We had an interesting and informative visit from Specsavers this week.
Your child’s eyes are special. In the early years, vision helps them find out about the world around them, about their home, about you. Later, as they go through school, their eyesight lets them learn and discover – in fact, about 80% of what is taught in schools is presented visually. Being able to see clearly is therefore incredibly important in your child’s overall development. So it’s important we take our eyesight seriously.
Most very young children have their eyesight assessed as part of their routine developmental checks. While these are very important, they aren’t as thorough as a complete eye test by a qualified optician. Specsavers recommend that children have their first eye test by the age of three.
Testing your son or daughter as soon as possible means that any problems that they may have are identified early, setting them up for a happy and fulfilling school life. That’s because not being able to see clearly can be confusing in a busy classroom.
Poor eyesight can cause learning and behavioural problems, which might be blamed on other things. This is especially true for young children, who may find it difficult to explain the difficulties they are having with their eyesight. They may not even be aware they have a problem at all.
And of course the sooner that vision problems are detected, the better the outcome. Conditions such as squint and amblyopia (lazy eye) can be treated more effectively if they are picked up earlier. And that could make a huge difference to your child.
Specsavers staff explained how our eyes work and if and when we need glasses what happens. They also very kindly donated us som high-vidability jackets which will be worn when we are learning off-site. Thank you Specsavers!
