Aiken Mid-Day Lions Club offers pediatric vision screenings

The Aiken Mid-Day Lions Club has obtained a new device that can perform pediatric vision screenings on children as young as 6 months old

The free screenings, done with the Welch Allyn Vision Screener, are available to all Aiken County pediatric-age children through participating schools and day cares.

“The screener can read children as young as 6 months of age, which is why we’re very pleased to get it. Lots of needs can be identified at a very correctable age,” said Joanne Cadotte, a member of the Aiken Mid-Day Lions Club. “In the past, children could not have gotten that kind of information unless they were taken to an eye doctor.”

The Welch Allyn Vision Screener, obtained through a grant from the Lions Clubs International and on loan to the Aiken Mid-Day Lions Club from the state club’s district, measures the refractive power of the eye by measuring light reflexes from the retina. It also estimates pupil size, pupil distance and eye gaze deviation. The scanner can read for near and far vision and can identify eye diseases.

“The scanner has identified some unusual problems with very young children that maybe an eye exam at their pediatrician might not have picked up,” Cadotte said.

The screenings are fast, taking about three minutes from start to finish. A child sits in a darkened room, and the screening operator holds the vision screener, which emits a pleasant chirping sound to attract the child’s attention, a few feet in front of his or her eyes. When the vision screener locks in, it sends a visual image of the child’s eyes and a report of vision information to a printer.

“The children take the report home to their parents, who can then take it to an eye-care professional to interpret the results,” Cadotte said. “We do not do any interpretations.”

The screenings also are noninvasive, and no eye drops are used. “We do not touch the children,” Cadotte said. “If it’s an infant, it would be held by the mother or a representative of the day care.”

After the screenings are complete, all information collected is cleared from the screener. “We do not leave with any information about any child,” Cadotte said.

After the screenings are complete, all information collected is cleared from the screener. “We do not leave with any information about any child,” Cadotte said.

The Aiken Mid-Day Lions Club performed its first screenings at Horse Creek Academy, working under the direction of Sara Shealy, the school nurse.

“This is the first year we’ll be able to screen the entire student body, more than 300 students, for any concerns with vision,” Shealy said. “That’s wonderful.”

Aiken Mid-Day Lions Club member Pat Friday said the Lions Club is considered the world’s largest service club and has provided vision-related services to more than 3.5 million people. With the scanning device, club members can now reach more people locally. “We can scan more students now for vision problems than ever before,” Friday said.

To schedule a vision scanning, schools and day cares can call Friday at 803-643-8258, send an email to pfriday42@gmail.com or go to aikenmid-daylions.org. The club also is on Facebook. The Aiken Mid-Day Lions Club meets at 12:30 p.m. on the first and third Thursdays of the month at Mi Rancho restaurant on Richland Avenue West in Aiken

An Aiken native, Larry Wood is a general assignment reporter. He joined the Aiken Standard in September 2014.