CHICAGO—Prevent Blindness, a leading volunteer eye health and safety nonprofit organization, has declared August as Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month. According to the group, the goal is to educate parents, caregivers, professionals and policy makers on the important role vision and eye health plays in a child’s development, learning ability and social engagement. Prevent Blindness offers free materials on children’s vision issues, such as myopia and amblyopia, provides information on access to eyecare, and encourages individuals to advocate for federal funding for state and community children’s eye health programs.

Without early detection and treatment, uncorrected vision disorders can impair healthy development, interfere with learning, and even lead to permanent vision loss, Prevent Blindness said. However, vision screening and regular eyecare can help detect and treat potentially irreversible vision impairment, the group noted. It added that visual functioning is a strong predictor of academic performance in school-age children.

In recognition of Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month, Prevent Blindness is offering free resources including fact sheets, social media graphics, toolkits, videos and webpages on a variety of topics on children’s vision from infancy through adolescence. The NCCVEH, now celebrating its 15th anniversary, provides resources on getting children ready for school, taking a child to an eye doctor, preparing a child for wearing glasses or contact lenses, tips for preventing eye injuries and more.

 
Prevent Blindness said it recently launched the new “Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) Education and Support Program,” as part of the first-ever ROP Awareness Week. Retinopathy of Prematurity is a condition caused by abnormal development of retinal blood vessels, occurring as a complication of preterm birth and/or low birth weight. Prevent Blindness offers free fact sheets and social media graphics in English and Spanish, a dedicated webpage, and a comprehensive new video series featuring parents of children with ROP, ROP patients, a pediatric ophthalmologist, psychologist, ROP nurse and family support organizations.

Additionally, the Prevent Blindness Focus on Eye Health Expert Series has free episodes dedicated to children’s vision and eye health topics including the following:

  • “Children’s Vision and Eye Health,” with R.V. Paul Chan, MD, MSC, MBA, FACS, head, department of ophthalmology and visual sciences, The John H. Panton Professor of Ophthalmology, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, and director, Pediatric Retina and Retinopathy of Prematurity Service, Illinois Eye and Ear, UI Health. Dr. Chan is also a volunteer member of the Prevent Blindness board of directors.

  • Through a partnership with Delta Gamma, “Children's Vision and Parent Advocacy,” features Lauren C. Ditta, MD, pediatric neuro-ophthalmologist at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital and associate professor of ophthalmology and pediatrics at Hamilton Eye Institute, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and Delta Gamma alumna.

  • “Partnering with School Nurses for Children's Vision and Eye Health,” features Donna Mazyck, MS, RN, NCSN, CAE, FNASN, former executive director of the National Association of School Nurses (NASN).
Also available online is the recent “Emerging Eye Health Issues in Young Children” webinar from the Office of Head Start’s National Center for Health, Behavioral Health and Safety. Expert speakers included Donna Fishman, director of the NCCVEH; Elise B. Ciner, OD, FAAO, Pennsylvania College of Optometry at Salus University; and Fuensanta A. Vera-Diaz, PhD, OD, associate professor of optometry, New England College of Optometry, and volunteer on the Prevent Blindness Scientific Committee, who provided information on myopia prevention.


In order to promote early detection, care and treatment for children’s vision, Prevent Blindness strongly encourages support of the newly introduced Early Detection of Vision Impairments for Children (EDVI) Act. The EDVI Act is landmark, bipartisan legislation that seeks to establish the first ever federal program for children’s vision which will provide grants for states and communities to improve children’s vision and eye health through coordinated systems of care.

State-by-state snapshots on children’s vision screening requirements, as well as percentage of children screened, and percentage of children who have received eye examinations, are also available here.

“Back in 1908, Prevent Blindness began as an organization dedicated to eradicating blindness in newborns. More than a century later, we continue to promote children’s vision and eye health through public education and by advocating for support of programs that provide access to eyecare,” said Jeff Todd, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness. “We encourage everyone to join us in this mission, and find out how to help us put our kids on the path to a lifetime of healthy vision.”

For general information on children’s eye health and safety, click here. For information on the NCCVEH and its variety of programs, click here. Vision care financial assistance resources in English and Spanish may also be found here.