Preparing Your Child For An Eye Exam

Preparing Your Child For An Eye Exam

If your child has never had an eye examination before or they are feeling slightly apprehensive, it’s best to help prepare them beforehand. The environment of an optician practice can certainly feel daunting to a child, particularly as they enter a room full of strangers, with alien looking equipment and an unfamiliar scenario. Although it may seem daunting, the experience should be relatively simple! Across the RWoodfall Group, the teams at our practices are all highly experienced professionals with a great understanding of how to care for children’s eyes as much as an adult’s eyes. Here’s how we recommend preparing your child for their eye exam. 

Explain to your child who an Optician is and what they do

Although an optician shouldn’t be someone your child is scared of, they may feel slightly reluctant to speak to a stranger. It is therefore best to explain to your child beforehand exactly what an optician does and why they are so important. During the eye examination, the optician will want to speak with your child directly, answering questions about their vision, it is best your child feels comfortable doing this before heading into the appointment.

Explain what will happen during the eye exam

When taking your child to their first eye exam it is useful to run through with them exactly what to expect. This should help calm any nerves they have and ensure they feel comfortable in the environment. One test that may be conducted is a visual activity test which will assess how they see up close and far away. One way our optometrists assess your child’s vision is to ask them to repeat what they say. For young children we may ask them to say what they see, like a shape or animal, for older children this could be numbers or letters. For the most part, an eye examination for children is not so different to an adult’s eye examination. 

Your child should understand the importance of eye examinations for their health

By teaching your children at an early age just how important their eyes are will ensure they are aware of the importance eye examinations have for their health. We recommend bringing your child into one of our practices before they start primary school. This way we can ensure their eyes are healthy and will support them in this important time for learning and development. 

Bring toys and snacks

If you have a very young child they can easily become agitated and distracted when having to sit in waiting areas or in an unfamiliar environment. We recommend bringing some home comforts to make them feel at ease. Snacks and toys are great for keeping them entertained and sitting still. 

If you would like more information about children’s eye examinations before bringing your child into one of our practices, our team of experts are available to answer any of your questions. Get in touch with us today.

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