On the state level, most of the state optometric associations affiliated with the American Optometric Association have conducted similar forums, with subsequent report sessions at the local society level to disseminate broadly the new knowledge developed at national, regional and state meetings.

Active Sponsorship of Multi-Professional Approach

In every possible way, organized optometry has sought to sponsor or encourage a multiprofessional approach to the vision and related problems of children and youth. As a profession, and through the dedicated work of many individual vision care specialists, optometry has participated in a variety of programs set up to aid various types of exceptional children, with particular emphasis on the partially-seeing, the retarded, and the brain-injured, but covering also all other categories of exceptional children for whom special programs are being undertaken on the local, regional, state or national level.

In the field of vision screening in the schools, optometry has found that the multiprofessional approach, in which optometrists, ophthalmologists, school administrators, public health officials, teachers and parents cooperate in the development of a program, provides the best hope of achieving a successful and effective and practical result. [9] In practical operation, such an approach is being used with encouraging success in Euclid, Ohio schools, where children are tested not only by Snellen chart for visual acuity at 20 feet but by additional tests which reveal difficulties in using the eyes together with ease and efficiency for boardwork, deskwork and reading.

In furtherance of their objective of integrating vision care programs into school health services, State Committees on Visual Problems of Children and Youth are cooperating not only with the public agencies concerned but with civic and fraternal groups such as Lions, Kiwanis, Rotary and others to establish voluntary vision testing programs where the states are unable to provide official programs.

AOA Publications To Help Parents, Teachers

A variety of publications and an authoritative new book have been published by, or underwritten by, the optometric profession, to help parents, teachers and all groups working with, and interested in, the visual welfare of children to understand the processes by which children learn to see more efficiently. These materials may be obtained from the American Optometric Association, 4030 Chouteau Avenue, St. Louis 10, Missouri.

The book referred to, PRE-SCHOOL VISION, by R. J. Apell and R. W. Lowry, Jr., published in 1959, was prepared under a research grant from the American Optometric Foundation to the Gesell Institute of Child Development at the request of the American Optometric Association's Committee on Visual Problems of Children and Youth. [1] It describes a battery of visual tests developed for pre-school children not only to detect errors of refraction but also to appraise the child's visual performance in relation to others of his own age, thus indicating, from the child's visual behavior, whether he may need special vision help to become an achiever in the school environment.

A leaflet published by the American Optometric Association, YOUR BABY'S EYES, is intended to help parents to encourage the child's visual development in the right direction from the earliest days of infancy.

Another pamphlet, MOMMY AND DADDY, YOU CAN HELP ME LEARN TO SEE, (referred to earlier in this report) has been published by the Association under the sponsorship of the Woman's Auxiliary of the AOA, as a guide for parents on observation and application of developmental principles in vision guidance of infants. And to guide parents further in observing the child's visual performance, the Association has also published a folder CHECK YOUR CHILD'S VISION.

Other useful publications issued by the American Optometric Association in a continuing and determined effort to increase public understanding of vision problems and of the need for preventive vision care include:

MANUAL ON VISION CARE OF THE NON-ACHIEVING CHILD, which, besides providing the optometrist with background technical information, has been found to be particularly useful to educators, especially those connected with reading clinics. [18]

TEACHER'S GUIDE TO VISION PROBLEMS WITH CHECKLIST, which discusses symptoms of a child's visual difficulty while using his eyes "on the job" of learning in the classroom. [53]

STUDENT VISION REPORT FORMS, which enable the optometrist to provide parents and teachers with a readily understandable outline of the elementary or secondary school student's visual abilities.

CLINICAL GUIDE TO AMBLYOPIA THERAPY, to assist in the early detection and subsequent care of children with strabismus or amblyopia (a dimness of vision not fully corrected with lenses). [37]

MANUAL ON THE PARTIALLY SEEING, to be released during 1960.

In addition reprints are available of numerous articles on the vision problems of children and youth written by members of the optometric profession for various publications. These, and other materials - including monographs, posters, and a filmstrip ADVENTURES IN SEEING (of which more than 15,000 prints have been distributed on request to elementary schools within the past two years)—are available to groups or individuals interested in more information on the importance of vision to a creative life in freedom and dignity for America's millions of children and youth.

