Visual Acuity Chart
A visual acuity screening involves assessing a student's ability to see and identify objects clearly at various distances. This screening is conducted to detect any potential vision problems that may affect daily activities, work, or overall quality of life. Visual acuity screenings include both far and near distance screenings.
The far vision screening evaluates how well students can see objects at a distance. It may involve identifying shapes or letters from a distance to assess their ability to see clearly in scenarios such as reading the white board.
The near vision screening assesses the ability to see objects up close, which is important for activities like reading or doing close-up work. This screening involves identifying shapes or letters at a comfortable reading distance.
Photoscreening
When a student is unable to complete their vision screening using our typical methods, we use a photoscreening digital device called a SPOT Vision Screener 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 infrared measurements, SPOT can detect a number of potential eye conditions.
If the SPOT Vision Screener recommends a complete eye examination, we will send you a referral and include the results from the screener.
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 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).
Definition of Condition Identified by SPOT Vision Screener
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.
Color Vision
The color vision screening includes the use of a color vision test book to check for color blindness or deficiencies. It is important for students to know if they have color vision deficiencies to prepare for tasks that require accurate color perception.
