Undiagnosed and untreated vision problems can have a significant impact on children's lives, affecting their academic performance and declining their overall quality of life. Depending on the vision problems your child is facing, childrens eyeglasses can help.

If you have any reason to think that your child may need glasses, please arrange an eye examination with your nearby pediatric vision specialist.

Even if all goes well, the American Optometry Association recommends that children have their eyes checked again between six months and a year, between three and five years, before first grade, and once a year thereafter.

When children feel that there is something wrong with their eyesight, they do not always know how to express it in words, but they may be able to show you (or tell you) that something is wrong in other ways.

When children reach school age, indicators of possible vision problems increase with all the new skills and activities they begin to learn and practice.

The following are signs of vision problems that school-age children need to pay attention to:

1. Sit close to the screen.
If your child is nearsighted, you may see their grades decline at school, or hear them having trouble reading the whiteboard in class.

You may also notice that your child is sitting near the TV to get a better view or put a book close to their eyes to make it easier to read. This may indicate that it is difficult for them to focus on what is in their distant or middle field of vision.

Myopia is quite common, and prescription glasses can help.

2. Cover or close one eye to see more clearly.
If you see your child covering one eye while watching TV, playing with a tablet, or reading a book, this may mean that they can see more clearly with one eye, and the covered eyes are more difficult to concentrate.

This may be a case of amblyopia (lazy eyes), that is, a condition in which one eye cannot achieve normal vision.

For a quick check at home, try to cover your child's eyes at once. If your child starts to make a fuss, you may have covered their "good" eyes. Depending on the severity of the problem, treatment may include prescription glasses, eye patches, eye drops, or surgery.

3. Losing their place while reading
Both astigmatism and crossed eyes (strabismus) can make it hard for a child to keep their place while reading. Each condition can cause your child’s eyes to distort what they’re looking at, whether it’s words on a page or figures on a screen.

An easy way to catch these vision issues while your child is young is to have them read books to you (versus you reading to them).

Not only does reading aloud help develop your child’s speech, vocabulary, literacy, and comprehension, but it also can clue you into any reading difficulties they may be facing — and any underlying vision problems they might have.

4. Read with your fingers.
When young children learn to read, when their eyes move on the page, they may point to each word with their body. If your child continues to trace the words on the page with his fingers as he gets older, this may be a symptom of amblyopia (lazy eyes).

Amblyopia can crowd your child's eyesight-making it difficult to distinguish the words on the page tracing words with your fingers can help your child concentrate. If the symptoms are not too serious, an ophthalmologist may recommend wearing glasses or contact lenses.

Does your child have vision problems? Find a pediatric vision specialist near you and arrange an ophthalmological examination.