Infant Vision Evaluations
Vision plays a critical role in child development, and gross motor development plays a critical role in a child's binocular vision development.
InfantSEE® Vision Assessment
Dr. Slotnick is a proud participant in the InfantSEE® program.
Our young patients may have a FREE first Infant Vision Assessment
between 6 months of age and the first birthday!
InfantSEE, a public health program, managed by Optometry Cares - The AOA Foundation, is designed to ensure that eye and vision care becomes an integral part of infant wellness care to improve a child's quality of life. Under this program, AOA member optometrists provide a no-cost comprehensive eye and vision assessment for infants 6-12 months old regardless of a family's income or access to insurance coverage. ;
While many parents may think that a vision screening is enough, a study funded by the National Eye Institute found that even the most sophisticated vision screening tools, administered by the most highly-trained vision screeners, will miss one-third of children with an eye or vision disorder.[i] InfantSEE provides early intervention using necessary specialized equipment and procedures - which are not available as part of most vision screenings. During an InfantSEE assessment a doctor of optometry will test for excessive of unequal amounts of nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism, eye movement ability, eye health problems, and discuss patient and family history. Comprehensive eye and vision care is important to detect problems early to ensure babies have the opportunity to develop the visual abilities they need to grow and learn.
[i] Vision in Preschoolers (VIP) Study Group. "Findings from the Vision in Preschoolers (VIP) Study." Optometry and vision science : official publication of the American Academy of Optometry 86.6 (2009): 619-623.
Source: https://www.infantsee.org/
Pediatric and Toddler Eye Health and Vision Evaluations
Dr. Slotnick's pediatric care experience extends to infants as early as two weeks of age. In the event there is a concern in your infant or toddler's vision development, Dr. Slotnick creates a warm, safe environment to evaluate your young child's visual skills objectively.
Vision Therapy for Infants and Toddlers?
As parents know, every day in the life of a young child provides vast opportunities for learning and development. Visual Development can be guided as well. "Vision Therapy" for very young children provides frequent opportunities for professional guidance around a home-based plan of care, helping parents become home-therapists for their child.
- For children requiring specialized support, vision therapy programs can be devised for infants and toddlers. These visits are usually scheduled at intervals of 3-6 weeks, to help put parents in the driver's seat for their child's vision development.
- Visual Motor Development Training programs are an example of such structured, home-based intervention, where we assess, explore, create a program for home-based activities. After 3-4 weeks, we re-assess for progress and further instructions.
Can infants, children, or non-verbal patients be evaluated?
Yes!
For skilled pediatric vision care providers, visual evaluations do not require subjective tests, the ability to read letters, or to identify shapes. An evaluation at an early age (under 2 years) may look like a play session, but in the course of playing games, the doctor is making careful observations. Objective testing provides sufficient input for a pediatric optometrist to answer the following questions from his/her assessment:
1.Eyesight:
How well can the child see? With each eyes? Both eyes? Does eyesight seem about equal between the eyes? (May not have a grade like 20/something, just a gross sense of vision potential with infants.)
2. Eye Power:
Is the child farsighted, nearsighted, astigmatic? Are the eye powers about equal?
3. Binocularity:
Do the eyes coordinate as a team? Some of the time? All of the time? At a certain distance?
4. Ocular motility:
Can the eyes move in all directions? Is there a limitation in any gaze? Either/ both eyes?
5. Peripheral vision:
Is the child alert/ responsive to off-center targets (peripheral vision)?
6. Visual-Motor Development:
Is the child using vision to guide reaching and grasping? (Age appropriate?)
7. Ocular Health:
Are my child’s eyes healthy/ no apparent pathology?
And the home run question:
8. Guidance:
What can I do to guide my child’s vision development at home?
If your doctor can debrief you with answers to all of these questions, your child is in good hands!
At Mind-Body-World Optometry, we offer eye and vision care for the entire family, at any age. Infants and young children deserve the opportunity to assure proper binocular vision development is supported, with activities, guidance, recommendations, and when indicated, lenses which THERAPEUTICALLY GUIDE visual development, rather than simply compensate for eye-power measurements.
Proper visual development requires the brain to receive unified information where the eyes meet the hands. Lenses may be provided to help your child build eye-teaming skills for depth perception and visual-motor planning.
Vision Therapy may be a passive intervention, like the use of lenses. It may consist of active recommendations, brought into daily activities. And it may include active, office-based guidance, right in our Westchester County office, or beyond. Call us at (914) 874-1177 and speak to our knowledgeable staff to arrange for your child's vision care.