Put child eye tests on holiday checklist advises Ely based Scrivens Opticians

An Ely optician is advising parents to get their children’s eyes tested free of charge as a summer holiday activity with a difference before they return to school.

Scrivens Opticians & Hearing Care, which has a branch on Buttermarket, has launched the ‘You Can’t See the Signs’ campaign to encourage parents to add eye tests to their children’s holiday ‘to do’ list.

Branch manager Suzanne Kasianczuk said: “Being able to see properly is vital to a child’s learning and undiagnosed sight problems can be detrimental to a child’s achievement, behaviour and enjoyment of school.

“Even though most children get a basic check of their eyes in reception years at school, this doesn’t always check everything that’s covered in a full eye examination at an opticians.

“The summer break is an opportunity to find time to book an eye test and, as the NHS covers the cost, parents don’t need to pay.”

To help children and parents understand the process, Scrivens has created a child-friendly comic strip to show the procedure simply.

“Children can sometimes feel nervous about visiting the optician for the first time,” said Mrs Kasianczuk.

“So we’ve taken the experience of one of our young customers and created a comic strip to tell the story in a light-hearted way.

“We hope it will help encourage more families to consider going to the optician as routine as going to the dentist or getting their children’s feet measured.”