{"id":20986,"date":"2023-07-04T14:04:42","date_gmt":"2023-07-04T13:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings-new\/send\/areas-of-need\/sensory-and-or-physical\/visual-impairment\/eye-conditions\/refractive-errors\/"},"modified":"2024-12-11T12:10:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T12:10:00","slug":"refractive-errors","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/send\/areas-of-need\/sensory-and-or-physical\/visual-impairment\/eye-conditions\/refractive-errors\/","title":{"rendered":"Refractive errors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Common refractive errors<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hypermetropia (longsightedness)<\/strong> is difficulty focusing at short (near) distance. The vision is then blurred. Young children with severe long-sightedness are more likely to develop other eye problems such as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/send\/areas-of-need\/sensory-and-or-physical\/visual-impairment\/eye-conditions\/strabismus\/\">squint<\/a>. Glasses can help with hypermetropia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Myopia (short-sightedness)<\/strong> is difficulty in focusing at distance. Young children with untreated short-sightedness are more likely to get other conditions, such as a squint or lazy eye. Glasses can help with myopia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People with refractive errors often find it difficult to quickly change focus from near to distance (and vice versa), such as when copying from the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Education strategies that can help<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Encourage glasses or contact lenses to be worn.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Worksheets that are free of visual clutter and reading materials with a good contrast, possibly enlarged or modified.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All worksheets to presented on paper no larger than A4. A3 is to large to scan across and can affect posture.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Extra time to for visual tasks.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Avoid standing in front of windows \u2013 this can reduce a person to a silhouette and make it difficult for all learners to see you properly.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Learners who have VI need to sit in the best position to see the whiteboard but not separately from the other learners.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Learners with vision impairment need to sit close to a power source if they are using specialist ICT.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Provide individual copies of anything presented on the whiteboard.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use a clearly contrasting pen, for example, black on white.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use real objects and artefacts to support teaching.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Learners to have their own whiteboard and pen and also their own copy of resources e.g. phonics flashcards.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Consideration for PE activities as fast moving team games may be difficult.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>PE equipment should be clean and create a good contrast with the surface, for example, no green bean bags on grass<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Classroom to have good ambient lighting.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Windows to have blinds to reduce glare.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Walkways to be clear.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ensure classroom storage does not create obstacles.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Layout of the classroom to be kept consistent.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Resources kept in the same place and clearly labelled.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Plan and practise 1:1 procedure for fire alarms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">For more information<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/conditions\/long-sightedness\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Long-sightedness &#8211; NHS (www.nhs.uk)<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/conditions\/short-sightedness\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Short-sightedness (myopia) &#8211; NHS (www.nhs.uk)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Common refractive errors Hypermetropia (longsightedness) is difficulty focusing at short (near) distance. The vision is then blurred. Young children with severe long-sightedness are more likely [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2616,"featured_media":0,"parent":20782,"menu_order":9,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-20986","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 19:48:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2616"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20986"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29438,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20986\/revisions\/29438"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}