School Vision Screenings
We recommend that parents do not rely completely on school vision screenings to measure their child's visual health. An understanding of the difference between "sight" and "vision" is helpful to understand why.
Sight is the mere ability to see detail and it is usually measured by reading letters or symbols on an eye chart. Vision is a process involving the whole visual system over a sustained period of time–it's the result of a person's ability to interpret and understand the information that comes through the eyes.
Traditional school vision screenings do a good job of detecting whether your child is nearsighted (his or her sight acuity is impaired while viewing distant targets). However, there are a number of other factors that are crucial to your child's educational, social and athletic success that school screenings don't identify. Examples include how well your child sees close-up, focusing ability and how well your child's eyes work together to recognize objects and information. A child who has poor visual skills for near distances can be at great disadvantage considering 80 percent of schoolwork is done at an arm's length.
Unfortunately, most school vision screenings do not measure sight acuity at near distances. In addition, there is no standard for vision screenings, so programs vary dramatically from school to school. Finally, many schools rely on parent volunteers to perform screenings since school nurses are often overloaded.
Studies have questioned the effectiveness of vision screenings, for example:
- 11.3% of children that passed a vision screening were found to have a vision problem in need of correction.(Kennedy, et. al, Journal of Pediatric Opthalmology and Strabismus, V. 37, No. 2)
- 62% of the children that failed the vision screening performed by their health care provider were not recommended for appropriate follow-up care. (Clemens, et. al, Clinical Pediatrics, March 2002)
- Pediatricians did not perform vision screenings on 1/3 of children, including 60% of three-year-olds.(Wasserman, et. al, Pediatrics, Volume 89, Number 5)
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