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Saturday, November 24, 2007
“Eye test can transform a child’s entire world”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Every morning turned into a tug-of-war when it came time for preschool.
Annai Jimenez, 5, didn’t want to go. She’d latch onto mom and refuse to enter her classroom at Seven Oaks Academy in Lilburn.
“She’d cry and cry and cry,” said Silvia Cabrera of Lilburn. “It was a big problem for us.”
The family didn’t know why till the preschool held a vision pre-screening for its charges. Annai failed. Her parents had her eyes examined again by a doctor. Annai needed glasses.
Apparently, her poor vision contributed to her angst toward school. If it weren’t for the screening, the problem could have gone undetected for years.
“I am so thankful,” Cabrera told me. “We had no idea.”
The free screenings were performed by Prevent Blindness Georgia, a state eye health and safety organization. The organization trained nursing students to screen the Seven Oaks prekindergartners.
Statewide, Prevent Blindness Georgia expects to screen about 30,000 4-year-olds this year. The organization has so far tested more than 1,000 Gwinnett kids. Last school year, the organization screened 2,279 prekindergartners at 43 local schools and child care centers. The screenings are paid with gifts, donations and those $1 contributions from driver’s license renewals.
Good eyesight, obviously, is critical to education. If you can’t see the numbers and letters well, learning becomes difficult. Might lead to behavior problems, too.
And there’s the possibility of permanent vision loss, especially when a 4-year-old favors a “good eye” over a “bad eye,” said Jenny Pomeroy, president of Prevent Blindness Georgia.
“Four is the age the brain matures to a point that vision can be turned off in one eye,” she said. “The child quits using the eye that [he or she] doesn’t see out of as well, even if there’s not a significant difference in the vision. We want to find those 4-year-olds because this can result in permanent vision loss in the child.”
Pomeroy said kids with vision issues may not know that they see differently from other people. They don’t tell their parents. They assume it’s normal. Screenings, generally, are the only way to detect problems.
The parents at Seven Oaks were like Annai’s. They had no idea their kids had vision issues. Of 89 kids screened, 19 received referrals for further testing. Of the 19, 10 now wear glasses, said Barbara Myers, a spokeswoman for Prevent Blindness Georgia.
Myers praised Mika Patel, a Seven Oaks resource coordinator, for encouraging parents to take their children to the eye doctor.
“Sometimes that doesn’t happen,” she said.
At first, Annai didn’t want to wear her new glasses. She didn’t want to be different. When she saw how they helped her vision, though, she saw the light. Now she wears them every day.
And she doesn’t put up a fight about preschool anymore.
For more information about Prevent Blindness Georgia, visit www.preventblindness.org./georgia/
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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