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Now You See Me, Now You Don't?
Vision Screening for Preschoolers
By Carma Haley
Waking each morning to the sight of the sun touching the earth with its wide array of colors is something that is often taken for granted. When vision is impaired -- especially in young children -- waking to a world where everything is a blur and colors are unclear can be very frustrating. Small children may not understand why they can't see things and often lose interest in reading, writing or playing. This is one of the reasons why early vision screening is so important.
Preschoolers depend upon their vision to learn tasks that will help ready them for school. Areas such as reading, learning to write and recognition of colors, shapes, letters and numbers can be affected if there is a vision problem. "Impaired vision may prevent a child from retaining interest in areas such as story time or coloring," says Dr. Liviu Saimovici, an optometrist for the Advance Eye Care Associates of New York. "As the interest in these areas fades due to vision difficulty, so does the level of education and learning."
Approximately 48 percent of all children have or will have some type of vision problem before reaching the age of 8, according to the American Academy of Optometrists. These vision problems may be due to an illness and will last only a few weeks or months or may be due to a genetic trait and may last their entire lives. Due to the variation of vision development in preschoolers, the AAO recommends that children receive at least one vision screening prior to school enrollment and continue to receive vision screening annually unless there is an indication of vision problems.