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Show Visual Screening of Pre-SchooIers Gives Aid Before Trouble Starts Twenty five eases of amblyopia am-blyopia (lazy eye) have been reported thus far during the follow-up on 448 presumpfTfe visually defective 3, 4 and 5 year old children tested in twenty eight Utah counties during the 1967-68 school year. Amblyopes have beea placed under treatment in thirteen of these counties. Sixty-one additional preschoolers pre-schoolers are now wearing corrective glasses for near sight, far sight and astigmatism, astigma-tism, and five children aro' in need of surgery for crossed cross-ed eye. ; Currently, services for visually vis-ually handicapped prevention of blindness unit and state and local public health nurses nurs-es are conducting intensive follow-up procedures to persuade per-suade parents of the remaining remain-ing 294 presumptively defect ive youngsters not yet reported, re-ported, to make an appointment appoint-ment for a professional eye examination. Preschool vision screening reached ' 19,576 youngsters out of 36,633 in the ewenty-eight ewenty-eight counties screened by volunteers trained by services ser-vices visually handicapped-prevention handicapped-prevention of blindness unit. The twenty-ninth county. Salt Lake, is screened by Delta Gamma volunteers, associated as-sociated with the Utah Society Soci-ety for the prevention of blindness. Kindergarten vision vis-ion screening by teachers, school nurse sand trained PTA volunteers accounted . for 12,108 examinations with 204 referrals. An .additional 7,468 prekindergartners, were screened by trained PTA, medical auxiliaries and n-ther n-ther women service clubs with 244 referred for further evaluation by an eye doctor. doc-tor. Grand county volunteers screened 195 preschoolers and referred 9 for professional profession-al eye examinations. Thus far 3 local youngsters have received this eye evaluation and 1 has verified defective vision. J. Fred Whitney, state coordinator co-ordinator for prevention of blindness, services visually handicapped, expressed appreciation ap-preciation for the worthwhi! contribution of Grand county volunteer vision screened. "If each county will set next years goal 10 per cent higher high-er and help involve seemingly seeming-ly apathetic young parpn's to bring their preschoolers to be visually screened, we should realize approximately 21.500 screenees during 1968 69 school year, with approximately approxi-mately 494 referred presumptively presum-ptively defective 3, 4 and 5 year olds." Mr. Whitney concluded by emphasizing, "many young mothers fail to return the following year with their child who is not yet in kindergarten. This preschooler should be screen ed each year after reaching age 32, until the school system sys-tem takes over this respons- ten year. Visual development improves quite rapidly during dur-ing this specific period of growth (3!2 - 5 yrs.). Unequal Un-equal development in UKfc eye may cause amblyopia. The earlier it is detected, the more rapidly it usually r-sponds r-sponds to corrective treatment,, treat-ment,, therefore yearly screening is recommended. |
