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by Penelope McClenny
October 22 , 2005
A program developed by professor and
part-time lawyer Stephen Black is linking young children who need eye
exams to college students who need community service experience.
On Friday, nearly 600 students at five Head Start centers in Mobile
County were screened for vision problems by University of South Alabama
students who have undergone specialized training to conduct the tests
under a program called FocusFirst.
"Young people do have this powerful sense of wanting to be a part of some powerful project," said Black.
FocusFirst is a part of Impact, a program Black began developing in the
fall of 2004 to provide service opportunities for students in Alabama's
universities, junior colleges and technical schools. Last year, college
students screened 4,400 children, including a 3-year-old Calhoun County
girl who eventually underwent surgery to correct a cataract problem
unveiled by the test.
Screenings are usually scheduled for Head Start and daycare centers
that serve children in lower-income areas, Black said, because they are
least likely to get the vision care they need.
Using specialized cameras, the volunteers instruct a student to look at
a certain point, then take a photograph of the child's eyes. The images
are then reviewed by an optometrist who can determine whether the child
has a vision impairment that needs correcting. Uninsured students who
need glasses, surgery or any other type of vision therapy are able to
receive fully subsidized care through a program called Sight Savers of
Alabama, Black said.
Using trained college volunteers to conduct the screenings helps fill a
gap between agencies like Sight Savers and the children who need their
help, Black said.
"I was surprised at how competently (the student volunteers) are doing
it," he said. "It takes a pretty good amount of concentration to get
the details right."
Each of the 43 USA students involved in the program are graduate
students in the occupational therapy program, said Donna Wooster, an
assistant professor and coordinator of FocusFirst for the university.
Friday's screenings were the first for the USA group, whose members had
each received about three hours training to operate the cameras used to
take photos of a child's eyes.
"We're hoping that we can help the kids and detect any problems before
it gets really serious, and do some interventions," student Huong Dao
said.
In the next few weeks, the graduate students will travel to more Head
Start and daycare centers in Mobile and Baldwin counties to perform
screenings.
"I can't believe they've never done this before because it seems so
simple and so important," graduate student Lisa Parnell said as she
handed out star-shaped stickers to children as they exited the exam
room.
Although dental, speech and some comprehension exams are offered at the
center, most of the children had never had eye screenings, but almost
every parent consented to have their child undergo the test, Director
Gloria Jones said. Four-year-old Tamarcus Wilkerson could hardly sit
still in his chair while waiting for his turn, especially after one of
the USA students assured him no needles would be involved.
"It was fun! It's going to be fun!" Amaiya West told him as she headed back to her classroom.
The screenings fulfill a two-fold purpose of giving both
pre-kindergarten and college students skills they can use throughout
life.
For the Head Start students, finding vision problems early will give them better chances of succeeding school.
"That's sort of the tragedy of waiting for the screenings that are done
comprehensively (when) they are older. The vast majority of those kids
get labeled dumb or slow or learning impaired. Vision is the last thing
they look at," Black said.
For the college students, the experience offers a taste of volunteerism.
"I think the whole concept of trying to promote students to volunteer
... is really what this is all about, (to) become part of their
lifestyle, that they'll always want to volunteer and give back and
promote that in their families in the future," Wooster said.
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