Children’s Eye Care Center in Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach
At Advanced Eyecare Center we understand that children aren't just fun-sized adults (though they do have a lot of fun). You can't just give them the same type of eye care as adults and expect everything to go well. They need specialized eye care aimed at meeting the specific needs of childhood and service geared toward keeping their attention and making their eye care engaging and accessible to them. Our caring and professional eye doctors know just how to take care of your child and their eyes. Kids of all ages are welcome in our Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach eye care clinics, from 6-month-old babies to older teenagers.
Why are pediatric eye exams so important?
Don't wait until your child complains about their vision to schedule an eye exam for them. Kids often don't notice that their vision is getting worse until it has already gotten quite bad. Even if they're not seeing very well, many children simply adapt to what they see, completely unaware that they're seeing poorly at all. They simply assume this is how everyone sees the world.
Undetected vision problems often interfere with normal learning in school, child development, and sports performance. This means that your child could be falling far behind because of their vision, and you may not even know it.
My child passed the school vision testing. Is this enough for them to thrive at school?
Yes. Even if your child's school vision screening shows that they have 20/20 vision, they still need to be checked by a qualified children's eye doctor. Vision screenings can indicate if your young student needs prescription eyeglasses or contact lenses, but not much else. For example, these screenings can't, and aren't meant to, identify the signs of other ocular problems such as eye misalignment (strabismus), lazy eye (amblyopia), or trouble with focusing (accommodation). These types of functional vision disorders can cause a great deal of trouble, including significant loss of vision, if they go undetected. They may also require advanced treatments such as patching or vision therapy.
When should I bring my child for a kids’ eye exam?
According to the American Optometric Association (AOA), your child's first exam should be around when they are six months old. If your eye doctor finds nothing unusual, the next time your child should have an exam is around 3 years old. After that, they should have an eye exam right before they start school, and every year after that throughout their years in school.
What happens during an eye exam for kids?
At our Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach offices, we ensure that your child’s eye exam is geared toward their age and takes into account any pediatric risk factors. This why we encourage you to give us much information as possible about family eye disease, health conditions, developmental delays, medications, previous eye trauma, or any other condition that may effect your child's health. The more information that parents share with us, the better we can diagnose and treat problems. All tests are quick and painless, and our eye care team is fantastic with kids.
We will start your child\s exam by evaluating their visual acuity – checking for nearsightedness (myopia), farsightedness (hyperopia), and astigmatism. This helps us decide if your child needs to wear eyeglasses or contact lenses.
Learning in the classroom and participating in extracurricular activities depend heavily on mastery of a range of additional visual skills that we can assess, including:
- Accommodation: the ability to switch focus smoothly between near and far
- Binocular vision: how the eyes work together as a team
- Peripheral (side) vision
- Color vision
- Hand-eye coordination
- Tracking skills
Our kids eye doctor will also examine eye health by checking the area surrounding the eye and inside the eye. When necessary, we may administer dilating eye drops to obtain a clearer view of the retina and optic nerve.
Are there any warning signs that my kid needs an eye exam immediately?
We encourage parents and teachers to always be on the lookout for signs of a pediatric vision condition. This is the best way to help prevent children from struggling in school unnecessarily. In fact, it is not unusual for kids to be misdiagnosed with ADD/ADHD or a behavioral problem, when an untreated vision condition is the root of the problem.
If you notice any of these signs, it’s time to book an eye exam at a children’s eye care center near me:
- Wandering eye, or crossed eyes
- Excessive blinking
- Head tilting or turning
- Squinting, or closing one eye to see
- Frequent eye rubbing
- Short attention span
- Inability to hold a steady gaze
- Avoidance of reading
- Droopy eyelid
- Poor tracking skills
We welcome you and your children to our Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach optometry practices. Our eye doctors aim to optimize kids’ vision in California’s South Bay with a positive experience, so they look forward to coming back for more eye care for kids!
Visit a pediatric optometrist near you today!