Track Your Children’s Vision at Home

I was in high school when I first got my glasses.  Although I remember squinting from the back of the room,  it never occurred to me that I might need glasses.  I just assumed my vision was like anyone else’s. 

I’ll never forget how I felt when I first used my new glasses in my classroom.  I put them on and it felt that the room was so much brighter and there was actually a light shining on the blackboard.  I was astonished.

Looking back at my experience made me realize that our kids are likely to think similarly, that their vision is any different from other children’s vision.

I didn’t know my son was having trouble in his 5th-grade classroom until I got a new pair of glasses and was talking to my family how I couldn’t read something across the restaurant, but could with my new glasses.  My son said he couldn’t read it either.  That was my first clue he might have trouble with his vision.

With the number of hours kids spend on tablets, I can only imagine how it affects their eyes – the constant staring at a device.  I know it affects mine.

Testing Children’s Vision At Home

So how do you know if your kids’ eyesight is getting worse unless you visit the eye doctor?  There’s a new device on the market that helps you keep track of vision for the whole family.  It’s called the EyeQue Insight.

You may be familiar with EyeQue, we’ve written about them before.  They have a product called the EyeQue Personal Vision Tracker, which we reviewed earlier this year.  It’s a great device that can actually give you your eyeglass numbers so you can purchase glasses online.  The Personal Vision Tracker test can be a bit intensive, so it’s not recommended for children.

Nonetheless, EyeQye wanted to create a product that everyone could use…including children (above age 6), that’s where the Insight comes in.  Although it cannot give you eye measurements for glasses, it can tell you on a 20/20 scale, where your vision or your children’s’ vision falls on this scale.

The EyeQue Insight goggles are a visual acuity screener that works with the myEyeQueVA app to test vision using a “tumbling E eye chart,” virtualizing 20 feet distance to ensure accuracy. 

To work, you open the MyEyeQueVA app and place the goggles on your phone (screen must be at least 4.7 inches) as instructed.  You will then see a capital E, which can appear facing left, right, up, or down.  Simply swipe your phone screen in the direction you see the E facing.

There are three tests – one for the left eye, one for the right eye, and one for both eyes.  Tests can be completed within 3 minutes.  Results from each of these three tests can be saved in your app.  

To make testing children’s vision more fun, EyeQue added a kids area in the app, hosted by an animated friend named Seymour. He makes testing fun by adding jokes, tips, and sticker rewards.

The EyeQue Insight is Helpful in…

• Evaluating children’s vision for the first time
• Assessing changes in eyesight over time
• Monitor your children’s’ vision to know when it’s time to schedule an optometrist appointment 
• Confirming that your current eyeglasses are giving you the 20/20 eyesight 

Never heard of EyeQue?  I had the chance to meet with them during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this year.  Their mission is to inspire people to learn about and care for their eyes by making available affordable accurate vision tests. 

Common Eyesight Problems

Eyesight is all about the light that comes into the eye, also known as the refraction of light.  Problems occur when refractive error conditions happen, that do not allow the proper light into the cornea.  Common problems are…

• Myopia – nearsightedness
• Hyperopia – farsightedness
• Astigmatism – a spherical rather than circular curvature of the eye
• Presbyopia (reading vision)

One children’s vision concern of parents and optometrists is the increased usage of phones, tablets, and computers.  Screen time is one of the two main causes for early onset Mytopia.  The other cause is unavoidable, it deals with genetics – if your parents also had myopia.

EyeQue Vision Results

EyeQue tests your visual acuity, which is the clarity and sharpness of your vision.  It assesses how sharp the focus of your eye’s retina is and how sensitive the interpretive faculty of the brain is.

Here are my results (bottom 2) and my son’s results (top 2). Judging from his results, he will need glasses.  OS = Left eye, OD = Right Eye, OU = both eyes.

The results of your visual acuity will be expressed in a 20/20 scale.  So if you receive a 20/40 result, it means that you need to be at 20 feet to see what most people can see at 40 feet.  Typically, a 20/40 result indicates Hyperopia, and it’s time to see an optometrist.

If on the other hand your results consistently show at below 20/20, this means you have myopia (or nearsightedness) and it’s time to see the optometrist.

It’s important to note that although the EyeQue Insight is helpful in assessing the progression of vision, it does not test for important eye health conditions such as glaucoma, cataracts, and other conditions.  It is still important to meet with your optometrist once a year to evaluate your family’s eyesight.

Curious about your children’s vision for color blindness?   Insight cannot track for color blindness, but EyeQue does provide a test on its website for you to evaluate it.

Features:

• Tests distance vision (for kids 6+ and adults)
• Tests prescription vision
• Tracks vision changes
• Results tracked in free app
• Gives results in a 20/20 format for both eyes and individual eyes

Pros:

• Extremely convenient, only takes 2 minutes
• Can be used with most cellphones
• Very accurate
• Tests your eyes and your eyeglass prescription
• Fun test for kids and adults
• A special program in the app to make testing fun for kids
• Results given in 20/20 format, one we are all familiar with
• A less expensive way to test your family’s vision over time

Cons:

• Although the first year is free, tracking and saving your results after the 1st year requires an annual subscription
• A little pricey
• Cannot test for astigmatisms, glaucoma, eyeglass prescriptions, and more – still need an optometrist
• One account can only work for one person.  To evaluate multiple family members, you need multiple accounts.

The EyeQue Insight™ is currently on sale at the EyeQue website for $89.99 plus shipping.  This is $40 off when you use the “EmpowerYou” code at checkout.  

The myEyeQueVA application is a free download from the Apple App or Google Play Store.  The EyeQue Insight comes with a year’s free subscription.  After that, there will be a $4.99 annual cost, per account (meaning per person). 

A Mom’s Perspective

The EyeQue Insight is a great tool for moms to have in their health arsenals.  Our children’s vision is not something we think about too much unless we see our kids squinting or they let us know they are having vision problems.  

In the past, whenever I’ve gone to an optometrist, they have kept the records and I come home with nothing besides a bill to pay.  The Insight helps me feel a little more in control of assessing my children’s vision.

Does prolonged screen time affect their eye health? I don’t know but by tracking their eyesight over time I may have some proof to show my kids.

As a mom managing multiple family members, I’m disappointed that one account cannot handle all of our family.  In order to track properly, I would need 4 different accounts and that adds up.  I would also need to sign into 4 different accounts to track each family member.

Nonetheless, it is important to note that you can still test all of your family members’ vision using the Insight, just don’t save the results.  Only save the results for the main person you want to test over time.  Once you tested everyone, you may decide it makes sense to set up additional accounts. 

I certainly can see the benefit of testing children and keep their results to assess over time, especially with the increased usage of screens these days.

EyeQue is one of many progressive companies providing consumers with valuable low-cost technology to better keep track of and steer their own health.

*I was given an EyeQue Insight in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are my own.