August 17, 2016
Optometry Giving Sight, Vision Impact Institute and VSP Global have launched the Kids See: Success Campaign to advocate for every child’s right to see clearly. The campaign aims to educate parents, state and city legislatures, child advocacy groups, school nurses, teachers and administrators about the need for mandatory comprehensive eye exams prior to entering kindergarten.
As 80 percent of learning takes place through our eyes, a comprehensive eye exam is the only way to ensure that a child can see clearly and has healthy eyes that work properly. While vision screenings can detect some problems, more serious vision issues may go undetected, including binocular vision problems and amblyopia (lazy eye), which can cause vision loss in children. However, a comprehensive eye exam can help detect and treat these conditions earlier.
“A comprehensive eye exam can make the difference between poverty and opportunity, and we want to give all children that opportunity as early as possible,” says Clive Miller, global CEO of Optometry Giving Sight. “With one-in-four children in the U.S. having an undetected vision condition, our goal is to drastically improve this statistic and help provide all children with a level playing field.”