The State-wide Eyesight Pre-schooler Screening (StEPS) program is an initiative of NSW Health that offers all four-year-old children free vision screening before they begin school.

Almost 700,000 pre-schoolers in NSW have benefited from free eyesight screenings through the StEPS program. On the Mid North Coast, StEPS has celebrated 10 years of successful service and vision screening of 20,000 children.

Through the StEPS program, Registered Nurses visit preschools and childcare centres to conduct eyesight screening with children who are due to start school.

Additional clinics have been scheduled to allow for children to have their eyesight checked prior to starting school, if they are Home Schooled, attended Family Daycare or were absent from preschool on the vision screening day.

The clinic will be conducted at: the Port Macquarie Community Health Centre on Friday, 24 January from 9am to 11.30am

For an appointment, contact the Mid North Coast Local Health District StEPS Coordinator, Wendy Mutton, on 6656 7061.

Early detection and treatment of eye issues can correct some eye disorders and prevent the life-long need for glasses, providing great benefit to a child’s education.

Why do children need their vision screened?

• Children rarely complain of eye problems

• Children may not realise they can’t see well

• Some children can see well with one eye but have poor vision in the other eye

• Children’s eyes may look okay and parents/carers might think that their child can see well but some children might still have a vision problem

• The only way to tell if a child has a vision problem is to have the child’s vision tested one eye at a time.