AOA-led summit declares vision a key aspect of ensuring school readiness

Participants included representatives from 27 national organizations concerned with children’s health and education.

Dori Carlson

At an American Optometric Association-sponsored School Readiness Summit: Focus on Vision in Washington, doctors, nurses, educators and other children’s health advocates convened to discuss the high rate of learning-related vision issues among America’s children and developed a blueprint to better ensure that the nation’s children have the tools needed to succeed in school and later in life.

According to an AOA press release, the current system allows millions of children to endure the effects of eye diseases that are treatable and vision loss that is preventable.

“We produced and signed a bold document stating that while the system is broken, we have joined together to offer a solution” AOA President-Elect Dori Carlson, OD, said in a teleconference held after the summit.

Vision and Learning

She added that the group adopted as its concluding statement the belief that comprehensive eye exams for school-age children should be the foundation for a coordinated and improved approach to addressing children’s vision and eye health issues as well as a key element of ensuring school readiness in American children.

The summit was held in response to President Obama’s call that no child should be falling behind in school because they cannot hear the teacher or see the blackboard, according to the AOA press release.

“A tremendous amount of learning happens visually, so proper vision care is crucial to helping students reach their full potential,” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in the press release.

“Undetected eye and vision disorders in children, such as amblyopia or strabismus, can result in vision loss, costly treatments, delayed reading and poorer outcomes in school,” Dr. Carlson said at the teleconference.

A number of studies indicate that visual factors are better predictors of academic success than race or socio-economic status, the release said.

“The only way to meet everyone’s needs is to create a coordinated service delivery system and programs that operate within the context of integrated early childhood infrastructure,” Alexa Posny, head of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the Department of Education, said in the post-summit teleconference.

A 2010 AOA survey of teachers found that 81% of educators believe vision and learning are interdependent, and 64% witnessed a direct improvement in a child’s academic performance or classroom behavior after an eye or vision problem was diagnosed and treated, according to the release.

A vast majority of children’s vision screenings have high rates of false negatives, failing to adequately detect signs of significant vision problems in children chronically burdened by these difficulties. Experts believe comprehensive eye exams can detect problems that a simple vision screening can miss, including eye coordination, nearsightedness or farsightedness, astigmatism and other conditions such as lazy eye or color blindness, the release said.

In addition, the association notes that most children’s vision screening programs have little or no assurances that those who fail will actually receive proper diagnosis and follow-up care. In some cases, as little as 20% of children are actually diagnosed and given proper care after being told that they failed a vision screening.

Participants

The School Readiness Summit joint principles statement was signed by the American Association of Diabetes Educators, the American Federation of Teachers, the AOA, the American Public Health Association, the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry, the College of Optometrists in Vision Development, the Council for Exceptional Children, the Foundation for Eye Health Awareness, Hoya Vision Care, the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care, the National Association of Community Health Centers, the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, the National Association of School Nurses, the National Commission on Vision and Health, the National Education Association’s Information Network, the National Head Start Association, the National Optometric Association, the National Rural Health Association, Prevent Blindness America and the Vision Council.

“It is a national tragedy that as many as one in four school-age children suffer from an undetected vision problem,” Dr. Carlson remarked in the teleconference.

The summit was organized by the AOA with sponsorship and funding by Hoya Vision Care. – Daniel Morgan

• The Joint Statement of the 2011 School Readiness Summit: Focus on Vision can be accessed at http://www.aoa.org/documents/Joint_Statement.pdf.