How do the Optometrist do eye exams when kids cant read?

Question

Like the ABCs thing thats far away

Answer 1

An individual (whether a child or adult) who cannot read nor knows the alphabet can be subjectively examined by using an illiterate E chart or an illiterate chart using commonly known shapes.  

A relatively accurate exam can even be performed on an individual who cannot respond verbally to "which is better 1 or 2".  This is done by an objective examination using a retinoscope.  The examiner shines a special light into the patient's eye.  By observing the appearance of the light that reflects back to the examiner he or she can very closely estimate the eye's prescription without the patient responding verbally in any way.  This can be very valuable to verify the accuracy of a young child's subjective responses by judging how similar the subjective and objective findings are.

Answer 2

Shapes and familiar objects and color

Answer 3

There are quite a few different tests that can be done to assess a baby's eyesight. My daughter was tested first at 9 months (because she crossed her eyes), and she's been wearing glasses since 14 months.

For what it's worth, her ophthalmologist told us that for babies, it's often as much art as science, and the prescriptions are never quite as exact as they are for adults, though it's not such a big deal since babies aren't trying to read small print or anything.

Here's the tests that are done at my daughter's eye appointments:

1. They dilate her pupils and measure the curvature of the back of her eye. Which gives an indication of the prescription.

2. They have these cards that are long rectangles (probably 2 feet long, by half a foot wide). On one end is a little square with black and white lines. The rest of the card is the shade of grey that's exactly between the black and the white. They have a whole series of lots of these cards with progressively thinner lines.

Ok, so you know how when you look at black and white lines that are really thin and close together, they kind of look like they're moving? Well the same happens with kids, but it happens with wider lines. So if the child can distinguish the lines, then they'll notice the square. The eye doctor watches to see if the child focuses on that square. They show the child the cards with smaller and smaller lines until the child doesn't notice the square because the lines have all blurred together and match the grey. The smaller the lines, the better their vision.

3. Since my daughter crosses her eyes because she's farsighted and is trying to focus so hard that her eyes cross. The doctor gives her a toy to play with, and then holds lenses of varying prescription up to her eyes to see which one straightens her eyes the best.