What is the Relationship between Eye Muscle Problems and Learning?
Some of the mechanical visual skills which are related to reading include focusing or accommodation, and eye teaming, or convergence. Weaknesses in the binocular vision system may interfere with reading. There is also a relationship between eye movement skills such as saccades (whereby we change fixation from one target to the next) and smooth following movements known as pursuits and reading. Children who cannot make accurate eye movements are often found to skip lines and words while reading. Binocular vision problems usually cannot be fixed with glasses alone. A treatment course of eye exercises done in the office and at home will help many binocular vision problems. Convergence insufficiency is the most common binocular vision problem in children. At Wake Forest Family Eye Care, Dr. Ward follows the protocol used by the Convergence Insufficiency Treatment Trial to treat her patients with this condition.
