Home » Conditions » Vision Assessment

Vision Assessment

Janine Gray is a qualified orthoptist with over 30 years of experience and would be delighted to assist you today.

Get In Touch
Image link

What Is A Vision Assessment?

A vision test will assess how much you can see. Adults, children and babies can have their vision tested as there are different tests suitable for different ages. Following the first vision assessment, your child may then have drops instilled to dilate their pupils to check if they need glasses. This will be performed by an ophthalmologist or an optometrist. Different vision tests include:

Snellens chart – suitable for adults and older children

Logmar Crowded and LogMar Singles – suitable for children that can match or know their letters

Kay crowded and Kay singles – suitable for younger children who can recognise pictures but do not know letters yet

Cardiff Acuity Cards -suitable for babies, children who do not speak or children with disabilities

Forced Choice preferential looking cards – suitable for babies or children with disabilities

Vision is assessed by asking the child or adult to read the letters or pictures on a chart from largest to smallest they can do. If letters are not known yet or if the child/adult is unable to speak either due to age, shyness or disability, a matching card can be used. During vision assessment, one eye will be covered either with an occluder, glasses with one eye blacked out, a patch or even the parents’ hand if needed to allow the vision of each eye to be tested.

What Are Signs Of A Possible Eye Problem?

  • Complaining of headaches or eye strain
  • Problems reading – children may need to hold books close to their face or lose their place regularly
  • Problems seeing in the distance or sitting too close to the TV
  • Being unusually clumsy
  • Regularly rubbing eyes or blinking
  • Problems with hand eye co-ordination – may struggle with ball games
  • Eyes not pointing in the same direction
Image link

What Problems Can Be Detected During Eye Tests?

Lazy eye (amblyopia)- where the vision in one eye is reduced either due to needing glasses, undetected squint or vision not developed due to childhood cataract or ptosis (droopy eye lid)

Squint (strabismus) where the eyes look in different direction – in, out, up or down

Short-sight (myopia) – distance vision is reduced but close objects are seen clearly

Long-sight (hypermetropia) – near vision is reduced but distance vision can also be affected

Astigmatism – front of the eye (cornea) is more curved than usual

Childhood cataract – cloudy patches in the lens of the eye – usually present from birth

Colour vision deficiency – difficulty seeing colours or distinguishing hues of colours. This is more common in boys than girls