Eye Tests for All Ages: Paediatric Care

Our optometrist Francesca has completed the Professional Certificate in Paediatric Eye Care and offers a tailored reading difficulties assessment for children and teenagers who are experiencing visual symptoms when reading. These can include:

– Headaches and eye strain after close work.

– Words going in and out of focus or appearing blurred when reading.

– Words appearing to double when reading.

– Losing place in text when reading or finding it difficult to track along a line of text.

– Text that appears to shimmer or flicker.

– Discomfort with brightness of the page.

Some of these visual symptoms can co-occur with learning difficulties including dyslexia and neurodiversity. This appointment does not diagnose or treat learning difficulties, instead it identifies and manages the associated eye problems.

The appointment is 60 minutes and provides an assessment of the child’s vision, focusing ability, eye health, visual stress and eye muscle balance to find a bespoke plan to minimise visual discomfort when reading. Treatments can include spectacles, eye exercises and/or coloured filters.

Eye Tests for All Ages: Paediatric Care

We are often asked at the desk how old a child needs to be to have their first eye test. Many often assume they can only have an eye test once they can identify letters, but this is in fact not the case. You’d also be mistaken if you believed what one well-known high street chain optician has been promoting recently; that children can “have their first test from the age of three”.

Here at Hassocks Eyecare Centre we can test children of any age.

Using the most up-to-date equipment and processes, our Optometrists can perform eye examinations on any child if the parent or carer has concerns about their vision.

Of course, we test ALL ages, not only children! We take a great amount of care and kindness in performing eye tests for the elderly, as well as those with Dementia, Parkinsons, Arthritis and other conditions. We also have wheelchair access to our downstairs clinics, and no steps or ramps at all on our ground floor. If you have any concerns regarding booking an appointment for yourself or a loved one, please don’t hesitate to call one of our frienly team who will be happy to help.

If you’re interested in booking an eye test, click here!