School Aged Children

Today's Visual world is changing! Our eyes are challenged more than ever by the frequent use of electronic devices. These devices cause our eyes to work harder and expose us to High Energy Visible Light, which impacts our blink rate, may lead to potentially damaging build up effects in our human lens and retina, and even impacts our sleep pattern! Given this environment, our children need to have highly efficient and accurate visual systems, or they will be left behind.

Unfortunately, vision problems are common among school-aged children. According to Prevent Blindness America, nearly 1 in 4 children have vision problems that, if left untreated, can impact their learning ability, personality, and adjustment in school. What's even scarier is that often children are unable to recognize that they are having a problem and most school vision screenings are unable to detect visual problems beyond nearsightedness (myopia).

An estimated 70-90% of all classroom learning comes through the visual system. Remember, there is more to vision that just seeing 20/20! Annual, comprehensive eye health and vision examinations are one of the most important investments a parent can make to help maximize their child's education and overall health and well-being. Here are some rules to live by:

Detect – Make sure all school-aged children receive a back to school, comprehensive eye health, and vision evaluation to identify potential pitfalls regarding vision and learning.

Protect – Utilize anti-reflective lenses that reduce exposure to high energy visible light and encourage the use of sun protection when outside and safety eyewear for sports.

Prevent – Limit digital eye strain by following the 20-20-20 rule -- For every 20 minutes of near work, take a 20-second break and view an item 20 feet away and promote frequent periods of outside play.

At North Shore Eye Health and Wellness, we look forward to helping your child succeed in school and develop to their full potential!