PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – The Florida Heiken Children Vision Program is making its way around three Bay County elementary schools during the last week of October. Optometrist Whitney Shuart said she’s worked for the nonprofit for 10 years.

“There are studies that show that one out of every four kids, that is, students that go to school, have some sort of vision problems, so if you can imagine if the kids have a hard time seeing in school, they’re going to have a hard time learning,” said Dr. Shuart.

Dr. Shuart tells us that vision difficulties can impact a child’s learning, and she is continuing to see more children in need of glasses.

“Our eyes were never meant to stare at things up close for hours upon end, and so when we do that, we’re really just overworking our eyes, so I’ve seen a lot of kids come and complain of trouble seeing things up close,” Shuart said.