Preschoolers often need eyeglasses for school and other activities.
For preschoolers, the most common types of eyeglass prescriptions are as follows:
• Bifocal
• Trifocal
• Progressive
• Varifocal
Bifocals
Children who wear bifocals have two different lenses for each eye. One lens corrects for far vision while the other lens corrects for close vision.
Trifocals
Children with trifocals have three different lenses for each eye—one for far vision, one for intermediate vision, and one for near vision.
Progressive
Children who wear progressive lenses have only one lens that changes its shape as it gets closer to the pupil. This allows the wearer to focus on both near and distant objects.
Varifocals
Children wearing varifocals have lenses that change their curvature as they get closer to the pupil. These lenses allow the wearer to focus on near and distant objects.
When a vision prescription is created, it often includes the following information:
• Name of child
• Date of birth
• Eye color
• Corrected visual acuity (the ability to see)
• Type of correction (e.g., bifocals, trifocals, etc.)
• Lens power (the amount of light refracted by the lens)
• Axis (the direction of the principal meridian, which determines whether the right or left eye is dominant)
• Diopter (a measurement of nearsightedness or farsightedness)
• Near point of convergence (the point at which the two images formed by the two eyes meet)
• Reading speed
• Reading lines per minute
• Reading line length
• Reading angle (the angle between the line of sight and the line of print)
• Reading distance (the distance at which the person reads)
