Processing Speed Therapy For Eye - Maintenance and Reading Fluency

Fluency in reading involves the ability to read words at an automatic pace and the speed and ease used while reading. There is a high correlation between reading words per minute and accuracy. If a child is reading slowly and sounding out each word, the meaning of the text will be lost. Reading must be rapid and automatic to glean meaning and understanding. If a text is on a child's age and grade level the reading process should be automatic.

One common problem that causes slow reading is poor eye-position maintenance. A child must be able to fixate on a word long enough for recognition to take place. This problem can cause a child to take too long to read a word. A long duration time to recognize a word causes physical as well as reading fluency problems. The result of this problem may be: blurring, fatigue, nervousness, hyperactivity, rubbing or blinking the eyes. Reading problems may include: skipping words when reading aloud, slow reading, losing place while reading, reversals and avoidance of reading. The eye must focus on a word for approximately one-quarter of a second in the when reading. Processing training can increase the duration time of fixation on each word to one-sixth of a second, while still maintaining good recognition when reading.

Help for this condition can include a child pointing to the center of a word when reading. Due to common belief it is not detrimental when learning to read to point. Pointing can help stabilize the minuet movements the eye makes that can cause translocations of letters. Once a child can recognize words and fixate on them fast enough this practice will stop. There are other methods a parent can use to help improve the duration time a child focuses on a word. Flash cards can be used by holding up an age appropriate word for a 3 seconds and putting it down...then ask the child to recall the word. In addition, if a tiny dot is placed in the at the bottom middle of the word, the eye will be drawn to the dot and center of the word. This will stop any eye movement when fixating on the word. As the child improves shorten the time the child sees the card to 2 seconds and then 1 second to one-sixth of a second and eliminate the dot. This should be done with a wide variety of words the child is familiar with, such as an age appropriate spelling list. Word flashing devices may also be used such as a tachistoscope or visual computer programs. These programs gradually increase the speed that the words are shown. Visual and cognitive therapists, as well as optometrists in your area, may have some of the computer programs or other devices mentioned in this article.

In summary, for a child to read fluently with speed, comprehension and accuracy, the eye-position maintenance system must steady the image or word so that recognition can take place. Visual and cognitive processing also improves word recognition by improving visualization, visual memory, concentration, processing speed and other essential components of the reading process.