SAN DIEGO -- To a four-year-old, the prospect of an eye examination can be frightening. But Darryl Givens II wasn't afraid. He climbed up into the UCSD Ratner Eye Mobile with confidence -- ready for a little playtime with clinic manager Bill Orvis.

The games began with Darryl putting on a pair of 3D glasses, and looking at a picture of a fly. "Can you touch the wing tips?" Orvis asked, as Darryl reached forward. He stopped a few centimeters from the fly and "touched" the wings.

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Eye Mobile Makes Vision Checks

This and other games provide Orvis with insight into how Darryl sees the world. Darryl was flagged for an examination in the Eye Mobile after failing a preliminary screening at his pre-school.

"Those parents who want their children examined at no cost are able to have their children examined here in the Eye Mobile," explained Kellie MacLean, with the UCSD Shiley Eye Center.

The doctors go to the school, "so the parent doesn't have to take the child anywhere," she said.

The Shiley Eye Center uses the Eye Mobile to provide exams to about 1,500 students in San Diego's lowest-performing schools, and in Head Start programs.

The Lions Club of San Diego provides glasses for free, while funding for the Eye Mobile comes from the First 5 Commission of San Diego. The Commission is dedicated to making sure children, ages zero to five, get the physical, social, and emotional care they need to succeed in school.

"The whole (eye care) program is revolving around the readiness to learn, and improving children's readiness to learn," MacLean said.

"Because if the child can't see the book to read, there's no way they can learn it and their future is really impacted," she added.

"I like it because if there is a problem with his vision, as far as his learning is concerned, they catch it now," Darryl Givens, Sr. said.

Once Darryl finished his preliminary exam with the clinic manager, he and his father headed into a small examination room at the back of the trailer, for more comprehensive tests with Dr. Louis Katz.

That examination revealed a slight astigmatism, but nothing that required glasses. Givens Sr. said that he is not sure when his son's eyes would have been checked, had the Eye Mobile not been available.

"We would have had to take him to see a doctor, an eye doctor, but as far as insurance is concerned, I don't know what we would have been able to do," Givens Sr. said.

With a cool pair of "Hollywood shades" and a sticker for his shirt, Darryl is ready to go back for another eye exam, whenever his father wants.