Vision Screening Information for Childcare Coordinators
Amblyopia (lazy eye) is one of several eye conditions we screen for, using our SureSight™ Vision Screener. Amblyopia is the leading cause of monocular blindness in North America and if detected by age four has a 95% success rate in saving vision. That’s why we do our best to offer vision screening to every childcare and preschool center in our local area.Requirements an Restrictions for Vision Screenings
We test children ages 18 mos to 5 who live or attend daycare in Blount County. If a younger child is suspected of having vision issues, we will screen them. Children who already wear glasses or who are already being treated for vision issues do not need to be screened.
Please note that we cannot perform screenings on children who do not have a signed Consent Form. The daycare coordinator is then responsible for mailing the screening results (along with our Lions Club Cover Sheet) to Vanderbilt for assessment. The Maryville Lions Club cannot interpret the results or share the results with anyone other than the childcare coordinator and our Vanderbilt professionals.
The Ideal Screening Environment
In order to get a good reading on children, our screeners must have an environment where they can hear equipment signals and see properly without unwanted bright lights. Here is our checklist of the ideal screening environment.
- a space that is quiet enough to hear the beep of the equipment. The beeps tell us when we are too close or too far away, and also indicate when a reading has been successful.
- a space where we can see to work and write, but where we aren’t facing direct sunlight or bright windows that may interfere with the equipment readings.
- 3 chairs
- – 1 adult size for your caregiver to hold a child on a lap
– 1 adult size for our volunteer who is recording results
– 1 child size or stool for our screener to sit at child’s height
(we can go down on one knee if necessary) - a small table or desk we can use to hold our handheld printer and consent forms
Processes to Improve Efficiency
When possible, we ask you to provide two staff members to the screening process. This way, one staff member can retrieve children while the other holds each child on the lap during testing. It doesn’t take much time to screen a child (usually less than a minute). What does take time is retrieving them for screening. If you can have 3-5 children in line at a given time, we can be screening a group of children while your staff is gathering the next group of children. Otherwise, our volunteers spend the majority of the time waiting for a child to be retrieved.
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