By: Antonio Chirumbolo SUNY 2013
It is critical to bring your children in for an eye exam early in life. Early detection and intervention is imperative in preventing your children from developing permanent visual complications, and delayed learning and maturation. The American Optometric Association recommends children have their first eye exam at six months of age, and again at three years of age right before beginning school. In addition, children should then receive exams every two years following entrance of school unless more frequent exams are indicated due to problems or conditions.
While learning about child development, students should keep these AOA recommendations in mind. We know that there are different critical periods for various visual abilities. For example, it is believed the critical period for binocularity continues until about 2.5 years of age. This is why it is important to examine children at a young age, so if problems are present, they can be detected and remedied early on, before the child reaches an age where there may be significant damage in visual and learning abilities due to deprivation throughout the critical period, the period in time where development is greatly influenced, either positively or negatively.
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