Four year old failed vision test??

System

Don't feel guilty, I managed to hide my severe short-sightedness from my parents until the age of 8. it only came to light when the kid that I sat next to in school was off sick. I used to copy what he wrote from the blackboard. When he went sick I was totally stuffed - could hardly see the board let alone read the words!

jane130

don't worry too much , the same thing happened with my son and he now wears glasses, simpsons ones !!

The school recomended that i take him to an optician , which i did but they refered him to the hospital. the appointment took 7 months to come through but i didcovered that tesco optiticans do the test we were waiting for the hospital appointment for and specsavers didn't. so we got him glasses from tesco while we waited for the appointment .

Childrens eyesight can be improved until abut the age of 7 so it may be something they can do something about .

csh_2

lauren_1 wrote: »

Glasses have improved 100 fold since i had them as a child (im only 26) i have had them since i was 2, my dd and ds both have since they were 3. They are some really good 'kids' designs like barble etc etc and some rather funky rimless frames too for kids.

I've had glasses since 3 and back then you got NHS pink frame or NHS blue frame. Thick awful things and a weird shape! And I had a patch like a giant plaster, not the funky ones you get now!

nickyhutch

emlou2009 wrote: »

Nothing to worry about at all, it just means she needs glasses! I do have some knowledge of this kind of thing, as I work for Specsavers. Give the school a chance as if they refer her to the hospital for a sight test, at her age they will issue her two pairs of glasses in case she breaks a pair, whereas your local opticians will only have the authority to issue her one pair. As a general rule they can attend either a local opticians or a hospital for a sight test until they are 5-6 years old, and it doesnt mean its a terrible thing if she is referred to the hospital, as its still only a regular sight text. HTH

No it doesn't! She MIGHT need glasses, she might not. She might need a check every few months, she might need a patch for a short time, or it could be that she didn't "pass" the test because she was distracted. I used to do these tests all the time, and I work with the orthoptists that perform them now within our trust, and the distraction/tired/bored thing happens all the time.

Don;t ring the school, ring the school nurse who sent you the letter. Have to agree that the letter is very badly worded. Ours tell parents exactly what's needed next.

Stop worrying!

jackomdj

Both my children have glasses. The youngest (then just 2) has really bad eyesight, but we only found out as she had a virus which messed up her muscles in her eyes & overnight she got a really bad (ie turns right under her eye) squint. We went to hospital & they picked up the fact that her sight is bad. Because of this we took our elder daughter (then 4) to the opticians & she needs them just for reading etc, we mentioned it to the hospital at our younger daughters appointment & they asked for us to get her refered via the doctors as they don't agree with wearing them just part time. When she went they were happy with her perscription & as she has nothing "wrong" with her eyes other than not having perfect sight they are happy for her to continue just seeing the opticians.

We only get one perscription via the hospital (above someone mentioned you can get more) & the longest we have waited to see them was 6 weeks (our younger daughter got rushed through due to the sudden change).

It is amazing how many children we see with glasses now we notice them more.

I would talk to your school nurse & find out what you should be doing next.

Indie_Kid

jackomdj wrote: »

they are happy for her to continue just seeing the opticians.

I was the same from the age of 11 to 18 - it was only because I'd asked the optician "can I drive?"

squibbs25

My dd was 5 when she failed the school eye test..... not just a little bit but quite seriously!
The letter home said she's failed with the left eye poor vision and right eye extremely poor vision.
I phoned specsavers and expalined i wanted a second opinion they booked her an appointment for the following day. When the test was done i was totally horrified to find that her vision was indeed extremely poor and she needed glasses. The hospital appointment was brought forward as the optition felt problem needed addressing sooner rather than later, she ended up having her eye patched for about 7 months but for 4 hours daily ( i was worried about her being teased by her school friends but they never paid any attention if anything they were more intrigued by the funky patches LOL).

I never had a clue about her poor vision, the tell tale signs you associate with poor vision never showed on my dd (she also went to nursery and they never detected anything, neither did my nor my husbands parents spot anything (and my sis in law had really bad vision when she was a child so mil would def picked up on it had it have been noticeable) .
Unbelieveably i'd had her eyes tested along with her brothers anout 18 months beforehand and no problems were reported (local optition - not a chain). I'd changed from the local optition to specsavers as i was really unhappy with the service i'd recieved when i took my ds for his eye test the following year.
It turns out about 9 months ago the original optitions that we used to use was closed down as the optition was untrained and they were being done for fraud :eek:

Anyway, dd ( now almost 7 and a half) will always need glasses, the hospital have kept a very close eye on her, the longest break we have had between apppointments is 10 weeks (thats because she needs to see the consultant in 3 weeks).

If you are really concerned, get a second opinion from the optitions you normally use.

Good luck, even if your little one does need glasses, it's not the end of the world as my dd found out to her advantage, she's looking forward to picking a new pair which will knowing her be another pain of little miss naughty!!



ETS: Although the eye test was performed at school it was done by the child orthoptist from the hospital, and my dd has been monitorerd by the same person the whole time.

peachyprice

jeffgeorge wrote: »

Will it definetly mean she needs glasses. Is there nothing else it could be.

Vision tests can be difficult to perform on a 4yo, if they don't understand fully what they are being asked or are having a particularly off day the results can be flawed. It's not unknown for children that young to have 3-4 test only to find there's absolutely nothing wrong. For instance if they show her the chart with letters but she can't name them when they're out of the normal alphabet order she'll say 'I don't know' but that's not the same as 'I can't see'

At this stage it's certainly nothing to panic about. Pop her along to the optician yourself, you'll be able to sit in and see her responses for yourself.

Indie_Kid

csh wrote: »

And I had a patch like a giant plaster, not the funky ones you get now!

I had one of them too. Someone I know, his parents wouldn't let him wear it - he walked into everything.

dollydoodah

jeffgeorge wrote: »

Will it definetly mean she needs glasses. Is there nothing else it could be.

If she needs glasses thats fine but was hoping not

What a great way to annoy all those parents on here whose children - like my daughter - do wear glasses.

My son 'failed' a vision test when he was in Year 1. We went along to the orthoptist who said that it was because the tester had detected a slight lazy eye. Twenty minutes and various tests later, he was given the all clear.

So no, despite what has been said earlier, just because you have this letter does NOT necessarily mean she will need glasses.