9 Reasons Children Need Eye Exams Before School Starts

Pencils, paper, backpack ... and an eye check? You might want to add a comprehensive vision exam to your fall back-to-school to-dos. About one in four school-aged children require vision treatment, and many go undiagnosed and untreated, potentially impacting their learning process.¹

Although some school districts offer free vision screenings at school, studies show that these screenings may miss up to 75% of vision problems in students compared to a comprehensive eye exam.² A comprehensive eye exam is not only beneficial for general eye health but can also help diagnose and treat vision issues that are vital for classroom success.²

Here are some vision skills that are key for school-aged children learning to read, write and participate in the classroom.

1. Visual Acuity

Visual acuity is a measure of the eye's ability to see clearly and distinguish objects and details at various distances. This is a crucial vision component that greatly impacts a student's ability to read a book or see the board.

Children who can see well at a distance but struggle to focus on objects up close — such as a book — may have hyperopia or farsightedness. Those who can see a computer screen easily but struggle to see the whiteboard at the front of the room may have myopia or nearsightedness.³

2. Eye Focusing

The ability to maintain clear vision while switching visual focus is called eye focusing. This could be switching between looking at objects close up and far away, such as a student looking from a screen at the front of the classroom down to the notebook on their desk. It could also apply to a moving visual focus within the same distance, such as reading the words on a page of a book.²

3. Eye Tracking

While eye focusing is related to the clarity of vision, eye tracking looks at the eye's ability to stay on target on a word, a page or an object such as a baseball. Eye tracking can play an essential role both in and out of the classroom — from learning to read to following the trajectory of a thrown ball.⁴

4. Eye Teaming

Eye teaming is the ability to use both eyes in conjunction. It is an important visual skill for reading, judging distances and gauging depth.⁵

5. Hand-Eye Coordination

Hand-eye coordination is the ability to use visual information to guide what the hands do. Although hand-eye coordination is often thought of in regards to sports, it is also a vital vision skill for writing letters and drawing shapes, as well as playing instruments in music, jumping rope in PE or tracing shapes in art class.⁵

6. Visual Perception

The ability to make sense of letters and images on a page is part of visual perception — an important visual skill that impacts both learnings done in the classroom and at home. Visual perception can also have an impact on letter recognition, reading comprehension and knowledge retention.²

7. Letter Recognition

Visual perception is key for letter recognition skills, such as determining the difference between a lowercase “b" and “d." Letter recognition, in turn, is integral to developing phonics skills when learning to read. Letter recognition leads to word recognition, which is essential for reading development.²

8. Comprehension

Reading comprehension is the ability to understand how words work together to build concepts and stories. Reading comprehension is important for students to understand how individual words work together to create a complete narrative.²

9. Retention

Retention is the ability to remember and recall information that has been read. Retention is built upon reading comprehension, word and letter recognition and visual perception.²

Signs Your Child May Need a Vision Exam

If your school-aged child complains about any of the following symptoms, it may be helpful to get a comprehensive eye exam to get to the root cause of the issue:²

• Eye discomfort
• Eye fatigue
• Frequent headaches
• Short attention span
• Tilting the head to one side or another to read
• Moving text closer or farther away to read
• Double vision
• Eyes not moving together when reading

Undiagnosed vision problems may exhibit similar symptoms to academic disinterest, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia or other conditions that an eye exam can help pinpoint.²

CareCredit Financing for Eye Exams

Regular eye exams are an important part of your eye health. Whether you're getting an eye exam or needing eye surgery, the CareCredit credit card can help you pay for care where your insurance leaves off.* Apply today and use our Acceptance Locator to find a vision specialist near you that accepts CareCredit. Continue your wellness journey by downloading the CareCredit Mobile App to manage your account, find a provider on the go, and easily access the Well U hub for more great articles, podcasts, and videos.

Author Bio

Kate Bayless is a health and wellness freelance writer with 15 years of experience. Her work has appeared in Parents, Women's Health, Beachbody, and OpenFit.