Eye Tracking describes skills that we use every day to explore our environment, play sports, and most importantly, TO READ. Our eyes should move automatically using the following tracking skills:
- Hold our eyes still so we can see an object and take in information about it (fixation)
- Quickly and accurately jump from one object to another (saccades)
- Track and follow a moving object (pursuits)
As you read this sentence, your eyes stop on a word as you take in the information, then jump to the next word and stop again. This automatic skill is gives us speed and
Eye Tracking
control of where our eyes are aiming, and is essential for efficient reading, writing, copying from the board, playing sports and many other activities.
The infant reflexively turns the entire upper torso toward the direction of a noise, and then gradually learns to turn only the head to guide the visual system. Through the toddler years the individual refines this movement system by learning to use eye muscles to replace head movement – an achievement important in visual readiness for school. Eventually vision becomes the dominant sense. But this cannot occur without the adequate interactions between vision and motor! If a child has delays with motor development and coordination, it is possible that delays in vision and fine motor control will result as well.
If the Eye Tracking system is not functioning efficiently, it can create many symptoms:
- Poor reading comprehension
- Loss of place when reading, writing or copying
- Use of a finger or marker when reading
- Difficulty copying from the board
- Skipping or repeating words
- Difficulty maintaining attention
- Reversing words or letters
- Head movement side to side while reading
- Poor handwriting
- Poor performance in sports
Connection between Eye Tracking and Motor Coordination:
Eye Tracking can be thought of as a super-fine motor coordination skill. If overall motor coordination skills are not well developed, it is likely that fine motor (handwriting) and eye tracking skills will be poor as well. One approach to training the eye tracking system includes training the overall motor coordination system!
To learn about treatment options for eye tracking, click here.
