PARENTS AND TEACHERS: Watch for early signs of vision impairments such as amblyopia ("lazy eye"), strabismus (intermittent exotropia, esotropia, etc.), and convergence insufficiency. Children should be examined by an eye doctor during infancy, preschool, and school years to detect potential vision defects. Did you know that a child can pass the 20/20 test and still have significant vision problems which will interfere in school, sports and/or social life?

Early vision examination is particularly important if any member of the family has had ambylopia (lazy eye), strabismus (deviating eyes), or any convergence disorders. Testing of eye teaming and eye tracking skills (binocular vision and binocular depth perception) should be a part of every child's comprehensive eye examination. Find out which visual skills need to be tested as part of a complete pediatric eye exam.

PLEASE NOTE: Parents and teachers often have difficulty recognizing some visual problems because children don't necessarily know how or what they're supposed to be seeing, so it's unlikely they will clearly describe visual problems. A child who has never known normal vision or depth perception doesn't know what he or she is missing.

PLEASE NOTE: Some binocular vision impairments (such as wandering eyes, deviating eyes, problems with convergence) are not easily detected by parents or teachers because the turning or straying of the eye(s) is NOT obvious or consistent. Some children's eye turns are intermittent (they come and go) and/or they are not easily noticed by the untrained observer. For example, some children's eye turns are visible only when they are tired, stressed or ill. A binocular vision problem deserves attention and treatment, even when the eye turn is only occasionally visible.

Learn how to detect a possible visual problem in a child by using the checklists and pages below:

Vision Screening questionnaire for parents and teachers by the Children's Visual Learning Center.



A Parents' Checklist for children's visual health.



What visual skills should be tested as part of a child's complete vision examination?



How to observe your child's visual development. What are the developmental milestones? Is your child's vision developing normally?



Does it seem like your bright child is not working up to his potential in school? Could vision problems be contributing to your child's difficulties with reading, school achievement and/or learning disabilities?

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To locate an eye doctor who provides comprehensive pediatric vision examinations and treatment, including Vision Therapy, request a referral through our Referral Directory: Find a Pediatric Eye Doctor.

All other images and text: copyright © 1996- by Rachel Cooper. All rights reserved.