Symptoms of Eye Tracking Problems

Even though our children use all of their senses when learning and playing, they rely heavily on their vision to complete tasks. If they have an undiagnosed visual tracking problem, they will have problems in school, on the playground and at home. Taken separately, the symptoms don't point to a vision problem, but together they make a diagnosis easier.

Reading Problems

• Patients with eye tracking problems have difficulty with their eyes moving together smoothly and quickly when engaged in visual activities such as reading. They may have normal sight and good decoding skills, but visual tracking issues can cause comprehension and reading problems in school. If a child's eyes don't move quickly from one word to the next, this will affect her overall performance in school. Other times, one eye won't work with the other (one eye will drift in a line away from the other eye).

Physical Symptoms

• If a child can read for only short periods of time; complains of double vision; suffers from motion sickness; develops frequent headaches or eyestrain; or complains frequently of dizziness or nausea, she may have eye tracking problems. Motion sickness, dizziness and/or nausea come about because vision affects balance.

Other Manifestations

• Children with eye tracking problems may bump into walls or furniture frequently, have poor visual and/or motor skills, have one eye that aims in a different direction from the other eye and may blink excessively. They may rub their eyes after reading for a short time and may lose their place or tire easily while reading.

Compensations

• A child may be compensating for an eye tracking problem if you notice any of the following: holding a book or another object, such as a toy, unusually close to his face; relying on his finger as a reading guide; covering one eye with his hand during reading; or tilting his head toward a book to favor one eye.

Learning Problems

• Schoolchildren with tracking problems may have an unusually short attention span and complain of trouble copying work from the board. They may skip lines on their papers or in their schoolbooks. Asking the school nurse to administer a vision test will not help; these tests only look at visual acuity, not eye tracking issues.