Children's Vision
AOA's Health Policy Institute (HPI) provides information on children's vision and access to care.
The Science of Reading Begins with Vision
July 2021
Learning to read, and acquiring comprehension, require well-tuned visual systems. A functional visual system supports development of efficient reading skills. This report explores what teachers, parents and administrators need to know.
April 2021
In the U.S., one in every four children have vision disorders that require diagnosis and treatment by an eye doctor, yet most children with vision disorders never see an eye doctor for diagnosis and treatment.
March 2021
As the urgency of return-to-classroom builds during the COVID-19 pandemic and a need to catch-up on any loss of academic acumen is realized, it may be just the time for a much-needed change. Problems with children’s vision preclude or limit their lifelong academic, extracurricular, and social success. Research indicates undetected and untreated vision disorders cause students to miss the equivalent of 135 days of school content annually. These vision challenges, made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, can be easily remedied with policy change.
Doctors of Optometry Increase Primary Eye Care at Health Centers
December 2020
One third of all patients served at Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) (9,396,897 of 28,590,897 or 33%) in 2020 were children aged 21 and younger. These children fall within the entitlement range of “Essential Pediatric Services,” that includes a benefit of an eye examination by an eye doctor and glasses, or other treatments as needed. While FQHC’s have used increased funding to expand primary services to include on-site primary eye care, is it sufficient to accommodate this pediatric vision need?
December 2019
Rural hospitals represent more than half of all hospitals in the U.S.; optometry's presence in these areas can be activated to provide needed access to eye examinations for high-risk infants and children.
County Data Demonstrates Eye Care Access Nationwide
April 2018
Doctors of optometry are uniquely positioned to serve as frontline providers in primary eye care for infants, children and adolescents as they currently practice in U.S. counties and county equivalents that comprise 99% of the total population in both urban and rural areas.
Why Comprehensive Eye and Vision Examinations are Critical for School-aged Children
March 2018
Comprehensive pediatric eye and vision examinations by a doctor of optometry is imperative for the timely diagnosis and treatment of eye and vision problems.
Doctors of Optometry in Disaster Preparedness, Response and Recovery
October 2017
The medical education of doctors of optometry prepare them to prescribe tailored solutions to a variety of health hazards and problems that arise because of a natural disaster , including those that adversely impact children.