Why Annual Eye Exams Matter for Children
Does your child see the eye doctor every year? According to the American Optometric Association, children should receive a comprehensive eye exam between 6 to 12 months, another eye exam between ages 3 -5, and annual exams starting before first grade and continuing to age 18. Annual eye exams are essential for kids for many reasons.
Vision Issues Aren't Always Obvious
Your child may have a vision problem, even if he or she doesn't squint, sit to close to screens, or complain about poor eyesight or headaches. Unfortunately, it's difficult to realize you have a problem if you've never had sharp vision. Children may assume that trees look like green blobs or that faces are naturally blurry.
Annual eye exams include tests that help optometrists diagnose refractive errors like myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness), and astigmatism (blurry vision at all distances). If your child has a refractive error, improving vision can be as simple as wearing prescription eyeglasses or contact lenses.
Your child doesn't need to read or recognize letters to be diagnosed with a refractive error. Eye doctors use charts with shapes or patterns to evaluate vision in young children.
Vision Is Important in Learning, Socialization, and Sports
Vision is essential to learning. If your child can't see well, reading, writing legibly, or completing math problems can be difficult. Identifying vision problems early minimizes learning issues and helps your son or daughter develop strong motor skills needed to catch a ball and avoid an opposing player.
Vision issues may even affect confidence or social skills. Blurry vision makes it difficult to recognize social cues or detect small changes in facial expressions when playing with friends or classmates. When your child receives regular eye exams, vision problems that may affect academics and socialization can be identified and corrected.
Annual Exams Detect a Range of Vision Problems
In addition to diagnosing refractive errors, annual eye exams help your child's eye doctor spot other vision problems common in children, including:
- Strabismus (Crossed Eyes)
- Amblyopia (Lazy Eye)
- Focusing Problems
- Eye Teaming or Tracking Issues
- Visual Memory or Visual Processing Disorders
- Depth Perception Issues
- Color Vision Problems
Vision Changes May Happen Quickly
Growth spurts aren't the only rapid changes your child may experience. Vision may also worsen without warning as your child grows. A child who had good vision at 5 could develop nearsightedness just one year later. Nearsightedness usually develops between ages 6 - 14, according to the National Eye Institute. Scheduling annual eye exams helps you ensure that your child doesn't struggle to see the board at school or decipher the words on a page.
School Screenings Don't Catch All Vision Problems
Although school vision screenings are certainly helpful, screenings miss up to 75% of vision problems, according to the American Optometric Association. Comprehensive eye exams are much more in-depth than school screenings and provide a more accurate assessment of your child's vision.
Myopia Rates Are Increasing
More people than ever are developing myopia. The International Myopia Institute expects that myopia rates will increase from 30% to 50% by 2050. Myopia happens when the eye grows too long. When this happens, light focuses in front of the retina instead of on it.
In addition to causing blurry vision, nearsightedness increases the risk of macular degeneration. Macular degeneration affects central vision and occurs when cells in the center of the light-sensitive retina are damaged.
The earlier your child develops myopia, the greater the eventual risk for issues like macular degeneration becomes. Annual eye exams allow prompt diagnosis of myopia. In some cases, special eye drops or contact lenses can be used to slow the growth of the eye and the progression of nearsightedness.
Need to schedule an annual eye exam for your child? Get in touch with our office to make your son or daughter's appointment today.
Sources:
International Myopia Institute: Myopia
https://myopiainstitute.org/myopia/
American Optometric Association: Championing Children’s Eye Care, 6/24/2019
https://www.aoa.org/news/inside-optometry/aoa-news/championing-childrens-eye-care
National Eye Institute: Types of Refractive Errors, 9/4/2025
American Optometric Association: Strabismus (Crossed Eyes)
https://www.aoa.org/healthy-eyes/eye-and-vision-conditions/strabismus
American Academy of Ophthalmology: Vision Development: Childhood, 7/12/2024
https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/children-vision-development
All About Vision: 12 Hidden Signs Your Child May need Glasses, 2/26/2019
https://www.allaboutvision.com/eye-care/parents-kids/schoolage-vision-problems/