Back-to-School Eye Exams For Tulsa Students

It’s hard to believe we’re almost halfway through the summer, and that means it’s time for parents and caregivers to schedule
back-to-school eye exams for their children. Comprehensive kids’ eye exams are essential for identifying vision issues that may go unnoticed in your child’s daily life. Unlike school vision screenings, which only assess distance visual acuity, comprehensive back-to-school eye exams detect signs of vision loss or other eye health concerns.

A school vision screening uses a basic Snellen eye chart, with a trained adult administering the exam to the child. If they notice a child struggling to see clearly or anything obvious in a child’s eye anatomy (crossed eyes, lazy eye, irritation, etc.), they flag the child and refer them for a pediatric eye exam. Unfortunately, these cursory school vision screenings often miss important issues that negatively affect a child’s ability to read or focus in the classroom, which can also contribute to behavioral issues.

Most insurance companies provide one free, complete pediatric eye exam per year, so this is the time for Tulsa-area parents to book a comprehensive pediatric eye exam for students before the August back-to-school rush.

Why Vision Affects Learning More Than Most People Realize

According to the American Optometric Association (AOA):

About 80% of learning happens through the visual system, and unfortunately, children aren’t always able to tell you if there’s a problem. Those visual defects can lead to academic performance decreases, lowered self-esteem, decreased athletic engagement and even poor social interaction.

This is why Tulsa-area parents should schedule a complete eye exam for their kids before school starts, rather than depending on the cursory school vision screenings.

Here are some quick facts about why annual eye exams are so helpful:

• Kids’ brains are amazingly adaptive. They often don’t realize they can’t see well until they have a “real eye exam” and we show them the difference prescription lenses make.
• They may have learning-related vision problems that make it harder for them to read or to process and retain what they read.
• Children who can “pass” a visual acuity test (using an eye chart) may still have vision-tracking issues, or their eyes may have trouble coordinating what they see, which impacts learning.
• Vision issues we catch at our optometrist’s office may affect your child’s depth perception or hand-eye coordination, limiting their ability to pursue certain sports or hobbies.

And, as the AOA so wisely states, these vision issues can affect a child’s ability to focus and self-confidence, place them at lower
reading or math levels than they would otherwise be, and lead to classroom behavior problems.

What a School Vision Screening Misses

Standard school vision screenings use a Snellen Eye Chart that tests for 20/20 visual acuity. While this information is helpful, it does not account for a range of other factors that may affect a child’s ability to see clearly or sustain focused vision, or that result from anatomical issues inside the eye.

Unfortunately, these basic screenings cannot test for other important vision issues we can correct or treat at this age, such as struggles with near vision that rely on convergence (the eyes’ ability to coordinate and move inward toward the nose to focus on nearby text and images, which is closely associated with reading issues in young children), the eyes’ ability to coordinate with one another (binocular coordination), depth perception, or color blindness.

Your child could ace the eye chart test because their distance vision is fine, but they may struggle to see clearly when reading a book, completing a worksheet, or taking a test on their school tablet or computer.

Other eye issues that won’t be screened for include things like a lazy eye (amblyopia) or crossed eyes (strabismus). Both of these
conditions are easy to treat when children are young, but can become permanent between the ages of 8 and 10. Fortunately, a routine childhood eye exam from an optometrist tests for all of this and more, ensuring your child has access to clear, focused vision before the start of the new school year.

Signs Your Child May Have a Vision Problem

Vision problem symptoms in children show up in a variety of ways at home and in the classroom.

