For Parents and Caregivers

Any child registered in an early childhood education and care centre (if aged 4-years or older) and any school-aged child, is eligible to be screened if they have not been screened as a 4-year old. But only if their parent or legal guardian has given their informed consent.

Your child’s overall health, speech, language development, behaviour or learning can be affected by vision or hearing loss.

It’s important to identify if your child or children have vision or hearing problems. Once detected, the impact of these problems can be minimised.

The type of screening we do depends on a child’s age:

• tympanometry screening – to test the middle-ear function at 4-year old Before School Check (B4SC)
• audiometry screening – to detect hearing issues at 4-year old B4SC 
• squint and visual acuity – to identify vision disorders and eye abnormalities at 4-year old B4SC
• visual acuity test at Year 7 at Intermediate

For more information:

• Free hearing checks for children [Ministry of Health]
• Free vision checks for children [Ministry of Health]
• Hearing and Vision services funded by the Ministry of Health [Ministry of Health]
• Refer to your copy of the Well Child Tamariki Ora My Health Book
• See your Well Child provider, nurse or doctor.