Eye Tracking – Problems with Vision
Children have a difficult time assessing their own vision. If something appears blurry, they assume everyone else sees it the same way and do not worry. Eye tracking would benefit readers and this refers to what, how, and when they read.
Vision is particularly important to children because more than 80 percent of the information they receive about the world is received visually. Poor vision can make a child clumsy and uncoordinated, it can make learning more difficult and it can even affect their personality.
The most common visual problems in children affect their ability to see clearly:
- Myopia: short-sightedness – causes difficulty seeing distant objects clearly.
- Hyperopia: far-sightedness – causes difficulty seeing close objects clearly.
Other common visual problems in children involve visual performance problems. The following conditions are part of the group of visual performance problems:
- Poor co-ordination of the eye (lazy eye)
- Turned eye
- Eye movement defects
- Poor eye-hand co-ordination
- Difficulties with focusing control
Checklist of signs of poor vision:
1. Appearance of the eyes:
- One eye turns in or out while the other points ahead
- Reddened eyes or lids
- Excessively watery eyes
- Encrusted eyelids
- Eyes very sensitive to light
2. Behavioural Signs
- Loses the place while reading
- Cannot concentrate for long
- Positions head strangely when reading
- Frequently rubs eyes
- Writes crookedly with poor spacing
- Leaves out or confuses words when reading
- Tilts head when looking at things
- Covers or closes one eye while reading
- Complains of headaches and
- Blurred vision
- Seeing double
- Eyes burning or itching after doing close work
- Does not recognise familiar people in the distance
3. Rules for Reading
- Read in a room with bright and even lighting
- Sit up straight and angle the book toward you
- Do not lie on the floor and read
- Take a break from reading every 15 or 20 minutes and look about the room or out the window
Don’t forget to prepare for the upcoming year by purchasing SmartWords books at the shop!
Read up on common eye problems at the Government of Victoria Health page.