What next?
If you have taken your child to the GP or the opticians, they will decide the next thing for you to do.
Vision
The optician may give your child glasses. They won't need to be referred to anywhere else, just have regular appointments to make sure the glasses are working and that their vision has not changed.
If there is a more detailed problem with their eyesight, the optician may refer your child to the hospital to see a specialist. This may take a while to get a date to go, the hospitals are always very busy.
In the meantime, there may be some things you can do to help.
- if your child attends a nursery or school talk to them about your concerns as there will be some simple things that they can put in place that might help.
- if your child is older, they may want to look at the emotional health pathway to help them deal with anxiety or stress relating to this.
Get further help
- Royal National Institute for the Blind
- VICATA - empowering blind children and young adults
- Look UK - supporting visually impaired young people to thrive
Hearing
If the doctor suspects that your child has a problem hearing, they will refer them to the hospital to see a specialist. There are many reasons that your child may have problems hearing, they are not all long term.
Your child may have glue ear which is when the middle section of your child's ear behind the eardrum becomes filled with fluid making it difficult for sound to pass through. This is a very common problem for children and can occur many times throughout childhood.
In the meantime, there may be some things you can do to help.
- if your child attends a nursery or school talk to them about your concerns as there will be some simple things that they can put in place that might help.
- if your child is older, they may want to look at the emotional health pathway to help them deal with anxiety or stress relating to this.
Get further help
For both hearing and vision, once you have seen the specialist at the hospital and have a clinical diagnosis, you can then look at accessing the extra support.
If you are a teacher, you can refer a pupil to SEST
