On Monday November 2nd and Friday November 6th, our local Lions Club will be at SCS to screen the vision of students in Kindergarten, 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th grades.
The Lion's Club members will be using a technology that allows them to simply take a ‘picture’ of your student’s eyes using the Welch Allyn Spot Vision Screener (SPOT) from a distance of 3 feet. This device measures the student’s pupils and alignment from the image. The device then compares the student’s eyes against the same age norms and will tell us if the student’s vision is within comparative norms, or if the student has one of six common vision impairments. If an impairment is detected it will indicate which impairment and make a recommendation to seek a full eye exam from a professional. Eye doctors have thanked the Lions many times for their success in early detection of issues.
The SPOT Screener reliably screens for six amblyopic risk factors. Myopia (nearsightedness); Hyperopia (farsightedness); Astigmatism (blurred vision); Anisometropia (unequal refractive power); Strabismus (eye misalignment) as well as Anisocoria (unequal pupil size). This is possible because it does not require the student to read letters or numbers, but just sit still and look at the 'camera' for about 20 seconds.
If a student’s vision is within normal range, the results will be written in their health file and no further action will be required. If a student does not pass the SPOT exam, a printout will be sent home with the results. See the information below on how to read and understand your SPOT results. No data is retained by the Lions and students will be identified by their student identification number. Please send a note in with your student if you wish them to opt out of this opportunity.
If your student wears glasses or contacts, please be sure to send them to school with your student on the day of the screening as they will need to wear them during their SPOT vision test.
Please know that we will be following all COVID-19 precautions. This means that students will be called out to the hallway individually, the screener will take a picture of your student’s eyes, and then they will immediately return to their classroom, so the next student may follow the same procedure. If you have any questions or need any further information, please feel free to contact me!
Kind regards,
Jocelyn Bouyea and Kelly Marcus
Shelburne Community School Nurses
383-1108
Understanding your child's vision screening results performed
by the Middlebury Lions Club
Photoscreening: Vermont Lions KidSight program uses a photoscreening digital device called a SPOT to objectively check for vision problems. The photoscreener is like a large camera. It takes a picture of your child's eyes. With that and the measurements obtained from the images, SPOT can detect a number of potential eye conditions.
How to read the SPOT referral form: Your child's SPOT results form will state, “Complete Eye Exam Recommended" at the top right of the page, it is a referral and we recommend that your child visit an eye care professional.
On the SPOT referral, you will see a section on the right side of the page called "Potential Condition." This includes information about the potential eye condition(s) detected by the SPOT device.
It will state the medical terminology followed by a short description in brackets in non-technical language. An example would be "Myopia [nearsighted]." At the bottom of the referral sheet, you will see a chart that shows the conditions that the SPOT can detect. For each condition, it shows whether your child's results were within the normal range or out-of-range. Shown in the graph is a relative indication of how severe the condition may be (whether it is slightly out of range or way out of range, for instance).
Financial Assistance: If you need financial assistance with a vision exam and/or eyeglasses, contact the Middlebury Lions Charities at 1-888-885-4667 x 298. You will be prompted to leave a message on the voicemail and someone will call you back.
Definition of conditions that can be identified by the SPOT:
Anisocoria: a condition characterized by an unequal size of the eye's pupils.
Anisometropia: a condition in which the two eyes have unequal refractive power; one example of this condition would be if one eye had near-perfect vision and the other eye was near or farsighted.
Astigmatism: an optical defect in which vision is blurred due to the inability of the optics of the eye to focus a point object into a sharp focused image on the retina. This may be due to an irregular or toric curvature of the cornea or lens.
Gaze Asymmetry and Gaze Deviation: measurements the SPOT uses to detect strabismus, a misalignment of the eyes. Strabismus is one of the major causes of Amblyopia (commonly referred to as "lazy eye").
Hyperopia: commonly known as being "farsighted"; a vision issue caused by an imperfection in the eye (often when the eyeball is too short or the lens cannot become round enough), causing difficulty focusing on near objects, and in extreme cases causing as sufferer to be unable to focus on objects at any distance.
Myopia: commonly known as being "nearsighted"; a condition of the eye where the light that comes in does not directly focus on the retina but in front of it, causing the image that one sees when looking at a distant object to be out of focus, but in focus when looking at a close object.