Early Childhood Screening is required for 3 to 5 year-olds in Minnesota, and it’s an excellent way to identify potential barriers to school success prior to Kindergarten, including vision deficits. Harley Hopkins Family Center (HHFC) provides this critical preventive service to 600 students per school year, in addition to vision screening conducted in first, third and fifth grades. Now, thanks to this HEF grant, the SPOT Vision Screener will provide extremely accurate, reliable, and time-saving measurements. SPOT’s results do not rely on preschoolers’ ability to understand and follow directions, which in the past has affected the reliability of results and the efficacy of intervention. Other schools using SPOT have reported that families are more likely to seek vision assistance, and so more quickly address a child’s barriers to learning caused by vision deficits. In addition, SPOT examines and measures a range of deficits far beyond acuity, including astigmatism, strabismus, and refractive errors.
Harley Hopkins Family Center
Submitter: Lori Abel