Eye Test: Vision Screening for Children Under the Age of 5

We will check how well your child can see things up close and far away using images of letters and pictures. Your child’s eye doctor (ophthalmologist) or a health care provider in the eye clinic, will point to an image on a screen. They will then ask your child to point to the same image on a card. Matching games are used when children are too young to know or recognize letters.

The doctor will also look inside your child’s eyes. To do this, they will put 2 kinds of medicine drops in each eye. This medicine makes the black part of the eye (pupil) become big or dilated. The pupil will go back to normal size within 3 to 6 hours after the test.

How to Prepare for the Test

Before you bring your child to the clinic, show them the letters and images on these pages. They will need to match each one to the same letter or thing on a card that the nurse or health care provider will show them at their appointment. Let us know if they might have problems doing this.

Eye Test: Vision Screening for Children Under the Age of 5 (PDF)

^{Helping Hands™ Patient Education Materials}

^{Helping Hands™ are easy-to-read guides about different illnesses, therapies, surgeries, and more. They’re created by the Patient Education team at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and are reviewed and approved by clinical staff, like nurses, doctors, pharmacists, and psychologists. Nationwide Children's Hospital is not responsible for misuse of information in patient education materials, including Helping Hands™.}

^{HH-I-384  | ©2015, revised 2024, Nationwide Children’s Hospital}