Good vision is essential during the first few years of life to ensure that children have the opportunity to achieve their full visual, educational and social potential. Obstacles to vision such as squints and refractive errors (long and short-sightedness) during the early years of life can lead to amblyopia (“lazy” eye) which unless detected and treated leads to irreversible visual impairment in the affected eye. Poor vision can also have a significant impact on a child’s educational and social development. If a child cannot see the board clearly or cannot see the words in a book comfortably, they are unlikely to keep pace with their peers.
The UK was one of the first countries to recognise the importance of good vision during these formative years and a system of vision screening was introduced over 100 years ago. However, recent changes in the frequency and organisation of vision screening have widened the gaps in this safety net and there is growing evidence that children with poor vision are “slipping through”.
The UK is blessed with well-trained optometrists on almost every high street and eye examinations are free of charge to children under the age of 16. However, children’s eye care is still given a surprisingly low priority by many parents and some children are never taken for an eye examination. Therefore, I fully support this campaign to help raise awareness. However, until we can be certain that the majority of children are under the care of an optometrist, there is a strong case for reinforcing the weakened vision screening net by testing children at key stages of their development.