Eyes front

I can see clearly now...

Their hair is cut, books and school shoes are bought, the fight with contact covering paper barely over – and with happy smiles parents across the land have dispatched their children back to school for another year.

But what about your children’s eyesight? They may have x-ray vision when it comes to scoping out where the chocolate biscuits are hidden, but uncorrected vision defects will have a major impact on their ability to concentrate and learn in the classroom.

A survey of 631 parents of children aged 5-14, conducted for OPSM, revealed a less than 20/20 view of parents’ attitudes to eye tests.

One in five parents have never taken their children for an eye test, despite the fact that along with allergies and asthma, eye disorders are the most common long-term health problems experienced by children.

Although a standard eye examination is fully covered by Medicare in Australia every two years:

• only 3% of parents believe an eye test is the most important thing to do for their children in the weeks before they return to school.
• Eye tests trail behind getting a haircut which 7% of parents see as the most important activity on the back to school list.
• Just 8% of parents consider good vision to have the biggest impact on their child’s ability to do well in class.

According to the Australian Government, more than 660,000 Australian school age children have some form of undetected vision defect that requires either immediate attention or ongoing assessment, and it’s estimated that 14,000 will likely have irreversible long-term visual problems if not treated.

Children are not very good at assessing their own vision, which is why such a large number of problems go undetected. Optometrist Grant Fisher says a major barrier to reducing the number of undiagnosed children with vision issues is communication. As vision problems tend to have a progressive nature, children will often assume that their poor vision is normal and representative of their peers; hence don’t say anything.

Fisher recommends that parents take their children to have their eyes screened from the age of three years, and undergo regular testing every two years subsequently.

Your child could be suffering from myopia (short-sightedness) if they:

• sit closer than 2-3 metres away from the television
• position themselves closer than 40 – 50 cms away from the computer screen
• hold reading materials very close to their face
• squint when trying to view distant objects and reading the blackboard.

Your child’s eye muscles could be fatigued from straining if they:

• constantly rub their eyes
• suffer from headaches

Your child may have vision related problems if they regularly:

• skip lines when reading
• leave out or confuse small words when reading
• turn or tilt the head to use one eye only
• exhibit poor co-ordination and are often clumsy.

To highlight the importance of eye tests for kids, OPSM is launching a campaign called ‘Eye Love Books’.  Schools will be rewarded with $5 worth of books for the school library for every child who takes an eye test between February and April 2010.