The Eyes Have It
by Kelcie Huffstickler
8/1/2009
Luke Hankins' parents first suspected a problem during one of his soccer games. The seven-year-old was playing like he didn't know who was on what team, though they wore distinctly different red and green jerseys. "Daddy, the shirts look the same to me," Luke said to his bewildered parents. That experience, along with a few other suspicious signs, convinced the Hankins to have their son tested at James Eyecare Center for color deficiency, also known as color blindness. Sure enough, he tested positive. "I can't believe we went seven years with us not knowing," Luke's mom, Carrie, said. Her son had already been diagnosed as nearsighted after failing vision screenings in kindergarten and first grade, but because color deficiency is not detected in these screenings, many parents don't discover the problem as soon as they should. Screenings + Regular Exams = Full Diagnosis Dr. Brian Guice at Kavanaugh Eye Care said that just because a child passes a vision screening or is told he sees 20/20 doesn't mean he has perfect vision. "Vision screenings are very important to catch kids who clearly need eye exams, but the problem is they set the bar too [low]," he said. "There are a lot of kids who make it through screenings who still need eye exams and need glasses, need correction, need binocular vision issues addressed." Binocular vision is the ability of both eyes to work together, and vision screenings also don't catch binocular problems like focusing and tracking. To raise awareness for these issues, The College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD) is launching its annual "August is Children's Vision and Learning Month" Public Awareness Campaign. The goal of the campaign is to educate parents and teachers about the critical link between vision and learning. According to the American Optometric Association, 60 percent of students identified as "problem learners" have undetected vision problems. "The most significant way that everybody learns is through their vision, and sometimes it's as basic as needing to be able to read what the teacher writes on the marker board or being able to see clearly in books," Guice said. "If kids can't do that, they're at a disadvantage, and the ramifications of not doing well in school can last a lifetime." For those with more common problems like nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism, Guice still emphasizes the importance of regular vision screenings.
|