OPTOMETRY LOOKS AHEAD CONFIDENTLY TO 1970

Each White House Conference on Children and Youth since the first one a half-century ago has served humanity in two important ways:

1) as a device for assembling together in understandable terms and workable dimensions the sum total of all new knowledge of the preceding decade in matters involving the welfare of children; and,

2) in inspiring all of the professions, disciplines and lay groups participating to exert renewed efforts to solve in the succeeding decade the unanswered questions, the riddles and dilemmas inherent for children in the dynamics of community and national life in a constantly changing American society and economy.

The 1950 White House Conference was an outstanding success from the standpoint of both criteria, and the 1960 White House Conference promises to match and exceed the contributions of its predecessor. In the field of vision care, the 1950 Conference set off an explosive charge of scientific curiosity leading into new paths of research, with often remarkable results.

In fact, so much has been accomplished in the field since the 1950 Conference that the optometric profession is encouraged to believe the next 10 years will bring even greater progress in conserving and improving the visual abilities of America's youth, thus making possible a tremendous upsurge in educational achievement and assuring a better life for millions of Americans, and a sounder, firmer basis for our freedom.

In the concluding section of Part 1 of this report, the American Optometric Association's Committee on Visual Problems of Children and Youth outlined in detail the many existing gaps in our knowledge about vision care and vision problems and the research goals which we must pursue diligently in the coming decade. There is, therefore, no necessity for repeating that material here. These are goals not only of optometry but of all groups which recognize the

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close and direct relationship between a child's visual capabilities and his opportunities for achievement in school and in later life.

Optometry as a profession takes great pride that its efforts and its cooperation have played a key role in the research in vision care undertaken so successfully in the past 10 years. This research has created a broad new pattern of knowledge in vision care which now constitutes the foundation on which future research efforts can optimistically be erected.

Challenge of Future CAN and WILL be Met

As a comparatively new discipline itself, optometry has had the necessary flexibility in outlook to enable it to strike out inquiringly into new and uncharted fields of research without fear of disturbing encrusted doctrines and grimly held dogmas inherited from another era.

In concluding this report, the Committee on Visual Problems of Children and Youth, of the American Optometric Association, on behalf of the 21,000 licensed optometrists now practicing in every State of the Union, wishes to assure the delegates to the 1960 White House Conference on Children and Youth of optometry's determination as a profession to continue to search, probe, inquire, challenge old theories and test new ones. To this great goal; we pledge:

That every means will be sought by optometry, working in our own practices and in sincere cooperation with other disciplines, to solve more of the vision problems of America's youngsters. This will assure better vision for children and youth and thus a more creative life in freedom and dignity for the boys and girls who, more than missiles or armadas of ships or stone and mortar and steel, represent our nation's greatest "weapon" in defense of our way of life. This is our best hope for achievement of a decent world in which freedom and the concept of the dignity of the individual can survive and flourish.

The challenge of the coming decade to the children and youth of America in the field of vision care, as in all other vital areas of child welfare, CAN and WILL be met if, as a nation, we have the vision to work together and utilize our resources and skills with determination and intelligence.

APPENDIX A

Bibliography

1. APELL, R. J. and R. W. Lowry, Jr.: Preschool Vision. American Optometric Association, 1959.

2. AUSTIN, Caroline: Mass Preschool Vision Screening. Children, March-April, 1959.

3. BETTS, Emmett A.: An Evaluation of the Baltimore Myopia Control Project. Journal of the American Optometric Association. Vol. 18, No. 9, April 1947.

4. BETTS, Emmett A.: Visual Readiness for Reading. Foundations of Reading Instructions. American Book Co., 1946.

5. BETTS, Emmett A. and Agnes Sutton Austin: Visual Problems of School Children. The Professional Press, 1941.

6. BING, Lois B.: The AOA Policy on School Vision Screening. The Journal of the American Optometric Association. Vol. XXVIII, No. 8, March, 1957.

7. BING, Lois B.: Visual Problems in Reading and Optometric Limits. Monograph No. 239. American Academy of Optometry, 1958.

8.

Rev. 1959.

: Blueprint for Visual Screening. Euclid Public Schools, Euclid, Ohio.

