Our Optometrist will make your child’s eye test fun and interesting, we have lots of special tests just for kids. We measure their vision, check focusing, that the eyes are healthy, the eye muscles work properly and the colour and 3D vision is normal for age.
It is essential that during the early years of childhood any eye problems are detected and all children should regularly visit the optician. Difficulties with reading are common when the eyes struggle to keep vision stable and clear. Dyslexia is not an eye condition but individuals may also have unstable binocular vision or focusing difficulties. We also provide enhanced tests for children, often at the request of their school.
Every child should have regular eye tests, stable, clear & comfortable vision is essential for your child to reach their academic potential.
Children can have an NHS eye test and NHS vouchers towards spectacles or contact lenses if required. We recommend you consider an enhanced vision
Myopia Management
We offer 3 different types of myopia management which can be discussed in further detail at a separate appointment with one of our Optometrists. Unfortunately the NHS does not fund this and there is a consultation fee of £60.
Myopia, casually called “Short sight”, is a condition that, unknown to many, increases sight threatening conditions such as retinal detachments and diseases like glaucoma and myopic macular degeneration. Treat these seriously. The higher the Myopia, the higher the risk of diseases.
The good news is that the amount of Myopia can now be reduced in children. The chart below shows how EARLY CONTROL should help your child see better over their lifetime, reducing their risk of eye disease later on in life.
Nocturnal Lenses gently reshape the curvature of the eye overnight. By putting your ortho-k lenses in before bedtime, when you remove them in the morning, your natural vision can be greatly improved. Our practice Owner Sarah has 15 years of experience in fitting OrthoK lenses and we can fit these for both adults and children.
MiSight® 1 day soft contact lenses are specifically designed for myopia control to slow the progression of myopia in children aged 8-12 at the initiation of treatment.
MiYOSMART use revolutionary technology to enable clear vision in the same way as conventional glasses, but with an additional ring shaped treatment zone to slow down myopia progression.
Enhanced vision assessments
Some children are predisposed to poor eye muscle coordination and control. The enhanced vision assessment investigates the strength, coordination and accuracy of accommodation and convergence, muscle balance, fusional reserves (challenging and measuring the eye muscles reserve strength) visual stress and eye dominance.
If your child has poor eye muscle control, we may recommend HTS (Home Vision Therapy) treatment, a combination of computer based eye exercises with progress checks. Orthoptic exercises are effective in treating and often curing convergence and accommodative problems which are both relatively common. This can sometimes reduce or eliminate the need for glasses in children. Your child would have to visit us for progress checks, usually for 2-3 months.
The HTS program takes a maximum of 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week we can also monitor your child’s progress online.
Enhanced Assessment inc retinal imaging, overlay and report – £120
Coloured Overlays and ReadEz tints
Visual stress (Irlen) syndrome is often associated with dyslexia.
The symptoms of Visual Stress syndrome are very similar to eye muscle underaction. Many studies have shown that children have less need for tints and overlays following vision therapy, an enhanced vision assessment should therefore always be done on children who may have visual stress or reading difficulties.
Visual Stress (Irlen) syndrome affects reading because words, letters and spaces may appear to move on the page and it may be difficult to concentrate. We have specially designed tests and may suggest your child uses a coloured overlay for a trial period. Tints in glasses work much better than overlays and we use a tint system called ReadEz, developed at City University London.
Childrens Glasses
We stock a range of quality childrens frames to give a choice of glasses whatever your child’s face shape and we guarantee a great fit. Basic lenses may be funded by an NHS voucher, for children we may recommend lenses which are stronger, lightweight and fully UV protective. The NHS does not fund ReadEz tints or enhanced assessments.
