By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays Lions Club is reaching out to child care providers to offer free eye screening to children.
Jim Huenergarde of Hays is a certified vision screener through the Kansas Lions Sight Foundation.
The Lions can provide a handheld device about the size of a digital camera that indicates within seconds whether a child might have a sight issue and needs to follow up with a complete eye exam with a doctor.
The screening is similar to having your picture taken.
Huenergarde presented about the free service to the Child Care Task Force of Ellis County during its July meeting.
The screening can't screen for all vision problems but can indicate issues, including
• lazy eye
• pupil size anomalies
• anisometropia, which is having one eye that is nearsighted and the other farsighted
• astigmatism, which is irregularly shaped corneas or lenses that cause blurry vision
• farsightedness, affecting the ability to see at close range
• nearsightedness, affecting the ability to see long distances
• misalignment of the eyes
The target audience for the screenings is children ages 6 months to 6 years because 95 percent of common vision problems that are caught by age 6 are correctable.
Twenty-five percent of school-age children in the United States have vision problems.
Huenergarde said ideally, vision problems could be caught before children enter school so that they would not affect their academic performance.
The Lions already screen children at Holy Family Elementary School and St. Mary's Catholic School in Ellis.
He said a group of 12 children in a home child care setting could be processed in about 30 minutes.
The results can be printed or downloaded for parents or an eye doctor.
Huenergarde travels across western Kansas to offer screenings.
Child care providers who are interested in scheduling screenings can contact Huenergarde at 785-639-3430 or by email at [email protected].