Landon Djannie didn’t like the special lights and lenses that Jasmine Yumori was using to examine his eyes.

Yumori patiently worked with the 11-month-old, cooing and praising him when he kept still long enough to have a good look in his eyes.

Yumori, a doctor of optometry and a professor in the field at the recently opened College of Optometry at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, was being watched carefully by four of her students.

“Landon’s eyes look good,”

Yumori said as Pomona resident Kyla Djannie sat with her son in her lap.

Landon was one of more than a dozen children under 12 months who had their eyes examined recently at the Prototypes facilities on East Arrow Highway in Pomona.

The exams brought together Western University and Prototypes to offer the free service to mothers participating in the Black Infant Health and the San Gabriel Best Babies Collaborative programs.

Stacy Powell, Prototypes program manager, said the exams were a pilot project.

Powell recently learned the university was looking to work with a community group.

“We have clients and you have a service. Let’s see how we can work collaboratively,”‘

she said.

Offering the exams had a dual purpose.

“It was a way of making sure the children didn’t have any vision problems and allowing any problems that were found to be caught before the start of the school year,”

said Stacy Powell, Advertisement Prototypes program manager.

In addition, the exams let the mothers know the babies should be tested at an early age, she said.

“Hopefully we’re planting seeds here,”

Powell said.

Landon’s mother said her son was born prematurely and was told from that point he would need regular vision screens to ensure he didn’t develop problems linked to the early birth.

“Being able to have the checkup done at Prototypes was far better than in a doctors office,”

Djannie said.

“It’s an environment he knows and is familiar with. It’s not frightening and sterile,”

she said.

For the optometry students, this was a way to learn about the vision problems that can affect very young children. It was also a way to learn how to distract or keep children’s attention so they can complete an exam.

Students watched their professor and then repeated the exam. Other times the students carried out the exam first and then were checked by Yumori.

The students watched their professor in action and also helped her out.

They used a different set of optometric equipment – a green dinosaur emitting light from its mouth; a purple, giggling toucan; a plastic, battery – powered sphere with a spinning ring of colorful lights; and a pink stuffed animal – to help the children focus their vision.

First-year optometry student Christine Pham of Claremont has provided vision exams to elementary-school children before as part of her training.

“Working with babies requires a different approach,”

she said.

“You have to change your voice and change your method of administering that test,”

Pham said.

Dong Suk, a first-year optometry student living in Pomona, said he volunteered to offer the baby vision exams.

Even though the vision exams came in the midst of preparing for midterms, he welcomed the experience.

“It’s very rewarding,”

Suk said enthusiastically.

“It kind of keeps me grounded and shows me why I’m in this profession.”