It’s no surprise that vision plays huge part in helping children learn their best.  After all, 80% of our first 12 years of life is learned through the eyes.  If a child’s vision system is not perfectly clear and comfortably focused, learning is slowed down.  And, for kids who suffer from other distractive conditions, that process of comprehension and connecting the intellectual dots is slowed down even more.

For 25 years, Dr. Christina Petrou has been a supporting member of the largest local non-profit organization to connect eye doctors to children, the Wisconsin Optometric Association (WOA).  Through the WOA’s work with nurses, teachers, and parents, the level of public awareness has been raised and the importance of early detection of eye problems has been made clearer.  Their goal is to help children see and succeed in life.  Click here for information on how to help kids see better: Teachers Guide to Vision, Letter to Parents, Kindergarten Eye Exam Health Report, and more.

School vision screenings are great, but they’re not a substitute for a comprehensive vision and eye health examination with an optometrist or pediatric ophthalmologist.  Too many kids begin the school year with undetected eye problems and miss out on important fundamentals.  The WOA’s Clear Vision, Bright Future program is resourcefully designed for parents and teachers to keep our kids on track.   Let’s all help out and get kids seeing their best and learning it right the first time they see something new!

This device has the potential for magnifying central visual acuity and holds promise for people with macular degeneration, as well as for other eye diseases which can result in decreased central vision. Low vision specialists and optometrists will be watching and following this interesting device for progress.

For more information check out:

http://www.aoa.org/news/clinical-eye-care/new-tech-holds-promise-for-low-vision-patients?sso=y

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/289504.php

This year’s big sailing event will be Saturday, September 27, held off the Milwaukee shoreline in the waters of Lake Michigan.  Power boats raise funds for the event with a poker run.  Post race raffle, award ceremony, and silent auction will be at Milwaukee Ale House!  Trophies are awarded for most funds raised, first place, best poker hand, and to keep it fun, for best costume and ugliest spinnaker.

Even sanctioned bribery is allowed during the post-race party as a pirate-worthy fund raising challenge.  This is an opportunity for boat crews, their shore teams and general party participants to buy their way to a better race position!  All bribes are, of course, given to Children’s Hospital.

You sail!  You pledge!  The kids win!

There are many other ways to give and raise funds.  To learn more, go to http://www.louieslast.org.

Please join Petrou Eye Care in their support of Prevent Blindness by generously donating to this worthy cause.  Without Prevent Blindness, many school children would be without proper school vision screenings, which, combined with an eye doctor’s comprehensive eye exam, can detect early vision and learning problems.  

They recommend careful evaluation of the most helpful accessibility features.  Although individuals will vary on what works best for them, the consensus is that some degree of both text-to-voice (also known as screen reader) and screen magnification is needed for ideal functionality.  Tablets, Apple iOS devices (iPod, iPad, iPhone), Mac computers, and Windows based computers are reviewed, as well as some of the software programs that work on them.  For the full article, go to http://wp.me/p2NcmF-g0.

Loss of vision doesn’t mean loss of learning.  Staying connected to information, family and friends is easier than ever.  Local training on devices and computers for adults and seniors can be found in Milwaukee at the technology department at Vision Forward, www.Visionforward.org , and at Adaptive Technology Resources in Grafton, Wisconsin, www.adaptivetr.com.