Lomas Andrew Optometrist

Reading is a skill that can be taken for granted and those who find it difficult have been labelled in the past as being ‘slow', ‘stupid' or having special educational needs. However, it may be that the eyes are just not aiming properly.

School Vision is the study of the relationship between visual performance and the occupation of reading. The predominant visual skill in reading is aiming and it should be carried out by the dominant eye. Without stable eye dominance attention will continually swap from one eye to the other. At the moment of swapping, the letter or word will shift position in space. You can demonstrate this by aiming at a distant object with your finger. When you close one eye everything remains stable when you close the other eye either your finger or the object will appear to move. When this happens unintentionally while reading you loose your place in the sentence or paragraph.