Wales

Children's eye health project

Summary: Information about RNIB Cymru's Children's eye health project.

Children's eye health is vital to their learning!

All children and young people should have yearly eye checks. As children develop their eyes change and so they need to visit an optometrist more regularly than adults.

Three eye conditions are commonly encountered in children of school age: These are short-sightedness (myopia), squint or eye turn (strabismus), and lazy eye (amblyopia).

Eye health checks are available from your local high street optometrist can pick up a range of eye problems. If these are left untreated, it might mean children fall behind in school or, in some cases, it may result in irreversible sight problems.

A survey by RNIB Cymru found that at present there is inconsistent vision screening in schools throughout Wales. As a result of this we have been funded by the Welsh Assembly Government to visit a thousand children in schools in three pilot areas, Bridgend, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. We will be visiting schools from Autumn 2008.

Further information

For further details please contact Mary van den Heuvel, Campaigns Officer, RNIB Cymru, 0290 449 591

Content author: policy@rnib.org.uk

Last updated: 24/07/2008 10:23

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