Children's eye health

Our aim

All children to have a full sight test before they start school, between the ages of three and four.

Our call to action

We are calling on national health and care service providers to:

  • update all guidance across the UK to signpost parents/carers to their local optician’s practice as their first port of call for eye health services and advice
  • include advice in the personal child health records (the ‘red book’) about how and why parents/carers should take their child for regular sight tests (every one-two years) from the age of three to four years
  • use and promote campaign assets to their audiences, with the core message of the importance that all children have a full sight test before they start school

We are asking all optometrists, dispensing opticians, contact lens opticians and other optical professionals who work with children to: 

  • support and promote this campaign within their place of work
  • refresh their skills around working with children, if needed

One in five parents

Don't know that school vision screening are not the same as full sight tests

One in five of parents

Don’t consider children’s sight tests as very important health checks

One in 10 parents

Feel it’s only necessary to take children for sight tests if issues are flagged

Guidance for Professional Practice

Eye health report

The College of Optometrists, Association of British Dispensing Opticians and the OSA partner in new campaign to raise awareness of the importance of children’s eye tests and better signposting for parents to children’s eye care professionals on the High Street.

In the news

New research shows that only 30% of kids always wear sunglasses on sunny days and more than a third of parents believe a hat or cap offers the same protection as sunglasses.

Latest campaign

ABDO, Boots Opticians, the College and Specsavers have all come together to deliver a public awareness campaign on the importance of children receiving a full sight test before they start school, around three to four years old.

Clinical file

Clinical files: Is a 6-year-old child too young for contact lenses?

More on examining children

The clinical figures that count.

Clinical editor Jane Veys on the change from CET to CPD.

Natalie Healey explores how optometrists can support the diagnosis and management of cerebral visual impairment.

Heart attacks transiently increase in number when the clocks go forward. Diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma can interfere with the body’s sleep-wake cycles. Becky McCall examines the relationship between the eye and sleep.

Adrian O’Dowd asks how optometrists should respond to a rise in the rate of retinoblastoma in children across Europe.

In each issue, Acuity poses a topical question to a panel of members.

Updates to Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) classification and the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on eye strain and dry- eye-related symptoms

College of Optometrists' research has revealed that up to 23%(1) of parents had never taken their children for a sight test

Find out what our Clinical Adviser has to say about a study published by the University of Hong Kong linking COVID-19 restrictions, screen time and myopia in children.

The clinical figures that count.

Eye health issues that are making the news.