As schools continue their efforts to identify and meet students’ needs, they are adding regular vision and hearing screening to their programs. Both vision and hearing are crucial to student success in academic and other fields. These important faculties are often neglected, with negative consequences for the children. Education staffing agencies can help schools to find the trained professionals to carry out sensory screenings in a proper and timely fashion.
Why sensory screenings are necessary for children
Hearing and vision are essential faculties for children, but are often imperiled by their circumstances. Problems with hearing and vision affect children’s ability to succeed in school and even to carry on their daily activities safely. As many as 25% of all children between ages five and 17 have vision problems, according to a study by the National Commission on Vision and Health. Further, these problems could have been treated if they had been identified and diagnosed through proper screening before the child entered school.
Hearing is likewise another critically important faculty that is frequently endangered in children of all ages. About two or three children out of every thousand are born in the U.S. suffer from hearing loss in one or both ears. As teenagers, about 20% of them suffer from hearing loss. This problem has been increasing over time, and the number of teenagers suffering from hearing loss has increased by 30% over the past two or three decades.
Why schools need to step up
Lack of health insurance is one reason why children don’t get the vision and hearing screenings they need. Researchers have found that as many as 79% of all children haven’t seen an eye care specialist in the past one year. While proper vision is essential for children, lack of insurance can be a limiting factor in getting the care they need. Children without health insurance are three times more likes to not have the eyeglasses they need to do their academic work.
It has fallen to schools to make up for the lack of proper healthcare by organizing regular hearing and vision screenings for their students. In addition to the lack of healthcare, contemporary lifestyles make such screenings necessary. As many as 40% of parents in the U.S. admit that their kids spend over three hours on their digital devices each day. Over time this can cause vision and hearing problems.
How to find trained specialists
While school staff lack the proper training and qualifications for conducting vision and hearing screenings, education staffing agencies can help them to find the proper personnel to do so. These outside professionals can be relied upon to carry out the screenings and to help identify problems faced by individual students.
Ideally, hearing screenings should begin before the child enters school. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that these should be scheduled for children at ages 6, 8, and 10. After that, they should happen at least once in middle school and in high school. However, it’s not necessary for schools to hire full-time for these tasks. Education staffing agencies can help schools to find the trained professionals for sensory screenings on a temporary basis.
Vision and hearing are two of the most importation faculties for young children, which help them to succeed in school and even to stay safe. For a number of reasons, however, children often don’t get the care they need to correct vision and hearing problems. Schools have stepped up to fill this gap with regularly scheduled sensory screenings. Education staffing agencies can help schools to find the qualified professionals to carry out the screenings.