Vision Screenings

Most of us take our vision for granted until we need glasses of one type or another. However, there are vision problems that affect one in 20 of our preschoolers and one in four of our school children. Most of the time, these children don’t realize they have a problem and believe that everyone sees things the same way as they do.

The Prevent Blindness America organization has a certification program that perform screenings of eye vision in an accurate, cost-effective way that can find vision problems in both children and adults. These screenings can alert you to possible problems early enough to prevent permanent eye damage, such as Amblyopia (when a child’s eyes do not work well together), or lazy eye as it is commonly called. This test is usually performed on children through the age of nine or in the third grade.

There’s also a process that can be used to screen the eyes of challenged children and young children who have not yet learned to talk. In this situation, the screener uses a special camera to take pictures of the patient’s eyes, and then looks at the photos to detect any problems. The adult screening process entails things like answering questions, being checked for nearsightedness, farsightedness, and “aging eye” (the inability to focus on things close up). Their screening process takes about 15 minutes to complete. If interested, you can get information on how to become a Vision Screener by going to this website, www.preventblindness.org.