Vision Screening

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The program is a free screening program provided by the Keller Lions Club aimed at identifying eyesight problems in children. The goal is to facilitate corrective measures while the child is young so that future problems will be minimized or even avoided altogether. Getting children screened is important: anywhere from 3 to 5% of children have some form of amblyopia or what is commonly known as "lazy eye". If done in time, treatment can save the child’s sight. If left untreated, this condition can result in serious eye-sight problems up to and including blindness 

The purpose of the screening is not to determine what kind of treatment the child needs; it is only to notify the parent/guardian that our screening tests have indicated an abnormality and we recommend that the parent/guardian take the child to an eye specialist for further evaluation. Three areas are screened:  

• Sphere or power of the eye measured in diopters: a negative reading indicates myopia (near-sightedness) while a positive reading indicates hyperopia (far-sightedness)  

• Cylinder is the measure of astigmatism or irregular focus of the eye due to an uneven curvature of the cornea  

• Difference is the mean spherical power between the two eyes 

The screening is provided free of charge for children from 6 months to 15 years old. 

Screenings are done anywhere with a group of children; including a preschool program, school, health fair, etc.