9. BLUM, Henrik L., Henry B. Peters and Jerome W. Bettman: Vision Screening for Elementary Schools. The Orinda Study, University of California Press, 1959.

10. BORISH, Irvin: Clinical Refraction. The Professional Press. 1954.

11. BROCK, Frederick W.: Two Eyes Can Be Worse Than One. Education, Vol. 77, No. 8, April

12.

1957.

: Check Your Child's Vision. American Optometric Association. 1958.

13. CIOCCO, Antonio: Changes in the Types of Visual Refractive Errors in Children. Public Health Reports, Vol. 53, No. 35. U. S. Gov't Printing Office. 1938.

14.

: Conducting Interprofessional Forums on Children's Vision. American Optometric Association. 1957.

15. CRANE, M. D., Franklin M. Foote, Richard G. Scobee, and Earl L. Green: Screening School Children for Visual Defects. Children's Bureau, U. S. Dept. Health, Education and Welfare, No. 345, 1954.

16. DEBOER, John J. (Edited by): Unsolved Problems in Reading. El. Engl., Reprinted from Oct. and Nov., (Champaign, Ill., Nat'l Council of Teachers of Eng., 1954.)

17.

: Do You Know These Facts About Vision and School Achievement. American Optometric Association.

18. EBERL, Marguerite T.: Manual on Visual Care of the Non-Achieving Child. American Optometric Association, St. Louis, Mo. 1959.

19. EBERL, Marguerite T.: Report to the Midcentury White House Conference on Children and Youth. American Optometric Association, 1950.

20. EWALT, H. Ward, Jr.: The Baltimore Myopia Control Project. Journal of the American Optometric Association, Vol. 17, No. 6, Jan. 1946.

21. GESELL, Arnold, Francis L. Ilg and Glenna Bullis: Vision-Its Development in Infant and Child. Harper and Brothers, 1949.

22. GETMAN, G. N.: What About Your Child's Vision?

American Optometric Association.

22A GETMAN, G. N.: Streff, J. W.: Mommy and Daddy. American Optometric Association. 23. GORDON, Dan M.: Squint in Children, Jnl. of Pediatrics (St. Louis) 29: 640-646, Nov., 1946. 24. GRAY, William S. and Nancy Larrick (Edited by): Better Readers for Our Times. International Reading Association Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1, Scholastic Magazines, 1956.

25. GREGG, James R.: Variable Acuity. Journal of the American Optometric Association, Vol. 18, No. 8, March 1947.

26. HACKMAN, Roy B.: An Evaluation of the Baltimore Myopia Project. Journal of the American Optometric Association, March 1947.

27. HARMON, Darell Boyd: Notes on A Dynamic Theory of Vision, Optometric Extension Program, Revision, 1958.

28. HIRSCH, Monroe J.: Effect of School Experience on Refraction of Children. Vol. 28, No. 9, American Academy of Optometry, 1951.

29. HIRSCH, Monroe J.: The Relationship of School Achievement and Visual Anomalies. American Journal of Optometry, Monograph 183. American Academy of Optometry.

30. ILG, Francis L. and Louise Bates Ames: Child Behavior. Dell Publishing Company, Ed. Rev.,

1959.

31. KELLEY, Charles R.: Visual Screening and Child Development. The North Carolina Study, Department of Psychology, North Carolina State College, 1957.

32. KEPHART, Newell C.: Help for Brain-Injured. Wisconsin Optometrist, 1957.

33. KEPHART, Newell C.: Visual Changes in Children. American Journal of Optometry, Monograph 93. American Academy of Optometry, 1950.

34. LUCKEISH, Matthew: Increase in Eye-Defectiveness in School Children from Grade to Grade, Journal of the Florida Optometric Association, Florida Optometric Association. 1953.

35. MILES, Paul: Children with Increasing Myopia. Missouri Medical Journal. Vol. 54, Dec. 1957.

36.

: Monograph on Optometry. American Optometric Association.

37. MURROUGHS, Thaddeus, R.: A Clinical Guide to Amblyopia Therapy. American Optometric Association. 1958.

38. POTTER, J. A.: Bent, Leo G.; Zebell, Chester R.: A Vision Testing Program for University Students. Journal of the American Optometric Association, June, 1954.