A pediatric eye examination is a professional evaluation of your child’s vision and eye health. Either a pediatric ophthalmologist or a pediatric optometrist can perform the eye exam. According to the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology & Strabismus, brief vision and eye screenings by your family doctor or pediatrician are not enough. Only eye specialists with advanced education, training, and equipment can perform a proper pediatric eye exam. If you want your child to have adequate pediatric eye exams, here’s what you should know.

Eye Exam for Infants

To see if your baby’s eyes are developing normally, your specialist will use these tests:

• Preferential looking. Your pediatric eye expert will use cards that have attractive stripes on one side and a blank space on the other. This is an effective way of assessing the baby’s capability to see without using an eye chart.

• Pupil response. This test assesses whether your baby’s pupils close and open properly with or without light.

• Focus and follow response. The pediatric eye doctor uses this test to find out if your baby’s eyes can stare at and then follow an item as it moves about. As soon as they are born, infants should be able to rivet their eyes on something. By three months of age, they should be able to follow an object with their gaze.
  
  
  

Eye Exam for Preschoolers

Research shows that preschoolers don’t need to know the alphabet or even speak during their eye exam. Eye experts use the following tests to evaluate the visual capacity of young kids:

• Retinoscopy. This is a test in which the assessor shines a light into your child’s eyes to see the reflection from the back of the eyes or the retina. It helps to see if your preschooler has a refractive error or congenital cataract.

• LEA symbols. Using LEA symbols is like using the regular eye chart. Instead of letters, special symbols like circles, squares, apples, and houses appear on the chart.

• Random dot stereopsis. During this test, specialists use dot patterns and 3-D glasses in measuring how well your child’s eyes work well together.
  
  

With these tests, the specialist can see if your preschooler has issues such as strabismus, amblyopia, convergence insufficiency, color blindness, focusing issues, eye discharge, infections, or poor depth perception.

Vision Performance and Screening in School

The National Eye Institute always emphasizes the importance of proper vision testing in young children. Vision testing at a young age ensures that your child possesses healthy visual skills for school activities. If ever your child does have visual issues, early eye exams can lead to their early detection and treatment.

​​​​​​​

Good eye and visual health are essential in your child’s proper development. Pediatric eye exams are important in making sure that your child has healthy eyes and vision. At Vision One Eyecare Center, we can always provide your child with pleasant and safe pediatric eye exams. You are always welcome to visit our clinics in Fort Mitchell and Dry Ridge, Kentucky. Please call us at 859-267-1700 (Fort Mitchell) and 859-407-7400 (Dry Ridge). That way, we can help schedule an appointment for you or answer your questions about our pediatric eye exams.