8 Reading Problems Caused by Vision Problems

Reversing letters is caused by erratic eye movements when reading. Eyes wobbling - constantly moving left to right, and right to left. So they read 'b' both from left to right and from right to left - which is what makes it look like a 'd'.

Because their eyes move too much, it's very easy for them to skip words and lines.

Errratic eye movements mean they don't look at every letter when they read. You can read if you only look at a few letters in a word. But to spell correctly you need to remember every letter.

Copying off the board requires looking at the board, then at your paper, then back again. If it is hard to control your eye movements and focus, then it will be hard to go back to the correct place.

Most poor readers have focus issues. When one eye is looking at one letter, the other eye is looking at a different letter. This means their brain receives two images at the same time. If the brain alternates which image to process, it causes the text to appear to move.

Alternatively the brain can take the two images and use both of them, which makes the words look blurry or double.

Fluent readers look at around 150 points per minute when reading. But poor readers look at around 1,000 - mostly in the wrong place. So they spend a lot of brain power filtering out the wrong points. Then they don't have enough processing power left to understand what they've read.

Because they make too many eye movements it takes their brain a long time to realise what the next letter / word should be. So they keep rescanning the text until their brain can make sense of it.

When you read, you need to refocus your eyes every time they move. For a poor reader this can be around 1,000 times per minute. No wonder it is tiring and can cause sore eyes.