SAN DIEGO -- Learning problems in school can sometimes stem from hearing or vision problems.
A program called Project All Ready in the North County tests children before they are old enough for kindergarten to make sure they are healthy and ready to learn.
If your child attends a state-licensed child care center in the North County his or her hearing and vision can be tested.
The health care workers with Project All Ready provide free screenings to children. It's all funded by the
First 5 Commission of San Diego.
"What we do is go to state-licensed child care facilities and provide vision and hearing screenings for children 18-months to less than 5," Project All Ready health worker Corolla Solano Humerez said.
Humerez said that the vision test is fast, simple and accurate.
"It basically takes a picture of the eye and displays if there is anything abnormal within vision results -- whether it be near or farsightedness or focusing issues," Project All Ready health worker Alicia Cordova said.
The hearing test also takes little time to complete.
"Basically what the machine tries to find is feedback from the ear, making sure there is no hearing loss," Project All Ready health worker Maria Zavala said.
The results are immediate. If there are any problems, they are reported to the parents.
Project All Ready also makes sure the parents have a place to take their child for treatment.
"We follow up with the parents and make sure everything is perfect and if they need other resources we can link them to other resources," Zavala said.
The program is a way to help busy parents make sure their children will be ready to learn when they get to kindergarten.
"I work a lot of hours and it's hard for me to get that much time off work," mother Lisa Plant said.
Project All Ready helps ensure that vision or hearing disabilities will not hinder a child's learning in the future.
"For example, my son is 8 years old and he has been to regular checkups, but nobody ever caught that he needed glasses. He used to have the worst handwriting and he was slow in reading. As soon as Alicia did tests on him and found out he needed glasses, things changed for the better," Humerez said.
Project All Ready has tested more than 1,500 children at 37 state-licensed child care centers in the North County.
For more information, call
(760) 736-8702.
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