School Eye Screening Results: What Does 6/12 Mean?
Got your child’s school health screening slip and not sure what 6/9 or 6/12 means? Choose the vision result for each eye to see what it means, how the classroom may look to your child, and a rough guide to the degree if it is short-sightedness.
What do the numbers on the screening slip mean?
Vision is checked with a letter chart read from 6 metres away. The first number, 6, is that distance. The second number is the distance from which a person with normal sight can read the smallest line your child read.
So 6/6 is normal. 6/12 means your child, standing 6 metres away, can only read letters that most people can read from 12 metres. The bigger the second number, the weaker the vision. 6/6 is the same as 20/20, which uses feet instead of metres.
Vision results at a glance
| Result | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 6/6 | Normal distance vision | Keep up yearly eye checks |
| 6/9 | Slightly below normal | Keep an eye on it and check within the year |
| 6/12 | Cannot see the board clearly | Book a full eye examination |
| 6/18 to 6/60 | Clearly below normal | Book a full eye examination soon |
School screening usually asks for a full eye check when either eye is 6/12 or worse. Always follow the advice on your child’s slip.
Can the vision result tell my child’s degree?
Not exactly. A vision result shows how well the eye sees, while the degree (the prescription) shows how much focusing correction the eye needs. A large study of school children found that, on average, each step down in vision went with more short-sightedness, but children with the same result often had quite different degrees.
Astigmatism and long-sightedness can also lower the result, and many long-sighted children still read 6/6 because they can focus through it. That is why the tool above gives only a rough range, and why a child with 6/12 or worse needs a full eye examination with a proper refraction.
My child already wears glasses. What does “with glasses” mean?
The “with glasses” result shows how well your child sees with their current glasses on. It should be 6/6 or close to it. If it is 6/9 or worse with glasses, the prescription may have gone up since the glasses were made, which is common in growing children, or something else may be affecting vision.
What happens at a full eye examination?
Our optometrists check your child’s vision, measure the prescription accurately, see how the two eyes work together and look at the health of the eyes. For short-sighted children, we can also measure axial length, the length of the eye, which shows how fast the eyes are growing and helps decide whether myopia control is worth considering.
How fast does myopia increase in children?
In a review of studies, Asian children wearing ordinary single-vision glasses got about 80 degrees more myopic each year on average, and younger children faster. A Singapore study found that children whose myopia rose quickly in one year usually kept rising quickly over the next two years.
This is why, for a child, how fast the degree is rising matters as much as the number itself. In Singapore, about 1 in 4 children are already myopic in Primary 1, so many have years of eye growth ahead of them.
Can myopia degree go down?
In children, myopia does not usually reverse. Ortho-K lenses, worn overnight, gently reshape the front of the eye so a child can see clearly during the day without glasses, but the myopia returns if the lenses are stopped. What myopia control can do is slow down how fast the degree rises, using special spectacle lenses, Ortho-K or myopia control contact lenses.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 6/9 vision bad?
6/9 is one line below normal. It is usually counted as acceptable at school screening, but in a young child it can be an early sign of short-sightedness, so it is worth checking within the year.
What does 6/12 vision mean?
From 6 metres, your child can only read letters that most people can read from 12 metres away. The board will look blurry, so a full eye examination is recommended.
My child read 6/6. Do they still need an eye check?
A yearly eye check is still worthwhile. Good distance vision does not rule out long-sightedness or astigmatism, and children can become short-sighted at any time during their school years.
Does wearing glasses make myopia worse?
No. Wearing the right prescription does not make myopia worse. Under-correcting myopia on purpose has not been shown to slow it down. Myopia control lenses are designed to slow it down. Read more
Want to know more? Read about myopia control. Or book an eye check and our optometrists will measure your child’s prescription and axial length to see how fast the eyes are growing.
References
- CLEERE Study Group. Uncorrected refractive error and distance visual acuity in children aged 6 to 14 years. Optom Vis Sci. 2021;98(1):3–12. doi:10.1097/OPX.0000000000001630
- Leone JF, et al. Use of visual acuity to screen for significant refractive errors in adolescents: is it reliable? Arch Ophthalmol. 2010;128(7):894–899. doi:10.1001/archophthalmol.2010.134
- Donovan L, et al. Myopia progression rates in urban children wearing single-vision spectacles. Optom Vis Sci. 2012;89(1):27–32. doi:10.1097/OPX.0b013e3182357f79
- Matsumura S, et al. Annual myopia progression and subsequent 2-year myopia progression in Singaporean children. Transl Vis Sci Technol. 2020;9(13):12. doi:10.1167/tvst.9.13.12
- Ministry of Health Singapore. Effectiveness of National Myopia Prevention Programme’s strategies for primary school students. Parliamentary reply, 6 March 2024.