The Director of Kinderwood Children’s Center, Charmaine Wigham, shared her support of Assistance League of San Jose’s community program Screening Eyes Early, S.E.E. Kinderwood’s philosophy is to “best serve the families, we need to serve the whole child and the whole family.”… “to find what each child needs to be successful.” Screening Eyes Early helps Kinderwood fulfill this goal by screening the preschoolers’ vision as early intervention is the key to life successes. “Our students, families and staff look forward to our annual screening.” ALSJ’s “impact will be felt for years to come.”
This year Screening Eyes Early’s trained volunteers have screened 352 preschoolers and have referred 19 students to an eye doctor, and we still have 9 more screening sessions to come. We make sure that all referred students have every opportunity to see an eye doctor by providing a list of clinics that offer vision services to families that don’t have vision insurance and we follow up with the families through each preschool director. Results are beginning to arrive.
The one student referred from Kinderwood was diagnosed with Amblyopia, lazy eye, which was our main reason for starting S.E.E. If Amblyopia isn’t caught and treated at a very early age, the child will lose the ability to see out of the weak eye. This student is now wearing a patch on the strong eye in order to strengthen the weak eye. Four more students have seen a doctor; two now have glasses and two are wait and watch.
Early intervention is critical as academic achievement and social behavior are greatly improved when a child’s vision is corrected.
