It’s August already? That means the back-to-school train is full steam ahead, based on the deep sighs of kids everywhere.
But, did you know that August is also Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month? And for good reason: visual functioning is a strong predictor of academic performance in school aged children.
Luckily, there are a few things you can do to ensure that your kids have a happy, healthy school year:
- Make sure your child has regular vision screenings—as a newborn, as an infant (between six and twelve months), as a preschooler (between age 3 and 3½), and upon entering school, or whenever a problem is suspected.
- Roughly 42,000 sports related injuries occur each year, the majority of them to children. Help protect your kids by providing eye protectors for sports like baseball, soccer, hockey, lacrosse, and racquet sports.
- Purchase toys for your children that have the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) seal of approval, as these have been extensively tested.
- Eating right goes a long way for eye health; make sure your kids get their leafy greens along with fish.
- Practice appropriate sun-safety: remind children never to look directly as the sun and to wear sunglasses.
- Brush up on a few basic first aid rules for eye injuries.
- Finally, a tip for everyone: the 20-20 rule. Staring at a computer screen for too long can cause any number of problems. Mitigate them by making sure to look about 20 feet away from your screen, for 20 seconds, every 20 minutes of screen time.
Keep eye health and safety in mind this August, and we wish everyone a fantastic school year!
