Failed eye test - do we wait for hospital appointment??

[Foresttwo]

So my daughter brought home a letter yesterday saying that she could have a problem with her one eye, following the routine screening they did at school.
We were very surprised at this as she doesn’t have any problems seeing the board at school as is above average for reading. She’s not particularly clumsy etc.
I rang and spoke to the community team who carried out the assessment and they said she failed on the LogMAR test. When her first eye was covered she couldn’t say the letters very well at all until the letters were much bigger. The other eye was fine she said. I asked her what we do next and she said it’s best to wait for hospital appointment. It would be referred to the hospital rather than an optician as her eyes were so different to each other.
I spoke to the class teacher who said DD got upset when one eye was covered and couldn’t see very well through it. I also asked if recognising capital letter may have been a factor, as she’s not 100% with all of them. It was also the first eye to be tested that was dodgy and she can be a bit shy. The teacher said she was ok with the other eye, so guess it may not have helped but maybe not main cause.
It sounds to be like she probably needs glasses, which both she and us are totally fine with.

However my dilemma is do I wait for the hospital appointment to come through as nurse suggested, as from speaking to the teacher is seems this can be up to six months! Or do I just book her into an opticians and get her glasses.
Does anyone know what the hospital would do that and optician can’t? We have an excellent local optician who my husband has been going to since he was 2 years old.
We don’t have her official results yet, just that one eye was significantly worse than the other. It says I could take up to three weeks just to get letter with results.
I don’t feel I can leave it now I know she may have a problem, although so far her education hasn’t suffered. Also don’t want to bypass the system if it’s not what she needs.
Anyone who has been through similar or any knowledge of how the whole process who can offer advice or the outcome you had would be gratefully received! Thx

Tried covering one eye and the right is definitely weaker. She says things look fuzzy and she can’t see small writing with one of them. I think she’ll need treatment of some sort, but think it was probably made a worse result by the capital letters and it being the first eye tested.
Thanks for the tips and experiences, it’s reassuring to know others have been through it. It was such a surprise to us and her. I think that’s why she got upset, as she’s never closed one eye before and it was a shock to her that it wasn’t 100% clear.
I just want the appointment to hurry up, as I want to know how bad it is and begin treatment. I have 1000 different scenarios running through my head, so would just rather get it started and know what we are dealing with.

I literally had this with my youngest DS on Wednesday! We got the letter he's failed the test and referred to hospital, got the appointment Friday morning but it isn't until March. His 1-1 thinks he'd lost concentration and couldn't quite remember what was being asked of him so I'm not too worried. He's also a few months off 5.

Well you know now so you need the hospital appt to assess properly.
Call and make sure referral has gone thru.
The goid thing is the school screening has picked up the issue so in a few months time you will be addressing it with patches or glasses or both . It s a fairly common isdue and nothing serious as such.

As someone who carries out LogMAR screening, I can assure you the optician can do a hell of a lot more than we do! The screening is purely that, just screening to identify a possible problem.

I would definitely recommend making an appointment with an optician. Like a PP said, maybe your optician isn’t great at dealing with children so another may be better. My DC wears glasses and it took a few different opticians until we found one we are happy with and trust.

My dd1 had a fairly major issue picked up at this point - she had corneal scarring as a result of a bacterial eye infection she had as a toddler.

We had been constantly reassured the infection wouldn't damage her sight and she showed absolutely no signs of anything dodgy until that test. Further testing revealed that eye was basically crap.

She had patch therapy for a long time and poor little bunny had to wear it 6 hours a day. It did improve her sight a little (the expectation was that it wouldn't ever do much because of her scar and it did more than hoped).

Anyway the hospital was great and all the tests are made age appropriate. Hardest thing for us is when she has to have imaging done to check the scar is still dormant. She finds it difficult to stay still enough.

She's 8 now and wears glasses but no more patch. She won't ever be a fighter pilot but otherwise makes no difference to her to be honest.

Just came across this thread whilst googling, I took my youngest for his first eye test along with his older siblings - turns out he has astigmatism in one eye and his eyesight isn’t particularly good in that eye. Not horrendously bad, but I was surprised at how little he could read of the letters at the test. I’ve never had any concerns about his vision, but I’m wondering how this was missed at the routine eye tests last year at school??