All students in TK, K, 2nd, 5th, and 8th grade are screened for vision and hearing. Students may also be screened if the parent, teacher, or nurse has a concern about a vision or hearing problem, for assessments and evaluations, and as needed.
Understanding Your Child's Vision Results
Photoscreening: Moreland School District uses a photoscreening digital device called a SPOT Vision Screener to objectively check for vision problems. The photoscreener is like a large camera. It takes a picture of your child's eyes. With that and the infrared measurements, SPOT can detect a number of potential eye conditions.
How to read the SPOT referral form: If your child's results form states, "Complete Eye Exam Recommended" at the top right of the page, it is a referral and we recommend that your child visit an eye care professional.
On the SPOT referral, you will see a section on the right side of the page called "Potential Condition." This includes information about the potential eye condition(s) detected by the SPOT device.
It will state the medical terminology followed by a short description in brackets in non-technical language. An example would be "Myopia [nearsighted]." At the bottom of the sheet, you will see a chart that shows the conditions that the SPOT can detect. For each condition, it shows whether your child's results were within the normal range or out-of-range. Shown in the graph is a relative indication of how severe the condition may be (whether it is slightly out of range or way out of range, for instance).
Definition of Condition Identified by SPOT Vision Screener and Listed on SPOT Results Form
Anisocoria: a condition characterized by an unequal size of the eye's pupils.
Anisometropia: a condition in which the two eyes have unequal refractive power; one example of this condition would be if one eye had near-perfect vision and the other eye was near or farsighted.
Astigmatism: an optical defect in which vision is blurred due to the inability of the optics of the eye to focus a point object into a sharp focused image on the retina. This may be due to an irregular or toric curvature of the cornea or lens.
Gaze Asymmetry and Gaze Deviation: measurements the SPOT uses to detect strabismus, a misalignment of the eyes. Strabismus is one of the major causes of Amblyopia (commonly referred to as "lazy eye").
Hyperopia: commonly known as being "farsighted"; a vision issue caused by an imperfection in the eye (often when the eyeball is too short or the lens cannot become round enough), causing difficulty focusing on near objects, and in extreme cases causing as sufferer to be unable to focus on objects at any distance.
Myopia: commonly known as being "nearsighted"; a condition of the eye where the light that comes in does not directly focus on the retina but in front of it, causing the image that one sees when looking at a distant object to be out of focus, but in focus when looking at a close object.