We care about your children’s eye sight
All our team at You and Eye Opticians are passionate about promoting the importance of regular eye tests to ensure healthy eyes for children of all ages. You will agree that in today’s lifestyle many children are spending a lot of time in front of one type of visual screen or another. Whether it’s playing on console games, reading E-Books on a tablet, or surfing the internet on their PC or laptop, it could easily become a problem.
Child Vision Specialist
As well as our professional optometric team, we are also proud to have a leading child expert as part of our practice. Our resident Child Vision Specialist (Orthoptist), Katy Lesner, specialises in muscles and nerves of the eye and is specifically trained to see young children. Katy, together with Jack, see the children in the practice from 6 months old and check for squint or amblyopia (lazy eye) among other things. Should they detect any problems, the children are immediately referred to their GP for further investigation. This is a TOTALLY FREE service available to all children under the age of 18.
Looking After Your Child's Eyes
We understand that children and their parents can be very concerned about the eye examination and the possible outcome of it. We have a very patient friendly approach to children’s eyecare. Years of experience have taught us how to put patients of all ages at ease and we are often praised for our ability to do that. Children’s eye exams are tailored for each child’s needs and ability. We have the latest technology and can use this to make the eye exam feel like a game for children. We will give the parent a full explanation of our findings and discuss with them the best future management of their child’s eyes.
ReadEZ
Approximately 20% of the population suffer discomfort when looking at a page of words. This condition is known as Meares-Irlen syndrome or Visual Stress. In many cases the discomfort can be reduced by changing the background to a certain colour. This can be achieved by placing a sheet of coloured plastic over the page (overlay) or by wearing coloured glasses.
You and Eye Opticians invested in the ReadEZ system and will be able to test you for Meares-Ireln syndrome and supply overlays, clip-ons or coloured prescription lenses to your optimum colour.
Useful Info
Reducing Symptoms
Unlike Dyslexia, which is a distinct neurobiological difference and for which there is no “quick fix”, the effects of Visual Stress can often be easily and inexpensively remedied by the use of coloured overlays or lenses. However, although colour can often be the key, not any colour will do. For each child there is a specific hue (tint) and saturation (depth of colour) that will “work” best, so it is important that a sufficiently wide selection of colours is provided so that everybody’s needs are met. In some cases children requiring a deeper saturation “double up” two overlays of the same colour to achieve the desired effect.
Overlays or Lenses?
In some cases, the use of tinted lenses may be preferable to intervention with coloured overlays. For example, overlays may reduce or eliminate the effects of glare on a printed page in a classroom, but the writing on the whiteboard at the front or the posters on the wall may still be causing significant problems. In some cases it may be appropriate for coloured lenses to be prescribed, although as children get older they often become increasingly self-conscious about their lenses and may “forget” to wear them.
What about text on Computers?
Overlays and Reading Guides are great for reading printed text – but what about reading on a computer screen? Clip-Ons and spectacles can be used but why not just tint your screen! There is Virtual Overlay software out there which allows you to change the colours on your PC at the click of a button. If you are using Word or Excel or other software which uses the Windows colours, you can set both the text and background colour to any colour you like.