Are eye exams for your children on your back to school to do list? The doctors say they should be.
As families prepare for the back-to-school season in August, which is also Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month, pediatric ophthalmologists share the importance of children’s vision and the health of their eyessays it’s important to get a regular eye exam to detect and correct eye problems early.
A comprehensive examination is also a good idea because many vision disorders can not only go undetected in children but can be misdiagnosed as ADHD, dyslexia and other learning disabilities or behavioral problems, according to American Optometric Association.
Another reason to have an exam with a professional? Some conditions like amblyopia, or lazy eye, can be silent and missed during eye exams at school, Dr. Daniel Cyr, a pediatric ophthalmologist with Stony Brook Medicine, told CBS News.
Cyr recommends that children have their eyes checked by a pediatric ophthalmologist at least once before starting school. Parents should also make sure they are examined at their annual well visit.
“It’s really important that all kids get their eyes checked before school, because we’ve seen in recent large well-controlled studies that kids who have refractive error, need glasses and get it corrected do better on their standardized test scores,” Cyr said.
With adults and children spending more time on devicesnearsightedness or farsightedness increases, which can cause eye fatigue and strain.
“I like to talk to them about the 20-20-20 rule,” Cyr said. “After 20 minutes of close focus at work, take a 20 second break and look at something 20 feet away. This allows the eyes to unfocus so that you can see up close to relax and that allows the eyes to relax. And so does it’s time to blink too.”