The Essential Importance of Vision Screening in Kids

Vision Screening is vital for catching vision problems early, ideally before a child turns 8. If a child struggles to see the whiteboard in class, their academic performance can be significantly impacted. Furthermore, addressing vision issues after this critical age can be less effective and sometimes untreatable, leading to long-term difficulties.

Dr. Rasheena Bansal, a Pediatric Ophthalmologist and Strabismus Surgeon, PEDIA VISION Child Sight Initiative at AURA Adult & Child Eye Care, highlights, “The most valuable gift for a child is a vision screening.” As children develop their vision, they establish crucial neural pathways between their eyes and brain. Accurate visual input in the initial years is essential for proper brain development. The child cannot express sometimes or tell if he/she is seeing well as for them the world is the way they have been perceiving things they see. We have to help them understand what is good eyesight and bad eyesight.

Dr. Bansal, who leads the PEDIA VISION Child Sight Initiative of AURA Adult & Child Eye Care, explains, “If vision problems are not identified by age 8, subsequent treatments may not be effective because the brain hasn’t received the correct visual information.” When children come in at age 9 with poor vision, we find that even with corrective lenses, improvement is limited. This can restrict their future opportunities like driving, admissions in certain fields where 6/6 vision is required and impacts their overall quality of life.”

Early vision screening is crucial for enabling children to achieve their full potential. Newborns are screened for issues like Cataracts, Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), Nasolacrimal duct obstruction etc. and this process should be repeated between 6 and 12 months to check for abnormalities and ensure proper eye development. Some children develop squint, where one eye turns inward/ outward and the brain may ignore its input, leading to weakness , called lazy eye. If caught early, an eye patch can often correct this issue.

From 12 to 36 months, we screen the child’s eyes to detect refractive errors such as astigmatism, myopia and hypermetropia. Astigmatism occurs when the eye is shaped more like an egg than a football, causing blurred or distorted vision. This can make reading and recognizing letters challenging. The child may confuse similar looking letters like ‘E’ appearing as ‘B’ and ‘O’ as ‘G’ etc. When they see blurry, they repeatedly blink or rub their eyes and the power increases faster than usual. Dr. Bansal emphasises that nearsightedness is becoming increasingly prevalent due to increased gadget use and reduced outdoor activities.

Parents should watch for signs such as holding objects very close or having difficulty seeing things at a distance. We run a special Myopia Control Clinic to cater to this problem.The child should have one check up at age of 1 year and then subsequently once in 6 months until 8 years of age to pick up all these vision problems.

Although schools conduct vision screenings, the conditions might not always be perfect due to factors like lighting or the distance from the reading card. Nonetheless, Dr. Bansal emphasizes that these screenings are important because they can identify significant vision problems that are essential for the child’s educational success and overall development. Once we pick up a condition on initial school screening, the child should undergo a detailed evaluation with a trained Paediatric Ophthalmologist.

“Clear Vision for Growing Minds: Make Kids’ Vision Screening a Priority.”