1 Million Children with Undetected Vision Problems
Up to 1 million children in the UK will go back to school this autumn with an undetected vision problem that can interfere with their learning.
Despite this disturbing figure, research commissioned by Transitions lenses, shows that 21% of parents have never taken their child to get their eyes tested.
With free eye tests available on the NHS why are parents still not taking their children to the opticians? A recent survey reveals that 69% of parents didn’t realise that they needed to take their children for annual check up’s, with one in five saying that they had never been given any information about their child’s eye care.
It now falls to our schools to educate children and parents about eye health. As schools do not currently have a nationwide scheme to assess the vision of school age children, Transitions lenses are lending a helping hand by launching the Eye Know Eye Care campaign to help combat the problem. For more information, visit www.eyeknoweyecare.com.
Eyes: The Root of All Learning
Visual learning accounts for 80% of the learning process, therefore poor eyesight can severely affect progress at school and this is leading to children being labelled as slow learners, dyslexic and disruptive. Eyesight problems could be a factor in 40% of children’s learning difficulties.
Karen Sparrow, from the Association of Optometrists comments "Most children don’t realise that there is a problem and that everyone doesn’t see the same as them which is why it is important to educate them from an early age.
"A child’s vision is fully developed by the age of 8, so it is vital that the problems are detected early to avoid a lifelong visual handicap."
Crissy Duff, parent supporter at Netmums.com adds "If a child is underperforming at school it is important that parents and teachers take their vision into account. When children are sent to school they need to have the right tools at their disposalpens, paper, text books and of course good eye sight."
Blind to the Facts?
Parents still remember their own experience at school being screened by the school nurse with reading charts and perhaps an assumption has been made that this is still standard practice.
Unfortunately schools do not have a national eye screening programme, only a third of parents surveyed were aware of this and more than a third admitted to not even knowing if their child had been tested or not!
Parents care more about losing a tooth than an eye
Only 38%**** of children go to the optician every two years, compared with 92% who visit the dentist over the same time period. The survey revealed that it was due to lack of information that parents were unaware that a trip to the optician was needed annually.
Elaine Grisdale at the Association of British Dispensing Opticians comments "It's unfortunately not only a question of education, but also a question of habit. Nearly all adults go the dentist regularly so it is easy to take the kids along and have them checked at the same time.
Not all parents go to the optician regularly unless they wear some sort of correction already that needs changing or they are experiencing problems. Unfortunately it's an unknown quantity for a lot of parents."