Children’s Eye Health & Safety Month

August

As the first day of school approaches, parents and children are prepping for the academic year. While you’re checking off shoes, clothes, and school supplies, consider making an appointment with your family eye doctor, too. August is Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month, and it’s a great time to make sure their eyes are ready to read the white board, see the laptop screen, and spotting the ball during sporting events and recess.

What Your Library Is Doing

Eyes in the Library

C. Well Bunny and Sights for Hope will present a story to help children to understand eye health and safety tips. Free vision screenings and information will be available after each program. RSVP.

This program supports PA Forward Health Literacy.

Vision impairment, if not corrected early, could hinder on your child’s academic success. If you think your child may have an issue with their vision, make note of anything similar to the following symptoms while visiting your child’s eye doctor:

• Constant rubbing of the eyes
• Sensitivity to light
• Abnormal alignment or eye movement
• Constant redness
• Constant watery eyes
• A white pupil (instead of black)
• Difficulty seeing things at a distance
• Difficulty reading
• Difficulty identifying colors accurately
• Squinting
• Headaches.

There are a variety of ways you can help your child feel prepared for their visit to the eye doctor. Let them know what to expect—tell them about the eye charts and having to identify shapes and colors. Show them around the facility’s website, especially if there are photos of the office so they’ll feel familiar with the environment. Write down any concerns or symptoms like the ones mentioned above prior to the visit so it’s easier to answer any questions the doctor may have. If you’re child needs glasses, let them play a primary role in selecting the frames so they are more likely to feel comfortable wearing them.

Now more than ever, televisions, computers, gaming systems, and mobile devices can end up playing major roles in children’s lives, for both educational and recreational purposes. But, is all that screen time healthy? In monitored doses, these devices can be beneficial in expanding resources for educational progress; but, more studies are showing that extraneous exposure to these technologies do not nurture healthy vision care nor nourish brain development. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the following when monitoring screen time:

  • Avoid screen time with those under 18 months with the exception of video chatting in small doses.
  • If you would like to introduce children 18-24 months to these devices, limit it to high-quality programming.
  • For ages 2-5 years, limit use to 1 hour per day and be there with them to explain concepts they’re viewing as well as what’s reality.
  • For ages 6 and up, use limits at your discretion to ensure that digital devices do not interfere with sleep, physical activity, and their overall health.
  • At all ages, take breaks each hour from viewing digital content.

To foster healthy eye care, the American Academy of Ophthalmology encourages making regular vision screening appointments, maintaining a log of family eye health history, observing signs of vision impairments, and wearing protective eyewear when playing sports.

At PCL, Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month is important us, as healthy vision makes it easier to read and explore the world. To ensure that your child is starting the school year strong, make an appointment with your local eye care provider today.

About Pennsylvania Libraries and PA Forward


Libraries across Pennsylvania are working together with the Pennsylvania Library Association (PaLA) to move PA Forward and ensure that libraries take their rightful place as leaders of a vision that requires a unique combination of new technology, community access, and commitment to learning. Libraries are key to powering progress and elevating the quality of life in Pennsylvania by fueling the types of knowledge essential to success: Basic Literacy, Information Literacy, Civic and Social Literacy, Health Literacy, and Financial Literacy. At the Pennsylvania Library Association, we envision a Pennsylvania where citizens know how to use online resources and current technology to improve their education, to enhance their job skills, and to fully participate in a digital society.

The vision of PA Forward’s Health Literacy work is simple:


We envision a Pennsylvania with active citizens able to manage their own and their family’s well-being, empowered to be effective partners with their healthcare providers, and living longer, more productive lives.

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