NC —Sometimes you can be looking directly at a problem and not see it.

Take your child's vision, for example. Everything may seem to be okay. There are no obvious physical signs – such as an eye that clearly crosses in or turns out. Your child isn't squinting. And there aren't any complaints of regular headaches.

But more often than not, there's nothing for a parent to see, and a child will compensate for their vision problems by focusing harder to make their world clearer.

The only way to know for certain is to take your child to an optometrist for an eye exam. And the best time to do it is before they begin school.

That's why there is the Eye See -- Eye Learn program -- which has the Ontario government working alongside the Ontario Association of Optometrists.

It's important for kids to have their vision checked early as it's estimated that one in six children have some form of vision problem.

Left unchecked, a child's eye problem can turn into difficulties at school since about 80 per cent of learning is visual in the first 12 years. Uncorrected vision affects the fine motor skills a child uses for handwriting, drawing and scissor skills. Children find it difficult to focus on their work and struggle with the hand-eye coordination needed for physical activities.

It can lead to a frustration with learning and a negative self-image when they can't keep pace with their friends at school. Even worse, they may be misdiagnosed as having a learning or behavioral problem.

All of this frustration can be avoided by participating in the Eye See . . . Eye Learn program.

Parents of junior kindergarten students can find out all they need to know about their child's eye health by scheduling an appointment with a participating optometrist for an eye exam. Bring your child's health card that day and the cost of the eye exam is covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan.

If a child needs glasses, they will get them free of charge courtesy of participating industry sponsors Jungle Eyewear (Bo Optik), HOYA Vision Care and Johnson and Johnson Vision Care.

Eye See's program is currently reaching out to about 18,000 students in nine school boards across Ontario. It will be expanded to 14 schools boards in 2011/12 and will be province-wide by 2015, including all 68 school boards and more than 117,000 children.

Check out Eye See's program website www.eyeseeeyelearn.com, to learn how you can make sure your child gets the best start to learning.