Why are eye exams so important?

Have any of you watched The Doctors show? Check out this video: http://www.thedoctorstv.com/main/home_page?init_type=Feature&init_id=4988

We can learn a lot from this video. This video states how important a comprehesive approach to testing for eye issues. When going to your local eye doctors make sure they are testing more than your child's visual acuity. When we do our comprehensive exams we test for: Alignment of the eyes, binocular depth perception, eye movements necessary for reading (‘tracking’), magnitude and flexibility of accommodation (‘focusing’), visual motor integration and visual perceptual abilities. We stress that vision is more than seeing 20/20.

What I also love about this video is how they state that your child should have an eye exam starting at 6 months! So, make sure your child receives an eye exam before age 1, at 3 years old, and before they enter kindergarten.  After that, if vision is developing on schedule, children should be seen every one to two years as directed by their eye doctor.

Lastly, like this child's teacher noticing her student was looking very closely to her page, look to see if your a child rubbing his or her eyes, avoiding reading, complaining of headaches or eyestrain, it should be a warning sign that more testing is needed.