Pleasant Lions Club conducted photo screening for children ages three to five at the Funshine Early Learning Center which is sponsored by Pleasant Grove City.
A total of 220 students were screened, 22 students were referred for further follow up by their personal optometrists or pediatricians.
Lions members donated 20 ½ hours to the photo screen project. Parent volunteers donated 28 volunteer hours for the project. Parents helped fill out forms and shuffled children between to the classroom and conference room. Some parents helped read to the children waiting to have their eye screening done. Parents and volunteers were very happy to have us come give this service. They couldn't believe such a simple technique could provide so much information to an optometrist. The director, plans on us returning next year to screen the children at the center.
The Lions Club express a special thanks to the local optometrists and their staff for helping with this valuable service to the community.
What is Photo Screening
A young child does not know that he has a vision problem. He can't tell how well he should be able to see. Most young children under the age of 5 are not capable of communicating effectively to solve the problem.
Lions Photo Screening is to identify children whose eyes may have some type of defect, which if left untreated may lead to a life-time of vision problems or blindness.. Photo Screening can detect improperly aligned eyes, cataracts, near sightedness, far sightedness drooping eyelid, astigmatism, and other amblyopic (dull vision) factors. Some far and near sightedness is normal in young children.
Photo screen is not a diagnostic tool, so we advise the parents to have the child seen by an eye doctor to get proper diagnosis and treatment as may be needed. Lions screen only children ages 1 through 5. The child sits on a chair, looks at a camera and two pictures are taken. There is no physical contact with the child. The pictures are taken to a local optometrist to read. If further diagnosis is needed, the parents are contacted.
If you are interested in scheduling a photo screening for your
pre-school in April, call Darlene 785-2669.
