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Fact Sheet

Eye Openers

  • 80% of learning is visual from birth to age 12
  • 25% of all schoolchildren in the United States are born with vision problems serious enough to effect learning (more than 750,000 children in Florida).
  • Vision disorders are one of the most prevalent handicapping conditions in childhood
  • Up to 85% of low income children have vision problems that are either undetected or untreated.
  • 90% of children requiring prescriptive eyeglasses are not wearing them.
  • 40% – 67% of children identified with vision problems do not receive follow-up eye exams or glasses.
  • 2 out of 3 children in the United States do not receive any preventive vision care before entering elementary school.
  • 7 out of 10 troubled youth have undiagnosed vision problems

IS IT ANY WONDER "Johnny can't read?"

When vision problems are not detected early, they can negatively affect a child throughout his or her lifetime. Research has found that Title 1 students, juvenile offenders, illiterate adults, and academically and behaviorally at-risk public school students have a higher prevalence of undetected vision problems.