Retinoscopy has been used since the late 19th century to obtain objective data regarding refractive error and accommodation (College of Optometrists 2011). While College of Optometrists Guidance (2012) states that routine examination should include ‘objective refractive findings’ and that refractive error ‘will often only be assessed by objective means in younger children’, it does not specify that retinoscopy has to be used. Assessment of accommodation is included as a procedure that ‘may be included’, although Guidelines do not mention preferred methods. The General Optical Council regulations (1989) do not state that an eye examination should specifically include an assessment of accommodation but recommends inclusion of ‘such additional examinations as appear to the doctor or optometrist to be clinically necessary’.