Cdv: as Italian children head back to school, take care of their eyes
Nearly a million and half students have never had their vision checked. Two and a half million suffer from reddening of the eyes, visual fatigue or headache during school hours. These are the findings of a study conducted by the Piepoli Institute ordered by Commissione Difesa Vista (Eyesight Defence Commission): 20% of Italian parents do not take their children for a check on their eyesight and 30% of the children checked suffer from some form of problem with their eyes.
Yet good vision is an essential requisite for all those children who are now starting school. For many, this will be the first encounter with school life, and for this reason, it is all the more important for them to be ready for the appointment. Lovingly provided with schoolbags, notebooks, pencil cases, and all the best intentions in the world as they enter this new dimension, these instruments alone are often not enough to ensure successful results. In order for things to proceed as every parent desires, in addition to school supplies and enthusiasm, young students should also be given the chance to pack good eyesight in their schoolbags. Seeing things clearly, in fact, is extremely important in academic performance.
In the words of Commissione Difesa Vista optician optometrist and consultant Massimo Trevisol, 'Children coming to school for the first time are not only beginning their education, they're changing the context of the lives. Beginning this adventure with impaired functionality and not at the same level as the other children can cause difficulties in learning and create stress and anguish at the same time, thereby posing the risk of falling behind the others and experiencing emargination'. This is why it is fundamentally important for parents to take their children for an accurate check on their eyesight, which in addition to reassuring the functionality of the health of the child's eyes also makes sure that the entire visual system works efficiently.
'Subjecting school-age children to an eye check-up is a fundamental point of departure', states Maria Antonietta Blasi, Associate Professor at the Oculistics Clinic at the University of Aquila and Commissione Difesa Vista consultant, 'because', she explains, 'the greatest number of amblyopia patients are identified at around the age of 5 or 6 years old. The term "amblyopia" is used to indicate scarce and usually unilateral visual acuity that occurs in the absence of any organic disease that cannot be corrected by the use of lenses. "Children at this age", the professor continues 'are usually co-operative enough to permit a thorough ophthalmologic check-up. Diagnosing an amblyopic eye - more commonly known as "lazy eye" - in sufficient time assumes fundamental importance because the best therapeutic results are obtained by wearing a patch over the better eye within the first 10 years of life'.
In the US state of Kentucky, this approach to the protection of children's eyesight has been made official with the passage of a law in 2000 that prescribes an eyesight check-up on all children enrolled in elementary school for the first time. The introduction of these compulsory checks revealed that nearly 14% of the children checked required corrective lenses; 3.4% suffered from 'lazy eye', 2.31% were cross-eyed, and 0.83% suffered from some other form disturbance in the eyes. This type of concern for children's health should become obligatory in Italy as well.
'Focused eyesight check-ups', Professor Blasi continues, 'in addition to the diagnosis of myopia, permit the identification of other defects in vision, such as hypermetropia (farsightedness) and astigmatism, and even pathologies such as cross-eye, typical of paediatric age and even more serious disease such as congenital cataract, which if unilateral, compromises vision in one eye only, and therefore the child continues using the other eye and the problem goes unnoticed'.
These are defects that without a specialised check-up might pass unseen even by the most observant parent. What must be checked during these check-ups is not only the child's visual efficiency and acuity: although 10/10 vision is important, it is not enough in itself. There are many other skills required to ensure good vision, and this is why careful attention must be paid to every detail and children must be subjected to specific check-ups, "such as", in the words of Massimo Trevisol, 'those that regard oculomotor conditions or the eyes' extrinsic muscles'.
Impaired functionality in this sense can create difficulty in both reading and writing: a child might skip a line of reading, make confusion between one letter and another or appear lazy and unmotivated. The child's degree of motivation might not have anything to do with it at all. 'Children whose eyesight are not perfect", explains Massimo Trevisol, 'usually assume the wrong posture at their desks with the head and body bent too far over, and tend to incline the sheet of paper on which they are reading or writing, grip the pen incorrectly, exerting too much pressure with the hand".
Another visual capacity to be kept under constant control is the ability to keep images in focus sharply and the ability to change focus quickly from a distant object (the blackboard) to the book right under your nose without losing focus on either. A specialist can see if the child has difficulty in recognising words, skips written lines, inverts letters or is able to keep everything he or she sees in sharp focus and if this ability is maintained over time. Malfunctions in visual efficiency can play serious roles in the development of problems linked to learning and/or behavioural disturbances. A thorough check-up helps ensure intervention in time that will place your child in the position to begin an academic career in the best possible way. Just one check-up is not enough. 'Check-ups should be repeated at intervals that vary according to the problem or defect observed", concludes Professor Blasi, 'and might be necessary every 3-4 months or every 6 months. Even if the child does not show evident signs of defect, we recommend having vision checked once a year, because refractive defects often appear over the following years".
