South Eastern Trust Orthoptic Professional Lead, Jennifer Patterson is reminding parents about the importance of early eye checks for children to mark World Sight Day 2025.
Amblyopia, or Lazy Eye as it is commonly known, is a condition that causes reduced vision in one or both eyes. It develops in childhood when the brain fails to properly process information from one eye, often due to a squint (when an eye turns in or out) or because one eye is more out of focus than the other.
Jennifer explained the importance of early intervention, “Amblyopia or ‘Lazy Eye’ can result in permanent sight loss if it is not treated at an early age. Every year, approximately 15–20 people in Northern Ireland with this condition are registered as visually impaired after losing sight in their good eye.
“Children in P1 undergo a vision assessment as part of their health screening and any issues detected are referred to the Orthoptic Service within the Trust for further treatment.”
Describing how treatment works, Jennifer said, “When we detect Amblyopia, the first line of treatment is getting children to wear their glasses. We review their progress after they have worn them for a while and if that has not been enough, we begin a course of patching treatment.
“We advise parents how long their child should wear the patch each day and we review their progress regularly to ensure the vision is improving as expected. With good compliance, patching is usually very successful.”
Jennifer added that seeing children’s progress is one of the most rewarding parts of her role, “It is wonderful to see the improvement in a child’s vision after treatment. Many children start off unable to see even the top line on the chart. By the end of their treatment, they can often read right down to the bottom two lines, it is an amazing transformation.”