Children’s Eye Exams

When children are brought into the world, they have no reference frame. If their vision is impaired or experiencing unusual symptoms, they may not even be aware of it, let alone tell you what’s going wrong.

Children are recommended to have their eyes examined no fewer than three times before reaching Kindergarten. They spend most of their young lives absorbing information and learning; since learning is over 60% visual, it is imperative that any problems be spotted and corrected as early as possible.

After kindergarten, your children should have their eyes tested every 12 months. You’ll be in and out again within the hour and this brief visit will not only assess your child’s vision but also examine their overall eye health. Many illnesses show early symptoms in the eye, so Dr. Kassam will also search for these telltale signs during the exam.

Relax and meet Dr. Kassam

It’s very common for children to be nervous before an eye exam, so our first priority is always to help them feel at ease. Sometimes it’s showing off fancy machinery, for others a soft description of what the exam involves. Dr Kassam has a knack for helping kids relax and even enjoy their exams.

Preliminary Testing

This allows Dr. Kassam to assess ‘how well’ your child is seeing overall. This testing generates a rough approximation of their corrective lens prescription (if relevant), their visual field (aka, how well they utilize their peripheral vision), as well as the use of digital retinal photography and ocular coherence tomography (OCT) to visualize the inside of their eye.

Further Testing

Dr. Kassam will also assess your child’s binocular function, essentially how well their eye muscles work with the eyes to control vision. Finally, Dr. Kassam will perform a comprehensive exam of your child’s eye structure in search of any indicators of eye disease.

Home Time

If your child does require corrective lenses (contacts or frames) then that prescription can be sorted on the day, as we stock a huge variety of options. Your child will be able to choose a pair which are both useful and to their tastes!