School Vision Tests (20/50 vision, what does that mean?)

[ramama]

DD1 (almost 7) came home with a vision report of 20/50 vision. We are required to get it followed up on independently. This has totally come out of left-field! We had NO idea that she had a vision problem. So, what does that mean for school, assuming that the 20/50 distance vision is accurate? (We have an optometrist appointment for Monday? Will they recommend glasses?

[hopefulfaith]

20/50 means that she can see at 20 feet what corrected vision can see at 50 feet.

They'll check the vision again at the optometrist's, though I don't know what the threshold is for correction.

Hope all goes well!

[earthmama369]

That's a pretty mild diagnosis, but she might get glasses to use just for certain activities (like reading a chalkboard from across the room). The way it breaks down, 20-20 vision means that if you have a theoretical person standing 20 feet away from a sign and they're able to read it perfectly, so can the real person taking the vision test. So with 20-50 vision, your daughter would need to stand 20 feet from a sign to clearly see something that a person with perfect vision could see clearly from 50 feet away.

In comparison, my vision tends to be around 20-1600. So what someone could theoretically see perfectly from 1600 feet away, I would have to be 20 feet away to see. That makes me legally blind without corrective lenses and I'm not allowed to drive without my glasses or contact lenses. I can see clearly up to about an inch in front of my face. 20-50 really isn't anything to worry about.