Paediatric Eye Service
About
Our team of orthoptists and optometrists specialise in assessing and treating child vision and eye co-ordination problems across South Birmingham.
About our service
We provide a comprehensive Eye Service for the children in South Birmingham.
Our team consists of orthoptists and optometrists who are extremely experienced in testing children of all ages and abilities. We specialise in assessing and treating vision and eye co-ordination problems. We are closely linked to Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital Eye Department.
We have run the National Vision Screening Service in South Birmingham since 1985, offering an eye test to every Reception age child in both mainstream (including local authority, academies, religious and private schools) and special schools. Home schooled children are offered appointments at our local clinics.
We provide follow up clinics, locally, where children can be monitored and treated until they are stable enough to be discharged. This is usually around the age of 7.
Children with special needs may be seen until they are of secondary school age if necessary, and this will generally take place within the school setting.
What is the National Vision Screening Programme and why is it done?
The NHS recommends vision screening at age 4 to 5 years, within a mainstream or special school setting.
We want to identify children with reduced vision in one or both eyes early enough so that the child can receive effective treatment.
Children rarely complain of having poor vision and it can easily go unnoticed, especially if it only affects one eye.
Reduced vision can have a huge impact on a child’s learning and development.
To achieve maximum vision, treatment needs to take place before 8 years of age.
Reduced vision is caused by the brain not receiving a clear image from one or both eyes. The sort of eye problems we identify at this age include long and short sightedness, astigmatism and lazy eye. Glasses and/or eye patches/drops may be recommended as part of the treatment.
We will assess the child’s vision using a letter matching test. The test is fun, non invasive and pain free.
