Eye Tests - Pre Schoolers

[tigerlillyd02]

When do young children need their eyes testing? Is it covered in development checks?

Do you arrange with an optician yourself or is it done through the health visitors?

DS is 2 and myself and some friends are querying this as it's never been mentioned.

ds got an eye test at nursery not long before he started school so he must have been 3 1/2 - 4 years old. DD's eyes were tested earlier but only because she had a squint - she turned out to be long sighted and got glasses at around 18 months. I think my local optician only does routine child eye checks from age 3. DD was referred to the orthoptist at the local hospital.

I was concerned about DS's eyesight and mentioned this to HV. She refered us to the opthologist at the hospital who did a special eye test for very young children. The eye lady also said that eyesight is not fully developed until children are about five, so is not tested as routine until thy get to school.

The rule is 8 is too late. So the earlier the better. That said you need the child to be able to co-operate so under 3 could be difficult. All of my kids were tested at 3-4 as I had a lazy eye that was not picked up until 10 (and was too late) and it can run in families, then annually. My 9 year old has just got glasses. Its free to get kids eye tests so no reason not to do it. But no schools and HV don't do it routinely now.
If you had genuine concerns eg squint then as others have said can ask for testing at hospital. My youngest has autism and as he's not co-operative he gets tested at hospital.

we are in Scotland and they routinely do an eye test before they start school

I went to the opticians when DD1 was 4.5 ish as she seemed to have problems reading number plates. She was fine but they were happy to check out and it was free.

I have a squint (or did, it was surgically corrected) so DD had her eyes tested at 1 and again at 2. At 2 they showed her pictures (getting smaller and smaller) and asked her what they were. They then have a thing like binoculars they make her look into to measure long / short sight (shape of the eye, presumably)

They are routinely tested when they start school here (N. Wales) but DS2 had regular eye tests from about age 2 at the hospital as he was very clumsy and the HV wanted to rule out any eye sight problems.

I am in SE England and children are usually tested at the beginning of Reception. My DD was borderline and I was advised to have her tested again at the Optician, which was fine. If something is obviously wrong the child will be referred to the local Eye Hospital.