Author: Abigail Lynch

Local Health Department

Hearing and Vision Screening

The ability to hear and see can affect learning, which is key to a child's success. Undiagnosed hearing and vision problems can interfere with children’s development. Early detection and treatment of hearing and vision problems can help children succeed in school. All local health departments in Michigan conduct free hearing and vision screening, often in schools. Youth are screened at specified intervals from pre-kindergarten through high school.

Key Positions
Hearing and Vision Technicians
Program Coordinator

Statewide Funding Sources for Hearing and Vison Activities

Meets Public Health Standards:

ü	Michigan Public Health Code
ü	Michigan Local Public Health Accreditation
	Public Health Accreditation Board

Services:
Fully-trained hearing and vision technicians at each health department comprehensively screen children’s hearing and vision free of charge. Screenings take place at schools, preschools, Head Starts, and health departments. Students are screened for vision before they enter kindergarten and when they are in 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th grades. Students are screened for hearing at least once between the ages of 3 to 5 years old, in kindergarten, 2nd, and 4th grades. The parents of students who do not pass the screening are notified and recommendations are made to follow up with an eye/ear professional or a family doctor.

Impact:
Each year, more than 1.1 million children are screened. About 18,000 children screened for hearing are referred to doctors, and more than 70,000 children screened for vision are referred to optometrists and ophthalmologists.

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Goals:
Hearing and vision screening is meant to:
Detect hearing and vision problems early.
Hearing problems can include hearing loss and middle ear pathology. Vision problems can include lazy eye, nearsightedness, and farsightedness.
Refer children to providers that can help correct hearing and vision problems, if necessary.
Remove barriers, such as cost, to children having their hearing and vision screened.

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“… Right now the prognosis for Samantha's brain tumor is very good...without your program there never would have been a CT Scan and the discovery of the tumor may not have happened until significant damage had occurred. …
“… Our family is an example of how a program such as yours can save the life of a beautiful child.”
—Lee Ann, mother of Samantha from Livonia, MI

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Created by the Barry-Eaton District Health Department for the Michigan Association of Local Public Health with funding from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. August 2018.
*41 of Michigan’s local health departments indicated that they offer hearing and vision screening services (of 41 who participated in the survey). Participants might not have answered each question.