Heart BEAT About Needs & Good Deeds

WAITSBURG - It has been estimated that as much as 80 percent of childhood learning is done with the eyes, according to the Opto- metric Physicians of Wash- ington.

When a child's vision is not functioning properly, education and participation in sports can suffer.

This is why Dr. Angela Ferguson, an optometrics physician, brings a small staff with her once a year to Waits- burg Elementary School to provide free vision checks for students.

"If you can't see well, you can't learn as well," Ferguson said.

Ferguson has worked at Valley Vision in Walla Walla since 1988 and has been a doctor there since 2000. But her ties to the Waitsburg community are even tighter - she grew up in Waitsburg and is a Waitsburg alumna.

"It is my hometown and my family lives there," Fer- guson said.

Valley Vision and Fergu- son have been helping Waits- burg students get the eye care they need for many years and have been performing the free vision checks for the past four years now that the vision staff is allowed to personally visit public schools.

Ferguson has also helped screen students at Rogers Adventist School in Walla Walla, Vista Hermosa El- ementary and the Dayton School District.

This year on Dec. 6, Fer- guson and two technicians, as well as Dr. Rick Harrison and one technician, will be at the elementary school in Waitsburg to screen the ma- jority of students.

Ferguson said the screen- ing she and the technicians provide goes beyond what school nurses can do.

"It's quite a thorough screening," she said.

They will be looking to see if a student needs glasses and will evaluate their color vision, depth perception and eye health. It's not a true comprehensive exam because they can't transport all of their equipment to the school, but the screening will help find students who are having problems.

"Those kids who will need us we absolutely catch," Ferguson said.

And if a student does have a vision issue that should be looked at by a doctor, a form letter is sent home to their parents. There is no requirement the student go to Valley Vision for treatment or a check up, Ferguson said. Parents can choose where to take their child for care.

Ferguson said these checks do catch eye prob- lems in Waitsburg students every year. Because of the great pediatric care in the val- ley, she said there are fewer problems than communities that don't have great pediat- ric health care. She still finds two or three students with a vision issue per class in Waitsburg.

Ferguson said she works closely with Waitsburg kin- dergarten teacher Pam No- lan-Beasley to provide the program in Waitsburg.

"Dr. Ferguson and her staff are genuinely con- cerned about each students' vision and health," Nolan- Beasley said.

Teachers are also taught to look for vision problems in students.

"They catch students who may not be seeing well," Fer- guson said.

And if a child does have a vision issue that needs to be looked at or corrected and the family cannot afford the care, Ferguson said Valley Vision, the Lions Club or private do- nors can help make sure the child is cared for.

The Lions Club organiza- tion can provide free glasses, eye exams and even surgical care for those in need.

"Young people's vision can change relatively quick- ly, and as we also have stu- dents who move in and out of district, our teaching staff really appreciate the yearly checks," Nolan-Beasely said. "I believe it's critical that young children get their eyes checked, as they are in the beginning stages of read- ing and writing. And some of them have never visited an optometrist's office. Fre- quently, a serious far-sighted problem can be mistaken for sloppy handwriting, for example. Or trouble read- ing could be interpreted as a learning challenge, before checking to see whether there may be something physiological at play."

There is also a lot of information about childhood vision at www.eyes.org.