While some children suffer from problems like dyslexia that interfere with learning to read, the majority of children with early reading difficulties suffer from vision problems. If eyesight is the problem, corrective lenses are the solution. But one of the most common problems is that children are not adept at visual tracking. Fortunately, visual tracking is a skill that can be improved with training. The three components of tracking are fixation (aiming), pursuit (following) and saccades (moving from focus field to focus field).
Indications of visual tracking problems include skipping words or lines, re-reading the same words and reversal of words. Each of these indicates that the child can see well enough to read the word, that she understands the sound and meaning of the word, but that her saccades are not progressing correctly across the line of text. Once diagnosed, the teacher can train students to improve tracking.
The two-degree focus field of vision is moved from point to point during visual tracking. These gross movements are called saccades. If a ball is rolled past a child, the child will turn her head and eyes to keep the ball in focus -- fixing and shifting in short bursts. With the ball as the singular and easily recognized object of attention, the child will generally have no problem tracking. With reading, however, the symbolic nature of letters and words -- combined with the similar size of letters and the fact that they don't move -- makes pursuit (or following) more difficult. Instead of following an easily perceived moving object, the child must interpret symbols twice -- once for sound and once for meaning -- while at the same time making intentional systematic saccades from left to right, line by line. Distraction can cause "regressive" saccades, or looking backwards through the text, that confuses the reader.
One of the simplest visual tracking procedures you can teach children is to move a finger across a line of text while reading. This gives the eye a moving object within a focus field to keep the eye from wandering in "regressive" saccades. Exercises that support this habit include having children write or draw figures that progress from left to right, line by line, from the top of the page down. Once they have internalized the pattern, they can imitate that pattern on a page full of text with their fingers, allowing their eyes to follow. Other tracking exercises for children include examining a series of similar objects to find the dissimilar one, following moving images on a screen with fingers and rolling a ball between children.