The 17 Visual Skills Assessed During Your Child’s Functional Eye Exam

Beginning in childhood, general eye exams may detect if a patient has amblyopia (lazy eye), strabismus (crossed eyes), myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness) and astigmatism.

However, more in-depth eye examinations, known as functional eye exams, should begin annually during a child’s school years and continue at least until the end of high school or university. The functional eye exam usually includes tests for the 17 visual skills most essential to young people so they can succeed in school, playing sports, driving and other aspects of their lives.

Have Your Child’s Eyes Examined Each School Year

The new school term is a good reminder for all students in primary school, high school and university to undergo a comprehensive functional visual exam every year to check:

Central visual acuity: seeing clearly and accurately
Peripheral vision: seeing objects at the sides while continuing to look straight ahead
Depth perception: understanding the accurate position of all objects in 3D space
Color perception: distinguishing between colors
Eye-movement control: efficient eye movements and scanning across a page or screen
Binocular coordination: both eyes working together to achieve clear and comfortable vision
Saccades: the eyes’ ability to quickly move or “jump” between different focal points
Pursuits: both eyes’ smooth movements tracking a moving target
Convergence: both eyes working together, to move inwards and easily focus on a nearby object
Accommodation flexibility: the eye continuously changing focus between near and distant objects
Accommodation endurance: the eyes’ ability to maintain focus for close-up tasks
Visual memory: remembering visual images, such as words
Visual thinking: analysis of the information about an image (visual/spatial learning or picture thinking)
Gross visual-motor skills: employing visual information to direct the body’s movements in a coordinated way
Fine visual-motor skills: employing visual information to control the movement of hands, fingers and feet, such as for hand-writing
Visual perception: understanding what is being seen and using cognition to process this information
Visual integration: using vision together with other senses to perform complex tasks