MARCH: Save Your Vision Month

Main Category: Eye Health / Blindness
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health;  Public Health
Article Date: 13 Mar 2007 - 0:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

Imagine struggling to see the numbers on a clock, or the letters on a sign, or the cars coming down the road. Think how discouraging it would be if you got a headache every time you read, or did homework, or tried to see an assignment on the blackboard. For a student to learn, he or she must be able to see.

Eighty-percent of learning is through the visual sense. One out of four children has a vision problem, yet only one out of seven children has had an eye examination before starting school. Only one out of two teenagers has an eye examination by high school graduation.

March is National Save Your Vision Month. Many students throughout Ohio are participating in a program called Realeyes, a classroom initiative that teaches students the importance of eye health and safety.

"The Realeyes Education Initiative was created by the Ohio Optometric Association to educate children and their parents that vision care is important for a child's success in school," said Karla Zadnik, OD, PhD, associate dean of The Ohio State University College of Optometry, and medical director of Realeyes.

Realeyes connects classrooms with eye doctors in the community. Now in its seventh year, Realeyes has been presented to over 250,000 students in over 325 school districts throughout Ohio. The Ohio Optometric Association, through a grant from the Ohio Department of Health Save Our Sight fund, created Realeyes, which consists of three age-appropriate, standardized, interactive classroom presentations. "The Adventures of Rhet and Tina," uses puppets and hands-on activities to teach kindergarten through second-graders about vision health and eye safety. Optical illusions are used in "The Case of Vinny Vision" for third through fifth-graders. "Vision: Impossible" teaches middle school students about common eye diseases by using vision simulator cards. An online curriculum is available for high school students at http://www.ooa.org/realeyes. All curricula are offered at no charge to schools. Funds are generated through donations given at license and registration renewal at the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

In addition to Realeyes the Ohio Optometric Association offers these other vision programs for children:

-- InfantSEE(R), a public health program, provides a free vision evaluation for children under one year of age (http://www.infantsee.org).

-- Ohio Amblyope Registry, provides information and materials to families with amblyopic children, is also funded through a grant from the Ohio Department of Health Save Our Sight fund (http://www.ohioamblyoperegistry.com).

-- Also, students referred for an Individualized Education Program (IEP) are required by state law to have an eye examination by an optometrist or ophthalmologist. A list of doctors providing eye exams is available at http://www.iepeyeexam.org.

Ohio Optometric Association
http://www.ooa.org

• Additional
• References
• Citations