XSPAN Cares for the Eyes

By: Mr. Frederick S. Perez, Assistant Principal for Academics

The Xavier School Parents’ Auxiliary – Nuvali hosted its first parents’ forum for the school year 2022- 2023 with Dr. Alvina Pauline D. Santiago entitled “Beyond the Screen: Caring For Our Eyes” at the Ramon S. Ang Gymnasium on July 30, 2022.

Dr. Santiago discussed digital eye strain on children, the importance of gadget holiday, and other medical issues related to eye care. She gave pointers on how parents and educators can help in promoting eye care especially for children who had been exposed to online learning during the last two academic years.

For teachers, she recommended blink awareness exercises, increase in font size of instructional aids, black over white background on presentations, and maximized onsite encounters to provide gadget holidays. In her talk, she elaborated on reducing near work for children to lessen eye strain. She commended Xavier School Nuvali for including vision screening as part of the admission process.

As a final word, she emphasized the necessity of outdoor and physical activities to develop a healthy mind and body.

Dr. Santiago is a pediatric ophthalmologist and strabismus specialist. She trained in comprehensive (general) ophthalmology in UP-Philippine General Hospital. For her subspecialty, she did her training in Children’s Eye Care Center of New Jersey and the Jules Stein Eye Institute in University of California, Los Angeles. She is an Associate Professor 3 at the University of the Philippines, College of Medicine and also lectures at the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health.

The XSPAN Parents’ Forum was made possible through the collaborative effort of Louise Boden, Mia Miraples, and Jay Soriano as committee co-chairs for this forum and the XSPAN Executive Committee in cooperation with Sarabia Optical, Solenad Branch.