Lori Short, program coordinator for Coming to Your Senses, recommends vision screenings once a child reaches six months of age, and then annually until they are four years old.

"This is the most crucial time, when children are developing their visual systems. If there is something wrong with their vision, young children have the ability to disregard what might be coming in from one eye and 'shut an eye off,' so we want to catch problems before it is too late for successful treatment," she says.

"Screenings are typically held in daycare and preschool settings," Short says, "but are also held in collaboration with public health venues, such as WIC clinics, head start programs, child fairs, basically any way young children can be reached."

Lions Club members around the state have been trained to conduct the vision screenings in their local areas as a community service project. The Lions Club volunteers arrange the screening sessions. They use a special hand-held camera that takes instant photographs of just the eyes. After a Lions Club conducts a screening, members send the screening photographs to UI Hospitals and Clinics Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.

"Once the screening photos arrive at UI Hospitals and Clinics, they are interpreted for possible vision problems such as misaligned eyes, astigmatism, far- and near-sightedness, or things inside the eye, such as cataracts. After the screening photographs have been interpreted, results are reported back to families on every child who is screened," Short says.

If the photo shows something suspicious in a child's vision, a referral packet is provided to those parents. It includes a list of eye care professionals in the county in which the family resides and surrounding counties.

"We also send along an evaluation sheet for the eye care professional to complete to ensure we are referring correctly. If the evaluation sheet is not returned to us, we follow-up with a phone call to the family to ensure that there are no obstacles in obtaining a dilated eye examination."

More than 57,000 children have been screened since the program's inception, with the number of children served almost doubling each year.

"I think of the binder full of success stories and thank you letters that we have received," Short says. "To me, these demonstrate the true success of the program. I also think of the growing number of children we are able to serve each year."

To invite Coming to Your Senses to your local daycare or preschool, Short says people should contact:

• The local Lions Club to request a vision screening
• Coming to Your Senses office at 319-353-7616 or by e-mail at CTYS@uiowa.edu for local Lions Club information

For more information:

Lions Clubs of Iowa