At 20/20 Vision Care we stress the importance of early vision care to support your child’s highest potential. Your child’s vision, well-being, and happiness are very important to us. At 20/20 Vision Care, we enjoy working with children and are passionate about providing children with the primary or emergency eye care that they deserve. We believe there should not be “one size fits all vision care” and we work hard to accommodate the needs of each child. 20/20 Vision Care provides comprehensive eye examinations to children four years old and above.
An evaluation with our Pittsburgh optometrist or an optometrist who is a developmental/behavioral vision care specialist is a must for any child who is currently experiencing or has had a history of the following:
- Learning or reading problems, ADD/ADHD, or dyslexia
- Developmental delays, autism, or cerebral palsy
- Computer eyestrain
- Head trauma or stroke
- Inconsistent or poor sports performance
- Strabismus (eye turn) and/or amblyopia (lazy eye)
Many parents are surprised to learn that vision screenings provided at school or by the pediatrician are not comprehensive vision examinations. These screenings typically only detect nearsightedness—in other words, whether your child can see the chalkboard. However, to be successful in school, children rely on near vision, depth perception, eye tracking, and binocular vision. Many eye conditions and eye health problems can go undetected during a basic vision screening. A comprehensive general eye exam with our Pittsburgh optometrist is the only way to identify many of these disorders, which can interfere with learning and, in some cases, threaten sight.
Some common problems that cannot be detected by the eye chart screening include:
- Convergence insufficiency
- Accommodative spasm
- Convergence excess
- Strabismus
- Farsightedness
- Astigmatism
- Photophobia
- Decreased depth perception
- Decreased visual perception and visual processing
- Eye-hand coordination deficiencies
Some less common but serious conditions that are not detected by an eye chart screening include:
- Retinal detachment
- Cataracts
- Retinoblastoma
- Diabetes
Healthy eyes play a critical role in the growth and development of a child, and it is important to understand that good vision is much more than 20/20 sight. Children with undiagnosed eye disorders are more likely to experience frustration in school, have behavioral problems, be diagnosed with ADD, and perform below their intellectual abilities. The earlier these vision problems are detected, the more responsive the visual system will be to treatment, and you will be ensuring your child the best possible vision skills to learn.
Schedule an appointment today to make certain that your child is learning to his or her full capacity.
American Optometric Association. 2015. Web. <AOA.org>.