School age · 5–12 years

Usually harmless, occasionally a clue. How to tell which one you are seeing.

A quick dot-pattern test, and what a result changes day to day.

More children need glasses than ever. What drives it, and the one habit with real evidence behind it.

Every 20 minutes, 20 feet, 20 seconds. What it can and cannot do, and how to make breaks happen.

Optician, optometrist, ophthalmologist. Three different jobs, and which one your child actually needs.

A folded letter, a number, and a parent with no idea what it means. Here is the map.

The two-hour number is everywhere. Here is what the trials actually measured, sized honestly.

Painless, flat and the colour of butter. Why a yellow eyelid patch in a child needs a blood test, not a laser.

One letter is the door into a government eye clinic. Here is what actually helps it move.

Fine at the whiteboard, falling apart at the desk. What that pattern points to, and what treatment cannot fix.

Drops, waiting, and more than one person to meet. Here is the day itself, mapped out.

Sparklers, firecrackers, and the first minute that matters more than anything else if something goes wrong.

Home is a small room. The classroom is where distance vision actually gets tested.

The rugby-ball cornea, explained without the jargon, and why finding it early matters.

There is no age for contact lens readiness. There is a routine, and it decides everything.

A real disease hides under the carrot myth. Here is why that does not mean more carrots, or fish oil, sharpen a healthy child's sight.

The coating has never been tested in a child. What the evidence shows, and what actually helps sore eyes.

One narrow eye problem responds to exercises. The wider promises do not hold up. How to tell which one you are being offered.

When a teenager's prescription refuses to settle, and why the rubbing is the part you can act on.

Pupils that have always been uneven, and pupils that have just become uneven. Only one of them is urgent.

The eye test comes first, and not for the reason most parents assume. What it rules out, and what it will not fix.

Is it the chlorine or has she caught something? Which eye, how fast, and what comes out of it will usually tell you.

Drops, defocus lenses and overnight lenses, with the trial numbers and the uncertainty left in.

If it itches, it is usually allergy. What stops the rubbing, and when it needs a specialist.

The one piece of sports equipment small enough to fit inside the eye socket. What to do in the first hour, and why the follow up matters.