New Eye Tracking arrives in practice
For many children and adults who suffer from reading difficulties, there is an underlying condition that if helped can make a dramatic improvement to comfort and reading speed (up to 10 times faster). Read on to find out how a new eye tracking device could help anyone read more easily.
Symptoms and signs of reading difficulties and visual stress may include:
- Discomfort when reading
- Glare from a white page
- Blurring of print
- Seeing Patterns in the print
- Letters and words appear to be moving
- Re-reading the same line frequently
- Moving the book a lot to focus
- Skipping or missing words
- Poor concentration when reading
- Headaches or migraines
Traditionally, people with any of these symptoms have been helped by using coloured overlays and spectacles, assessed by means of a specific subjective test which measures a person's response to different colours. Whilst this has helped many clients who suffer from conditions such as dyslexia, autism, ADHD, migraine and photo-sensitive epilepsy, the methods of testing have, until now, not been able to identify reading problems caused by tiny muscle imbalances which affect a far greater proportion of the population. Thankfully a new piece of technology has revolutionised the way we can detect subtle reading difficulties.
The Clinical Eye Tracker uses tiny cameras mounted on a computer which detects and follow the position of the eyes to within less than 1 degree. While you sit and look at the screen which shows various visual stimuli, the cameras monitor your eye positions and tracking movements 60 times per second. (The cameras monitor your eyes from a computer screen, nothing touches your eye.)
The clever software then analyses the effect this has on your reading ability and allows us to help correct any problems. (Help may be in the form of spectacles, coloured lenses, new prescription or eye exercises.)
This wonderful tool has been instrumental in identifying and helping those who have unexplained difficulty with their reading and eyesight.
Some of the success stories have been remarkable. Following his assessment, 10-year-old George’s reading speed improved by 60% by simply putting a specific purple tint in his lenses. His behaviour in the classroom has improved greatly now he no longer struggles to read. Annabel, 12, was suffering from headaches on almost a daily basis at school and had to take time off until she started wearing her new tinted spectacles, she now rarely has headaches and actually enjoys her school work. Jennifer, 52, had always struggled to read, underachieving at school and college. She had never been able to read more than 2 pages of a book without feeling exhausted by the effort until we measured her eye tracking and used special glasses to alleviate her problem- she now reads for pleasure and no longer dreads using computers at work.
Like Jennifer, people often suffer from reading problems for many years without realising there could be a simple explanation and solution to their problem. If you or anyone you know struggles with reading, please let them now about the Eye tracking assessment which could just change their reading for the better.
The Eye tracking assessment takes approximately 40minutes and goes far beyond the normal eye examination. The assessments can be conducted for children or adults even if they cannot read.
Find out if reading can be made easier for you or your family too. Book a reading assessment on 01634 240645.
