Why Every Child Needs Early Vision Screening

Occupational Therapy
Written By Vicky Moroz

Vision plays a critical role in your child’s comfort and performance. We use our sight daily for numerous things, and if your child is struggling with their vision, it may cause more complicated issues down the line. Unfortunately, basic visual screening tests done by a pediatrician can miss a lot of common vision problems. Early intervention and awareness is one of the best tools to combat any problems that can be caused by vision issues.

Importance

Vision problems can have huge effects on daily tasks. These vision problems can start early in your child’s life, making it critical for vision to be assessed much sooner than when, for example, they are in school and can’t read the chalkboard. Of course, there are some more complicated vision problems than not being able to see clearly up close or far away. In these cases, other aspects of life can be affected, such as balance and coordination. Through early screenings and intervention, “we can treat many common conditions and avoid unnecessary testing and treatment.”[1]

An eye exam by a qualified eye doctor, such as an optometrist or ophthalmologist, is much more comprehensive than reading an eye chart. Although this is a useful screener at a pediatrician’s office, it only tests for basic vision issues such as nearsightedness and farsightedness.

 

A comprehensive vision exam is going to be taking into account a child’s health and family history, visual acuity, depth perception, color perception, intraocular pressure, visual field, focus, spatial awareness, visual processing, and much more. All of these aspects need to be tested in order to ensure that there aren’t any problems with your child’s sight. Unfortunately, pediatricians don’t have access to all the tools necessary to perform these tests, making it critical for early vision exams to be done by an eye doctor.

 

Another key factor of an eye exam is the inspection of the eye movements. Your eyes have a critical function in balance and other things. Some common movements that an eye doctor is going to exam are:

·       Fixations allow the eye to fixate or focus on one object or point.

·       Pursuits help with the smooth tracking of moving objects, and play a role in maintain balance.

·       Saccades are a key movement relevant to reading, and allow you to move your eyes rather than moving your entire head.

·       Vergence helps with focusing. Vergence movements are convergence (the eyes moving in closer together) and divergence (the eyes moving apart). Failure in vergence movements can cause double vision, strain, and blurry vision.

These are only some of the eye movements that a comprehensive eye exam is going to look at. All of these movements are a key component of how your child views the world around them and play a role in their daily tasks of living.

How vision plays a role in therapy

 

One of the most important roles of occupational therapy is to assess any and all factors that are affecting your child’s performance in completing daily tasks. Vision is tied to a lot of motor functions, as a lot of movements require hand-eye or eye-foot coordination. In other words, your child’s brain has to coordinate visual cues with movements. This can be for catching or throwing a ball, or even for more everyday tasks like handwriting or getting dressed.

Additionally, studies have shown that “when basic visual skills do not function optimally, it may have implications not only for reading ability, but for overall academic functioning as well.”[2] Since visual skills play such a huge part, even simple visual deficiencies can cause problems in many different areas of your child’s life.

Again, some visual problems may be more complex than simply not being able to see the chalkboard. Fortunately, early intervention allows for a lot of problems to be caught and corrected early on. If your child’s occupational therapists notices any problems that are tied to vision, they may recommend for you take them for a comprehensive eye exam.

 

Vision Therapy

If your child has any problems with their vision, an eye doctor may recommend vision therapy. Vision therapy for the eyes and brain “is a highly effective non-surgical treatment for many visual problems such as lazy eye, crossed eyes, double vision, convergence insufficiency, focusing problems, and some reading disabilities.”[3]

Vision therapy is not meant to strengthen the eye muscles and typically involves a range of different equipment such as prisms, specialized computer programs, and therapeutic lenses. It improves functions such as visual processing, binocular functions, visual perception, comfort, and efficiency. Therapy typically takes places in the doctor’s office.

InfantSEE program

The InfantSEE program is dedicated to educating about visual wellness, as well as making eye care accessible to all families with infants between the ages of 6 to 12 months, regardless of income. The American Optometric Association “recommends scheduling an infant’s first eye exam around six months of age, immediately after the eye undergoes rapid and profound changes and is therefore most vulnerable to interference with healthy development.”[4] This public health program is managed by Optometry Cares-The American Optometric Association Foundation and provides the opportunity for early vision screening. For older children, most insurance plans and federal programs provide the necessary coverage for annual eye exams as well as treatment.

  • 1. VMSysOp, “Eye Tests Are a Waste of Time,” Vision Mechanic, August 10, 2020, https://visionmechanic.net/eye-tests-are-a-waste-of-time/ .

    2. Goldstand, Sarina, et al., “Vision, Visual-Information Processing, and Academic Performance Among Seventh-Grade Schoolchildren: A More Significant Relationship Than We Thought?” The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 59, no. 4 (2005): 385, https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.59.4.377.

    3. “Services,” Family Eye Care of Wooster, accessed on February 28, 2022, https://www.familyeyecareofwooster.com/services.

    4. “About Us,” InfantSEE, accessed on February 28,2022, https://www.infantsee.org/about-us?sso=y

  • Family Eye Care of Wooster, “Services,” accessed on February 28, 2022, https://www.familyeyecareofwooster.com/services.

    Goldstand, Sarina, et al., “Vision, Visual-Information Processing, and Academic Performance Among Seventh-Grade Schoolchildren: A More Significant Relationship Than We Thought?” The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 59, no. 4 (2005): 385, https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.59.4.377.

    InfantSEE, “About Us,” accessed on February 28, 2022, https://www.infantsee.org/about-us?sso=y

    VMSysOp, “Eye Movements-A Second Look,” Vision Mechanic, August 14, 2020, https://visionmechanic.net/eye-movements-a-second-look/.

    VMSysOp, “Eye Tests Are a Waste of Time,” Vision Mechanic, August 10, 2020, https://visionmechanic.net/eye-tests-are-a-waste-of-time/ .

    Warren, Mary, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, FAOTA, and Linda Baker Nobles, MS, OT/L, “Occupational Therapy’s Role with Persons With Visual Impairment,” AOTA, 2011, https://www.aota.org/-/media/corporate/files/aboutot/professionals/whatisot/pa/facts/low%20vision%20fact%20sheet.pdf

Vicky Moroz

Vicky works closely with a group of EJ’s therapists to curate helpful content geared towards parent education and research-based writing.

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