Children’s Eye Tests Miami, Gold Coast
Children’s Vision Assessments
At Miami Eyes on the Gold Coast we provide eye tests for children of all ages. We don’t just check if your child needs glasses. As developmental optometrists, we have assessments to look in depth at both visual efficiency and learning-related visual skills and assess how children are performing relative to their peers or even if visual skills are under par relative to auditory skills, i.e. a child who can understand much more easily if a story is read to them, compared to their comprehension when reading it for themselves.
Developmental & Behavioural Optometry
At Miami Eyes, developmental optometrist Sara Black has over 25 years of experience with children’s vision assessments. She also sits on the Fellowship board of Australasian College of Behavioural Optometry. Sara has recently relocated back to the Gold Coast after establishing and running a successful paediatric optometry practice in Toowoomba. She looks forward to working with children here on the beautiful Gold Coast.
Why visual skills are important
The visual system is a powerful tool that can greatly assist your child’s learning if functioning well. On the other hand, if the visual system is inefficient, your child’s ability to learn can be hindered. A basic eye test may reveal a child has ‘20/20’ vision, however, this is purely an estimate of how well an individual can see detail at a distance. This is important when driving a car, watching a sports game or identifying writing on a board. Learning in the classroom, however, requires visual stamina, repeated focusing back and forth from board to book, pointing eyes accurately in space to keep place and using eye movements efficiently to locate and follow.
20/20 vision (often called 6/6 in our Australian metric system), while important, is only one of many factors that we assess in a child’s visual assessment. If your child has trouble copying off the board, keeping their place when reading or maintaining attention with prolonged near work, they may have a visual efficiency concern. Other signs to look out for could be rubbing eyes excessively, complaining of headaches or tired eyes, avoidance of reading or writing tasks, blurred or double or words on a page appearing to ‘run together’.
Learning -related visual skills are an area that can be explored in more depth to assess whether a child’s vision is integrating efficiently with other sensory input. Children who reverse letters and numbers beyond age 7-8, have messy handwriting, mix up similar words or struggle with reading comprehension may not have developed efficient learning-related visual skills.
In this fast-paced world we live in, our older kids, teens and young adults are engaging in much more screen time, whether it be laptops for school or recreational gaming and scrolling. It is important that their visual efficiency is up to the task and evidence now shows that daily outdoor time is incredibly important to prevent the development of myopia (short-sightedness). Regular eye tests are crucial to detect and manage kids at risk of becoming myopic and to prescribe therapeutic glasses, contact lenses or vision training if required.