Experience the amount of effort it takes to read for an individual with an eye tracking problem

For parents who do not have an eye tracking oculomotor  dysfunction, it is often very difficult to understand why your child  cannot follow the text along the page.  After all you just go from the  left side of the page to the right side of the page and then return back  to the left side of the page on the next line.  You do this same  pattern over and over for each paragraph.  Surely this can't be that  difficult to learn?

In the same way, how can your child not remember  what they just read?  Do you get frustrated when your child was shown a  word that they should know and then a few lines later, she could not  remember that same word?

Maybe they just need to try harder...

An individual with eye tracking difficulties has to put an excessive amount of effort into the reading process.  Try Calgary Vision Therapy's Oculomotor Eye Tracking Dysfunction Demo yourself.  (Demo at the bottom of the page)

When you do try this demo (read the entire passage):

1) Notice how much effort it took you to complete the task

2) Was it more difficult to comprehend what you read?  Can you remember (without looking back at the page) what the first couple sentences were about?

3) Can you appreciate the difficulty in separating the mechanical (eye movement) visual process from the perceptual?

When the mechanical movements required for reading  of the eyes are poor, reading will tend to be slower, choppier, more  laborious and comprehension tends to decrease.  When you tried this  demo, did you experience the frustration?  Did you know that 20/20  testing alone does not check for this, nor does following a target to  see if there are any eye muscles restrictions.  Just because you were  told you had 20/20 ‘vision’ (more correctly sight – see the 20/20 Myth), that does not mean you do not have any problems with eye tracking.

At Calgary Vision Therapy, we have several  separate normed tests which allow us to see how the mechanical movements  of your child’s eyes are operating while doing eye movements required  for reading.  We can measure the developmental age level that your child  is operating this visual skill at.

Some involve calling out single digit numbers in a  certain pattern; some involve following interwoven lines from one  object to another.   Should your child be at a certain decoding level,  we may use the ReadAlyzer test as part of one of the evaluations.  The  ReadAlyzer uses infrared light to record how your child’s eyes are  moving while reading a short story.  The information collected here  allows us to record how many fixations the child makes during the  paragraph, how many regressions (back reading) the child does, how long  they fixate on words, and the reading speed.  Each measurement shows  their performance and their performance age equivalency.

Office based vision therapy can remediate these  oculomotor eye tracking dysfunctions.  Vision Therapy will allow your  child to put in much less effort in the mechanical aspects of the  reading process.  He/she can use that additional effort in the areas of  comprehension and learning.  Should there be severe educational delays,  additional educational assistance may be necessary to help fill the  educational gaps.  This additional assistance include services from a  reading tutor, resource teacher, or an educational organization.  After  your child's eye tracking system is improved, he/she will take in much  more information from the reading specialist than he/she would have  prior to having this visual dysfunction improved.