Pediatric Eye Exams:
Protect Your Child’s Ability to Learn
Protect Your Child’s Ability to Learn
Pediatric eye exams are an extremely important part of childhood wellness care. Good vision plays a critical role in the development of many basic and advanced skills, including eye teaming (binocularity), hand-eye coordination, focusing skills, peripheral awareness, and mastering near vision/distance vision. Children with uncorrected vision are at increased risk for developing learning and behavioral problems in school. In line with recommendations from the American Optometric Association, our optometrists at Drs. Kopolow and Girisgen provide comprehensive pediatric eye exams for all school aged children and specialized vision therapy for children in order to improve visual efficacy and visual processing.
Reno Pediatric Eye Exams Test Vision, Hand/Eye Coordination, Eye Teaming, Focus and More
A pediatric eye exam will evaluate three important areas of visual function: visual pathway integrity; visual efficiency for focusing/eye movements; and visual information processing. Our optometrists in Reno begin every pediatric eye exam with a straightforward evaluation of your child’s refractive vision capabilities. Should your child be diagnosed with near-sightedness, far-sightedness or astigmatism, our eye doctors will work with you and your child to correct this vision problem through glasses or contact lenses, depending on your child’s age. Next, we will evaluate visual efficiency which include accommodation (focusing), binocular vision (eye teaming) and eye movements. Finally, we will test your child’s visual information processing ability, including identification and discrimination, spatial awareness, and the integration of visual information with other senses. The results from these eye exams will allow our eye care team to determine whether your child is at risk for any learning problems associated with visual function.
Diagnosing, treating and correcting vision problems is essential to helping your child succeed in school. Undiagnosed or uncorrected vision problems can negatively impact your child’s ability to focus on schoolwork or pay attention to a teacher at the front of the room. This can lead to additional problems with social interactions and disruptive behavior. Vision problems can also impact your child’s ability to master basic hand-eye coordination skills, affecting your child’s ability to do everything from correctly hold a pencil to participate in team sports. Through prompt diagnosis and optometric intervention, our Reno optometrists can reduce or eliminate these vision problems so your child is able to succeed academically and socially while in school.
Children should receive their first eye exam at six months of age followed by an exam at three years of age. All children should receive an eye exam before starting elementary school. Children that are classified as asymptomatic or risk-free should receive eye exams every two years thereafter. If your child has been identified as at-risk for vision problems or currently wears glasses, the American Optometric Association recommends annual eye exams to monitor your child’s vision and ensure it is being appropriately corrected.
Drs. Kopolow and Girisgen cover every aspect of Optometry, from comprehensive pediatric eye exams to contact fittings for children. For more information on pediatric eye exams and childhood eye care, visit one of our two Reno Locations.