Eye care and school

Good vision helps children to thrive at school, while vision problems can lead to the child disengaging in the classroom. That’s a key reason that children should attend sight tests from around the age of three.

In the classroom, children need to be able to see the whiteboard and wall charts in order to learn. It’s important to remember that a child may be unaware that they have poor vision. What’s more, parents, carers and teachers may be unaware of this too. Uncorrected visual problems can lead to children disengaging at school and even lead to behavioural problems that can affect a child’s present and future life chances. That’s why sight tests are important from an early age.

In some cases, children can develop eye conditions such as amblyopia (‘lazy eye’), or even sight threatening conditions. Optometrists are able to detect conditions like these and either treat the child themselves or refer them to specialist hospital eye clinics.