What a spectacular screening year this has been so far for our Preschool Vision Screening Program! Our team is excited to share a few of our sight saving activities that have already been provided for thousands of our youngest North Carolinians since the start of the 2024-2025 school year! See what we’ve been up to….
Free Vision Screenings for NC Preschoolers: The core mission of our program is to find vision problems at an early age, when treatment is most effective. Our statewide team of vision screeners goes into the communities and visits preschools to conduct free, quick and effective vision screenings for children ages 2-5. Through November, over 25,000 children have participated in our screening program, with over 3,000 kids referred for follow-up eyecare due to potential vision problems. That’s 12% of the kids we screened that need further care from an eye doctor!
Eye Health Educational and Awareness Activities: Not only do we detect possible eye disorders, we also want to educate center staff, parents and even the preschoolers themselves about the importance of healthy vision. One fun and effective way we educate children to love their eyes is through our Preschool Book Reading Program. We utilize volunteers from NC State Delta Gamma to help lead fun and educational activities and read books focused on vision and eyes to the children in local preschools we serve. In October, we combined this program with World Sight Day to teach kids to love their eyes! The kids had a blast learning all about their beautiful eyes!
Peek Into Preschool Vision Newsletter: We recently created an e-newsletter focused on our preschool program. We send the newsletter to childcare centers across the state in an effort to educate the staff about our vision programs and provide resources they can utilize to help ensure their students have the healthiest vision possible. Our goal is for this newsletter to be a useful resource and increase awareness about why we should all place a high priority on taking care of our eyes. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, please contact Jennifer at [email protected].
