my most memorable career moments. Without the correction, the young girl simply couldn't make sense of anything on a page. Her vision problems meant that her hand writing, attention span and ability to learn were suffering. Correcting her vision was life changing for the young girl and her family and allowed her confidence to return."  

In other cases poor vision can affect speed and enjoyment of reading, but it does not stop at academic pursuits.  Sporting ability and enjoyment is another area dependent on vision. If depth perception is poor in a child they may struggle with learning to catch a ball, and believe they are bad at sport. This could result in a lack of confidence and missed sporting opportunities.
 
Detecting and treating vision deficiencies at a young age may impact on a child's interest in physical activity and sporting performance, and academic pursuits, therefore it is vital that eye examinations are conducted. Continued...