|
|
August is Children's Eye Health
and Safety Month
| The National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness is celebrating August as Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month. Many children are headed back to school in August, so it is the perfect time to share information with parents, guardians, and caregivers to give children the clear vision they need for a successful school year. |
|
From a school nurse:
A first grade student had been experiencing increased negative behaviors in class. He stagnated with reading and math progress. All he wanted to do was color and paint. He had more accidents at recess and PE. Vision screening showed his visual acuity was 20/300 in both eyes. With glasses he is more focused in class, making growth in all subjects and is experiencing less accidents and injuries.
|
| | | Seven Ways to Prepare for a VISION-Successful School Year! | |
1. Register for the “Collaborative Solutions for Expanding Eye Care Access in Special Populations” Webinar
| | Join Prevent Blindness for an informative online roundtable discussion to learn practical strategies and actionable ideas for building and strengthening partnerships that improve access to eye care for foster youth, immigrants and refugees, and Tribal communities. You will learn about innovations across the United States, including eye care provided through the Fostering Health Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a school-based health center in Massachusetts, and eye care programs serving the Navajo Nation. | |
2. Become a Certified Children's Vision Screener
| | |
Enroll in our newly-updated Children’s Vision Screening Certification Course to build the knowledge and confidence needed to choose and use evidence-based vision screening tools and procedures. You’ll learn practical strategies to improve screening accuracy, strengthen your screening system, and help children receive the eye care they need.
The training covers the following topics (and more):
- Conducting accurate, evidence-based vision screenings for children from birth through high school
- Understanding how vision relates to learning, classroom, and social behavior
- Providing parent/guardian/caregiver education about healthy vision for learning, the importance of an eye exam, and preparing their child for the exam
- Applying a systematic follow-up process to help reduce the gap between referrals from vision screening and completion of recommended eye examinations and treatment
The revised course features 40 new and updated resources that you can download and use to support your screening program, case studies, videos demonstrating the use of evidence-based vision screening tools, and interactive online learning.
| |
3. Follow NCCVEH Recommendations for Preschool Vision Screening
| |
4. Help Close the Gap for Needed Eye Examinations
| |
Our new Small Steps to Eye Care Action Plan: A Conversation Guide helps families and vision screeners work together to address barriers to eye care and support follow-through. The Action Plan helps bridge the gap between referrals from vision screening and confirmatory eye examinations and treatment.
Mary Noga’s article, Improve Vision Referral Completion by Implementing the Small Steps to Eye Care Action Plan, published in NASN School Nurse, provides additional information about implementing the Action Plan. Available in Spanish at Plan de acción Pequeños Pasos para el Cuidado de los Ojos: Guía de Conversación.
| |
Check out the new policy on recess by the American Academy of Pediatrics, “The Crucial Role of Recess in School: Policy Statement.” The document reiterates the social, physical, and cognitive benefits of this break for students.
Did you know that outside play is also helpful for children’s eyes? Research shows that spending more time outdoors is associated with a lower risk of developing myopia (nearsightedness).
Learn more about myopia
Download our myopia fact sheet for parents
|
6. Support Children Who Wear Glasses
| |
Our friends at A Shared Vision in Colorado offer some great suggestions for supporting children who need help adjusting to wearing prescription eyeglasses. Get the full list of tips.
First, tell parents not to give up. Children will wear their eyeglasses, even if it takes several tries. “It is like feeding, where your child must taste carrots 25 times before you can guarantee they don’t like carrots.”
Second, distract your child with one of their favorite activities while you gently put the glasses on your child.
Third, take pictures of you and your child both wearing eyeglasses and not wearing eyeglasses. Make frowny faces in the photo without the eyeglasses, and smiley faces in the photo with the eyeglasses.
| |
|
Prevent Blindness offers some easy tips for wearing eyeglasses.
Read books to and with your child about wearing eyeglasses. See our list of books.
Properly fitted glasses are essential for your child’s comfort and vision. Ill-fitting glasses can cause irritation, distract from daily activities, and may even affect your child’s willingness to wear them.
Use the handy checklist with questions in the handout to make sure your child has the perfect fit.
- Do your glasses slide down or fall off when you play?
- Do your glasses hurt your ears, nose, or temples (the sides of your head?
- Do your glasses leave marks on your face?
- See the full list of questions
Finally, make sure the eyeglass prescription is current.
| | | |
7. Advocate for Children's Vision and Eye Health
| | |
We Need Your Voice!
Prevent Blindness has been busy on Capitol Hill, and we're looking for advocates to show their support. Here are three ways to help right now.
- Keep special education in the Department of Education: A federal plan would move the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to Health and Human Services for the first time in 50 years, a shift toward treating students as patients rather than learners. Urge your members of Congress to protect it.
- Support the EDVI Act (H.R. 2527): This bipartisan bill would create the first federal program dedicated to children's vision and eye health. Urge your member of Congress to cosponsor.
- For Massachusetts residents: The state Senate voted to create a Children's Vision Registry (S.3121) to track screenings, referrals, and follow-up care. It's now in Conference Committee. Urge the committee to keep Sections 41 and 42 in the final bill.
| |
NCCVEH Technical Assistance:
We’re Here to Help
| | |
The NCCVEH offers technical assistance on the local, state, regional, and national levels on evidence-based vision screening procedures, evidence-based screening tools, program evaluation and needs assessments, and strategies to improve screening referral completion and support for vision treatment in early childhood education, Head Start programs, and schools. The NCCVEH is available to assist with policy development, survey question design, and vision health program development.
Filll out the form to get started!
| | Every child deserves clear vision to learn, play, and thrive. Your support will make an immediate difference, especially as children are headed back to school. Please give today to help a child succeed in the classroom and beyond! | | | | |
