Children’s Eye Tests

Most very young children have their eyesight assessed as part of routine developmental checks. While these are very important, they aren’t as thorough as a complete eye test by a qualified optician. We recommend that your child has their eyes tested from an early age, however, if you have no concerns, it’s perhaps better to wait until your child is a little older — around three‑and‑a‑half years — before taking them for a full eye examination.

Even if your child’s vision seems good, it’s worth taking them for a full eye test at a qualified optician when they reach school age, just to make sure that there aren’t any issues with their vision that are likely to affect their early school years. Testing before your child goes into full‑time education means that any problems that they may have are identified early, setting them up for a happy and fulfilling school life.

Poor eyesight can cause learning and behavioural problems, which might be blamed on other things. This is especially true for young children, who may find it difficult to explain the difficulties they are having with their eyesight, or may not even be aware they have a problem. The sooner vision problems are detected, the better the outcome.

The charge for a standard eye test (excluding OCT) varies per store but is up to €30. Your child may be eligible for free health services as part of the HSE school health programme (contact your local health office for more details).

Your child’s optometrist might want to use eye drops as part of their examination. These drops are designed to relax the muscles inside your child’s eyes allowing for a more accurate assessment of their vision and making it easier to check that their eyes are healthy. The eye drops might sting a little when they are administered, and will cause some blurring for about 24 hours or so, but the optometrist will discuss this with you further during your child’s eye appointment.

It can be difficult to get children to wear their glasses. Whilst the majority of children are happy to wear glasses, many children may not want to wear glasses, and the change can be scary or worrying for them for many reasons.

Read our article on how to get children to wear glasses to find out more.

We want every child to feel safe and comfortable at their eye test. If your child is nervous, has specific sensory processing needs, or is autistic and you think they would benefit from their appointment being more tailored to their individual needs, we recommend calling your local store directly rather than booking online. 

By speaking with our team, we can make reasonable adjustments to suit your child’s needs, such as: 

• Quiet times ‑ booking your appointment during a calmer period in the store to reduce noise and crowds. 

• Pre‑visit familiarisation ‑ arranging a time for you and your child to see the testing room before their eye test. 

• Environment control ‑ dimming the lights in the testing room or using picture charts instead of letter charts if communication is a challenge. 

• Consistency ‑ requesting a specific optometrist who has experience with sensory or additional needs or asking to see an optometrist that your child has seen previously to keep the experience familiar. 

Also, see below for what to expect at your child’s eye test to help reduce their nerves ahead of their appointment.

Children who are short‑sighted find it easier to focus on objects when they are close up, but those further away will be blurred.

About one in three people are short‑sighted.

The condition is usually first diagnosed at around the age of 12, but younger children can also have it.

In children, short‑sightedness is easily corrected with glasses and/or contact lenses.

Long‑sighted children find it easier to focus on things which are further away than those which are close to them.

Long‑sighted children may experience blurred vision or tired eyes when reading.

Most children are slightly long‑sighted but often will not require glasses to correct it unless it is causing a problem.

If your child has a significant amount of long‑sightedness, it can be corrected with glasses and/or contact lenses.

A squint is a condition where one of your child’s eyes points in a different direction when they are looking straight ahead. Most commonly an eye will be turned towards the nose, but sometimes an eye can turn outwards. It can cause blurred vision and double vision and lead to lazy eye.

Around 1 in 20 children have a squint. It usually appears before the age of five and is picked up in routine eye checks. They can be treated with glasses and eye exercises. If these don’t work, surgery may be needed to move the muscles that control the eye.

Astigmatism can cause blurred or distorted vision.

It occurs when the cornea or lens isn’t a perfectly curved shape (more like a rugby ball than a football). It is very common that many people who wear glasses will have some degree of astigmatism.

However, if left untreated, astigmatism can cause headaches, eye strain and tiredness, particularly after focusing on something for long periods, such as reading or using a computer. In most cases, astigmatism is easily corrected with glasses or contact lenses.

If your child is diagnosed with an amblyopic or lazy eye, it usually means that one of their eyes is weaker than the other, causing them to rely more on their ‘good’ eye.

Around 1 in 50 children develop an amblyopic or lazy eye. It can usually be diagnosed at about the age of four during routine eye checks with a qualified optician, or at their developmental screening.

Glasses will be prescribed to correct the vision in the weaker eye and often no further treatment is required. If the weak eye does not respond fully then a patch can be worn over the good eye for part of the day to force the weaker eye to work.

Treatment is usually effective but may take a while.