A difficulty with 'Tracking' or reading & writing at school

Someone may have raised the possibility that something is wrong with your child's learning or reading ability. This is often accompanied by vague 'diagnoses' such as 'difficulty with eye tracking' given to your child by a variety of untrained authorities.

You may now find yourself and your child facing the prospect of lengthy courses of 'vision therapy' or expensive glasses. Why exactly would your child have a problem, and what do you really need to do if there are concerns?

Learning difficulties and early intervention

From 8 to 20% of children really do have significant difficulties that could benefit from appropriate intervention. There are downloads of useful articles found on this webpage, they are quite in depth & a few useful summary points would be:

An assessment of your child's vision is an appropriate step, performed by your Eye doctor or Optometrist, looking for specific and common problems such as refractive errors, amblyopia, strabismus, and some other rarer eye diseases.

Any ocular diagnoses will be specific and have defined interventions, as opposed to subtle eye movement disorders or "syndromes" that are treated with 'vision training'or tinted lenses (please go to the link here from the American Association of Paediatricians, their policy statement on vision problems affecting learning is found on my page too) .

Learning and reading difficulties such as dyslexia have their basis in the way our brains process language, as opposed to how we see or visual processing, so early reading intervention from your school, and an educational psychologist if necessary are your priorities.

A focusing of resources and energy on potentially expensive & unproven vision training techniques and other interventions can delay the initiation of appropriate treatment as parents and teachers believe that something is being 'done' to help the problem already.

Useful resources: Learning difficulties, Visual basis of learning

  Dyslexia & Learning Disorders

Pediatric ophthalmologists are frequently consulted by families, pediatricians and teachers of children with reading and learning disorders.

A comprehensive pediatric ophthalmologic examination will determine if there are any vision problems requiring eyeglasses, eye muscle imbalances including convergence difficulties or ocular health issues that may be contributing to any reading or learning difficulties.

An excellent article on Dyslexia and an excellent book chapter are available to download here: Dyslexia

When children have difficulty reading, parents often think poor vision is the problem. If a visit to pediatric eye doctor rules out any medical or vision problems, your child may have a learning disability.

A learning disability is a disparity between a person's ability and performance in a certain area. It usually has nothing to do with intelligence, infact many of these children have a very high IQ and function extremely well in some areas. A learning disability can make it difficult to succeed in school and, if untreated, can get worse, causing a child to lose self-confidence and interest in school.

Identifying the learning disability is the first step in treating it. This diagnosis can only be made by an educational pyschologist, and unfortunately there is some limit to the age at which they can first assess children. Your school will be able to advise you about your child, and assessments and intervetions privately from educational psychologists are available.

Children with learning disabilities benefit from various educational programs, in or out of school. Parents also play a vital role. They can support their children by reading with them at home. Children with learning disabilities need to be encouraged to develop strengths and interests so they can fully develop their unique talents and abilities.

Vision training, eye exercises, Irlin glasses and other 'visual' interventions have no proven role in the treatment of a child with a learning disability. For further information about these controversial "treatments" you can read this Review of behavioural Optometry.