Irish optoms focus on screening schoolkids

The Association of Optometrists Ireland (AOI) has run a back to school eye screening campaign encouraging parents and teachers across the country to take their children for a special six-point eye examination.

The Bright Eyes for School campaign which ran this week was based around a six-point vision assessment developed by a group of independent practitioners with a special interest in paediatric optometry.

AOI optometric adviser Lynda McGivney Nolan described the assessment as more detailed and thorough than the screening on offer through schools and specifically designed to identify the problems that could often be missed in young children's eyesight. It includes testing visual acuities, checking for strabismus or tropia, assessing external and internal eye health, checking for refractive error and latent hyperopia.