Watch for these signs:

• Squinting at the whiteboard in the classroom or at the TV at home
• Sitting unusually close to the screen
• Holding books very close when reading
• Frequent headaches, especially after reading or schoolwork
• Rubbing eyes repeatedly
• Tilting the head to one side when reading or focusing
• Covering or closing one eye to see better (often young children “wink” to focus, which looks adorable but can be a sign of vision loss)
• Frequently losing their place when reading
• Avoiding books, homework, or close-up tasks
• Complaining that words move or blur on the page
• Poor hand-eye coordination (tripping, difficulty catching)
• Short attention span, specifically during reading tasks
• Saying their eyes feel tired or “funny”
• Struggling with color-coded worksheets, confusing red and green, or saying the grass looks purple or that leaves on a tree appear beige or yellow
• Consistently red, irritated, or watery eyes that may indicate dry eye (which is increasingly common in children who spend a lot of time on screens)

These symptoms can be easy to miss because children adapt so quickly to vision loss that they don’t even realize anything is wrong. Most children assume they see just fine until our comprehensive eye exam provides a better picture of what’s going on. If you have noticed any of these signs in your children, it’s definitely time to schedule a back-to-school eye exam.

What Happens at a Comprehensive Pediatric Eye Exam?

First and foremost, there’s no reason for your child to feel any fear or anxiety about the exam. In fact, since Eye to Eye Family Vision Care focuses on families, we like to treat our pediatric exams as part fun and part scientific discovery. Once kids truly understand that nothing hurts or feels uncomfortable, they enjoy our range of eye tests and love learning about our diverse testing equipment.

During our exam, we will perform tests and checks of:

Visual acuity

For this, we use the same type of eye chart that your child has seen in their pediatrician’s office or during the school’s vision screening. If your child doesn’t read yet, we have other charts that use things like the Rotating E or various identifiable shapes, and these tell us more about what they can and can’t see from a distance of 20 feet. We may also play a few fun games.

Eye health check

We’ll also use a special lens that gives us a clear view of the eye’s interior.

Muscle coordination and eye function

There are a variety of tests we use to examine your child’s peripheral vision and how well the eyes work together to track moving objects in sync or to focus on objects within normal reading distance or less.

Screening for color deficiency

During your child’s eye exam, we’ll use a world-famous book called the Ishihara Test. We use it to test for color blindness. The pages of the book contain colored dots that form numbers or patterns, which appear different to those with normal versus deficient color vision.

You can read more about what your child can expect by visiting our pediatric eye care services page. Again, nothing we do is painful or uncomfortable, and we’ll take our time so you and your children can ask any questions you want about various tests.

We want to reiterate that, under the Affordable Care Act, pediatric eye exams are considered an essential health benefit. Many health insurance companies cover all or a significant portion of the cost of a complete back-to-school eye exam, with little to no co-pay, and some even cover a free pair of glasses per year.

Also, Eye to Eye participates in the InfantSEE program, which provides no-cost eye exams for infants ages 6-12 months as part of a public health initiative. Let our office know if you have an infant, and we can book your family’s appointment in the same time block.

How Often Should Children Get Their Eyes Examined?

The American Optometric Association’s schedule for recommended eye exams is based on age or the presence of certain symptoms or conditions.

For the most part, the AOA recommends that children ages 3 to 5 have a pediatric eye exam at least once before starting school. After first grade, annual exams should be the norm, and there’s no better time than before the start of the next academic year.

AOA’s Recommended Schedule for Pediatric Eye Exams

Annual eye exams are especially important for children who wear glasses or contact lenses. It’s common for prescriptions to change. There’s a chance last year's prescription is no longer correct, so the back-to-school kid's eye exam gives them a chance to get back to school with an accurate lens prescription.

Book Your Appointment Before Our August Schedule Fills Up

Our appointment calendar is already filling up for late July and August. Don’t make the mistake of putting this back-to-school task on hold, or you might miss a chance to get in before Tulsa schools are back in session. By scheduling your child’s appointment in July, you have more flexibility on times and dates before the back-to-school rush.

Most insurance plans cover annual pediatric exams, including Oklahoma SoonerCare (Medicaid), which also covers glasses if prescribed.

Eye to Eye Family Vision Care is located at 1029 E Taft Ave in Sapulpa and serves families from Tulsa, Glenpool, Sand Springs, and Jenks. Give us a call at (918) 227-3937 or use our online booking page to schedule your child’s back-to-school eye exam.