Back to School Already?!
Blog vol 6.2. Back to School Already?!
Not trying to jump the gun here and spoil your already short summer holidays. But…..
We are booking right now for mid to late August. And guess what? It is that important, the lion’s share of your child’s learning comes through their eyes and visual systems.
We like to see children as early as 6 months and continue to see them on an annual basis through their secondary school years. If there are problems, the key is to catch them early, deal with them, and help your children to flourish in school and in life.
There are screening programs available, which are better than nothing, and can act like triage in Emerg. An optometrist provides an eye exam that is individualized and complete.
This what your child requires:
• Clear vision, at distance and up close
• The ability to maintain focus at any distance
• Good focusing flexibility to allow rapid change from one distance to another
• Eye-teaming skills, including control of eye position, movement and tracking
• Peripheral vision and eye-hand coordination
Problems with one or more of these areas will cause your child difficulties at school and in extracurricular activities, like sports.
Should your child require glasses, Burlington Eyecare is involved in the “Eye See….Eye Learn” Program set up by the Ontario Association of Optometrists: Industry leaders provide complimentary frames and lenses to qualifying children in JK and SK in Ontario. Eye exams for children are OHIP covered.
As part of the exam, the optometrist will discuss the child’s overall situation in light of their eyes such as screen time, school, and diet. They will also suggest simple habits that slow myopia development (difficulty seeing in the distance) like increasing outside time and holding screens at a healthy distance. Sun protection, eye safety, dry eye prevention, allergies, and of course, any parental concerns are all possible conversation topics.
This is all about prevention and setting up good life habits.
‘til next week,
The good doctor
