Children’s Vision
Paediatric Optometry
Testing for children is slightly adapted from testing protocols for adults. At Mark Hinds Optometrists we understand how important vision is for a child’s development and education. There is much more to vision than just a measurement of sight or visual acuity. Vision is one’s ability to identify, interpret and understand the world around them, a process that begin development from birth. Vision is essential for good learning ability and efficient body movements. Approximately 80% of information we receive is through vision so it is imperative to ensure that your child’s ocular and visual health is the best it can be. That is why Childs eye health is so important to us.
A child’s eye examination is able to help us determine whether a child’s visual skills are at standard for the visual demands expected for the educational and social environments. We will be determined to provide a thorough visual assessment to identify any visual limitations and help fill those gaps that are preventing your child from clear vision.
We are an accredited practice and part of the paediatric optometry alignment program with the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital.
A Childs vision assessment can be broken down into these three parts:![]()
1.Visual Acuity:
Visual Acuity (Sight) is essentially how well the eyes can see. Blurred vision is generally caused by having a refractive error, the best course of action is spectacles or contact lenses. Refractive error can be broken down into myopia (Short-sightedness – marking objects at far distances appear blurry), hyperopia (long-sightedness – making objects at close distance appear blurry) or astigmatism (irregular shape of the eye that can cause objects at any distance to appear blurry).
Poor Visual Acuity can also reflect strabismus (“Lazy Eye”) or eye diseases or pathology. An examination with one of our experienced optometrists allows us to identify and manage any of these potential concerns. Measuring Visual Acuity (Reading gradually smaller letters on a chart) is only a small part of the eye test as it only tells us how well your child can see rather than how much effort is required for them to see clearly.
2.Visual Efficiency (eye teaming):
Testing visual efficiency allows us to assess how much effort is required for your child to maintain clear vision. In this test we track the movement of the eyes when reading, controlled by our two eye coordination systems. Our convergence system controls how the eyes turn in/out to look at an object and our accommodation system makes the object we are looking at clear. Poor control of the eye coordination systems concludes that there is more effort required to maintain clear vision for daily tasks. Reduced visual efficiency can lead to fatigue, eye strain, headaches, struggles concentrating and, in some cases, double vision or poor muscle control. Most of these problems with visual acuity can be corrected with spectacles and/or eye exercises.
3.Ocular Health Assessment
This part of the eye test involves a thorough assessment of the health of the eyes, both outside and in, including the optic nerves and macula. The assessment is completely painless (as with the rest of the examination) and your child will not feel anything as there will be no direct contact with the eyes. The ocular health assessment allows us to assess whether any ocular diseases or pathology are present. We also have the technology to take a digital image of the retina (inside the eye) to document your child’s ocular health and to allow for future comparisons/progression should anything change down the track.
Call us on (07) 3358 6566 to book your child’s vision assessment with one of our experienced optometrists today. Any questions you may have please send it to us – orders@markhindsoptometrists.com.au or make an appointment
Contact Lenses and Kids
We have many children and adolescents wearing contact lenses – from daily disposable contacts to custom contact lens designs for keratoconus, and the new Duette UltraHealth hybrid lenses from SynergEyes. Children and contact lenses are a great way to see clearly for sport and an active lifestyle – from just one dollar per lens there are many options. Ortho-K is very popular with the scientific literature proving to be successful in slowing down and even stopping the progression of short sightedness/myopia We have many young patients weaking Ortho-K lenses with genetic predisposition and lifestyle factors leading to the progression of myopia. For more information, please see our page on Orthokeratology (Ortho-K) or our page on Myopia Control.
