Visual Processing and Eye Tracking Problems

Exercises for Eye Tracking Problems

Your child may benefit from vision therapy exercises. Vision therapy exercises (lasting three to twelve months) can help the six sets of eye muscles work together to make reading more comfortable. The College of Optometrists in Vision Development website, www.COVD.org, is the best source for finding a qualified developmental optometrist who can properly evaluate and provide vision therapy to treat these kinds of vision challenges. The website also provides useful checklists and developmental timelines to help parents identify whether their child needs this more thorough vision evaluation.

Other visual information processing issues that vision therapists address include:

• Spatial perception
• Eye-hand-body coordination
• Visual memory
• Visualization

Vision conditions that can benefit from vision therapy include:

• Eye movement disorders
• Inefficient eye teaming – eyes not working well together (such as eye-tracking problems)
• Misalignment of the eyes
• Poorly developed vision
• Focusing problems
• Visual information processing disorders
  

Dyslexia can co-exist with visual processing disorders. When that is the case, each disorder needs to be addressed separately. A joint statement issued by The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Ophthalmology says that scientific evidence does not support vision therapy as a treatment for dyslexia and other learning and attention issues. Both vision therapy and dyslexia intervention may be necessary. One will not fix problems corrected by the other.

While visual processing and eye tracking problems are not directly about reading skills, if your child has trouble with these they will cause reading difficulties and need to be separately addressed with the help of a qualified professional. This article on eye-tracking exercises provides additional help.