OnTrack Reading

If you’re like most other parents who have a child who has been having a difficult time learning to read, you’ve had your child’s vision checked out by your family optometrist. And, as has been the case with many of my clients’ parents, you’ve very likely been told that your child’s vision is fine, with the possible exception that glasses were prescribed to compensate for near or far sightedness or to correct an astigmatism. In other words, you feel that you can now rule out any vision explanation for your child’s reading problem.

Not So Fast

Unfortunately, this is probably not the case, particularly if reading problems run in your family. In my opinion, based on my experiences with children I see in my reading tutoring business, the likelihood that your child has an undiagnosed vision problem is quite high.

While your child’s eyesight might be fine, or have been corrected with glasses, this doesn’t mean that he has good binocular control. That is, he might be having difficulty getting both eyes working together when he attempts to read. The result can range from his getting headaches after reading a while, to his avoiding reading for pleasure, all the way to his being completely unable to grasp basic phonics instruction as a young child.

Vision Problem, or Dyslexia?

I now believe that “dyslexia” is usually characterized by this sort of vision issue and that most children considered “dyslexic” also have one or more undiagnosed vision issues that are frustrating them as they try to learn to read. Or, if they did learn to read, these vision problems are preventing them from enjoying the act of reading.

The page of this Guide titled My Take on Dyslexia under the chapter The Dyslexia Puzzle best sums up why I feel this way and how I’ve come to believe that vision is a huge underlying factor behind reading struggles, and I would suggest you read it at some point if you are dealing with a child who is having difficulty learning to read, who reads with poor fluency, or who tends to avoid reading.

Take a look at the next page, the Vision Assessment Checklist, to see if your child exhibits the symptoms of the vision problems that can cause reading behaviors that look very much like they would fall under the heading of dyslexia.

Next: Vision Assessment Checklist, or return to the OnTrack Reading Home Page