Testing how well children see (4 years old and older)
CHILD-to-child 453
A group of older children can make an eye chart. They can cut out black ‘E’s of
different sizes and paste them on white cardboard.
Also make one
large ‘E’ shape
out of
cardboard or
other material.
First let the children test each other.
Hang the chart in a place where the
light is good. Then make a line about
6 meters from the chart. The child to be
tested stands behind the line, holding
the cut-out ‘E’. Another child points at
different ‘E’s’, starting from the top.
Ask the child being tested to hold
the cut-out ‘E’ so that its legs’ point
the same way as the ‘E’ on the chart.
If the child can easily see the ‘E’s on
the bottom line, he sees well.
If he has trouble seeing the second or
third line, he sees poorly.
Children making an eye chart. (Mexico)
• To make the testing
more fun, you can
use horses in the
shape of ‘E’s.
• Make 5 cards using
different size horses.
Make the sizes
the same as those
shown for the letter
‘E’ in the chart at the
top of this page.
• Or use a chart
with ‘C’s.
Ask the child
either to hold
a horse shoe
in the same
position as
the different
‘C’s on the chart, or
to tell you for each ‘C’
which way the horse
shoe is going.
To test children who are mentally slow, deaf, or have trouble
communicating, you can use pictures of different things they
recognize. Hold up one picture at a time and have the child either
name it or point to a similar picture-or the
real object. For
example, you can
make a set of cards
with pictures like
this:
disabled village children