Amblyopia

“Lazy Eye”

Bacchus, Sheik…(sam_bacchus@yahool.com)

Duchesne, Morgan…(mduchesne@metronarcotics.com)

Rodgers, Emma…(keyannatrey@aol.com)

Problem:

Vision Connection states that Amblyopia, also known as “lazy eye”, is reduced vision in an eye that has not received adequate use during early childhood. It is uncorrectable with lenses, and there is no visible anatomical defect. Amblyopia is caused by misalignment of a child’s eye, or a difference in image quality between the two eyes. Children with Amblyopia usually focus more with one eye while suppressing the image with the bad eye. (1)

Social Diagnosis:

In search of social diagnosis for amblyopia we found a mother’s journal whose child had amblyopia. (2) This particular family had two daughters who both had amblyopia and the mother documented some of the trials and errors her daughters faced. First of all, the mother had to decide which therapy to use in treating her daughters amblyopia. This task was painful and time consuming. Day to day, the daughters were having behavior and mental mishaps. According to one journal, children with amblyopia do indeed have mental and behavioral problems. (3) The quality of life for the daughters had its ups and downs. They were in and out of doctor’s offices and appointments. When one of the daughters would make improvements, the other daughter’s failure would bring the entire family’s spirit down. The medical condition also affects the child’s ability to learn and ability to effectively share in discussions with classmates without the fear of being teased.

Epidemiologic Diagnosis:

Amblyopia does not cause illness or death to people, however there is one problem to consider. If amblyopia is not detected early, the child has a possibility to go blind. According to American Academy of Pediatrics, Amblyopia affects up to 5% of all children and is the leading cause of monocular blindness in no elderly. (4)

We found the statistics on Lexis-Nexis. We found statistics by searching for amblyopia and going to the related medical journal. We also looked on ERIC database and could not find anything relating to Amblyopia and death, and Amblyopia and illnesses.

Behavioral Diagnosis:

The way Amblyopia is treated is as follows: (5)

1. Eye surgery

2. Patching of the eye

3. Atropine drops

Educational /Organizational Diagnosis:

One factor that needs to be initiated is earlier eye screening for students in Pre-K. According to American Family Physician, if you don’t have earlier eye screening before age 10, your condition could lead to poor vision, or blindness. (5)

The problems that children face in the class room affect the child’s behavior. Their behavior typically gets worse because they are consistently teased and humiliated.

One way that teachers or peers can reward students with Amblyopia is to give them verbal praises when they accomplish a task.

One way the school environment has made attempts to increase productivity between the child with the problem and the school environment is to assign special teachers to these children. These teachers help by explaining material to students with Amblyopia. There was also a thesis done that involved teachers and parents. The study concentrated on awareness and remedial techniques. After the intervention, the survey concluded that the parents and teachers had increased knowledge of visual disorders. This will increase the school environment’s position on the condition and help teachers and parents understand and treat the problem.

Administrative and Policy Diagnosis:

Based on our research, we didn’t find any related material from any of the specified resource centers that were searched. We searched all of the designated resource cites that we were instructed to and to no avail, did not find any related material.

References:

#4

Epidemologic Diagnosis American Academy of Pediatrics Lexus Nexus

American Academy of Pediatrics

Online Links:

#1

http://www.visionconnection.org/Content/YourVision/EyeDisorders/Amblyopia/default.htm

#2

http://www.tfn.net/kate901/amblyopia.htm

#3

http://seg802.ocs.lsu.edu:2052/citation.asp?tb=1@_ug=dbs+aph%2cfunk%2Chch...

#5

http://www.aafp.org/afp/990901ap/990901lg.html

#6

http://seg802.ocs.lsu.edu:2060/webstore/Detail.asp?ql=@meta_PubID%20403403402@txtSo...

www.ashaweb.org

www.healthinschools.org/home.asp

http://seg802.ocs.lsu.edu:2098/DeliveryPrintSave.asp?tb=1&up=dbs+aph%2Ceric%2Chch

Solutions:

Implementation Policy #1: Based on our research findings, we feel that there is not enough information on the quality of life and day to day issues. By January 2007, we feel that there should be more information on day to day issues with children with Amblyopia.

Process Evaluation: A journal should be handed out to all children that suffer from Amblyopia and they are to document their feelings through out a normal day.

Impact Evaluation: This journal will allow us to figure out how students that wear the eye patch feel.

Outcome Evaluation: Students are to complete the journal and the feelings that they reported will be evaluated.

Implementation Policy #2: We did not find an abundance of information on Epidemiologic statistics so we feel that there needs to be more research done in this area.

Process Evaluation: Each eye institute should have to report a certain percentage of information, per year, on Amblyopia.

Impact Evaluation: The impact of this implementation would make the problem of Amblyopia more known to the public.

Outcome Evaluation: We would have more statistics on Amblyopia and would be able to effectively understand from a statistical standpoint what the problem is and has done to children.

Implementation Policy #3: Based on research findings, it is advised that children with Amblyopia have mental and behavioral problems. The state of Louisiana has 504 coordinators that can come in and assist the child with their schoolwork. By the end of 2007 we would like to have 1000 coordinators.

Process Evaluation: Train and hire more teachers to assist children with Amblyopia.

Impact Evaluation: Children with Amblyopia would have more resource teachers available to them.

Outcome Evaluation: The impact of this would be that we would have more teachers and the behavior problems that come with children having Amblyopia would decrease.

Implementation Policy #4: Based on research we feel that should be a reward system set up by 2006 for children with Amblyopia.

Process Evaluation: There should be a set of guidelines and goals for children with Amblyopia. When a child reaches a goal they will be rewarded with an appropriate reward.

Impact Evaluation: When a child reaches a certain goal and is awarded, it should increase moral, productivity and decrease bad behaviors.

Outcome Evaluation: Children with Amblyopia will have a better look at life and will feel better about themselves.

Implementation Policy #5: We did not find any policies dealing with Amblyopic; therefore, there needs to be policies made to support Amblyopia to increase mental awareness and behavior.

Process Evaluation: Comparing awareness and behavior before and after the school year will allow us to evaluate progress.

Impact Evaluation: The impact of this implementation will allow teachers, parents, and the administration team to see that Amblyopia does affect classroom awareness and behavior.

Outcome Evaluation: Class room awareness and behavior will improve.