READING SYMPTOMS OF POOR SACCADIC FIXATIONS

It may be your child at school. It may be your husband at home.

When reading:

a.  Do they frequently lose their place?
b.  Do they leave out words?
c.  Do they put in words that are not there?
d.  Do they move their head when trying to read?

When watching your son or husband, do you see signs of stress such as:

a.  Do their eyes water?
b.  Do they rub their eyes frequently?
c.  Do they get frontal headaches when trying to read?
d.   If in school, do they have difficulty copying from the board?

Does your child or husband have to rely on letter sounds to decode words?
Does your child or husband decode phonetically and then fail to read the same word later in the same story?

All or some of these symptoms point to poor saccade function.
Children and adults affected use sounds to read–not their eyes.

Vantage Reading is the only program available that quickly and efficiently addresses this problem.

THE  20/20 MYTH

For years the number 20/20 has been used to express perfect eye sight.  If a student has 20/20 eyesight he can see perfect detail both near and far.  This is called visual acuity.  The measurement for visual acuity is a chart with rows of letters.  The top letters are large.  Each succeeding row of letters is smaller and smaller.  The student reads the letters from top to bottom until he can”t identify them.

The first  number of “20/20” represents the distance of the student from the chart,  20 feet.  The second number represents the smallest letter row the student can read.

As students need to see perfect detail at near point (desk level)  and to see perfect detail at far point
(board level), THEY NEED 20/20 VISION TO DO SCHOOL WORK EFFECTIVELY.  We advise parents to have their children’s eyes checked as early as three years of age, and for sure when a child begins school.  Vision specialists are able to provide normal vision by prescribing glasses.Following this the student is expected to read.

However 10 to 15% of students still cannot read.

YES  THEY CAN SEE !

NO THEY CANNOT READ!

So the 20/20 myth is exposed.

The problem is identified as POOR VISION SKILLS.
These students have a problem that is rarely recognized.  Very few ophthalmologists or optometrists screen for  vision skills in their regular exams.  Teachers cannot screen for vision skills as it is not in their training.  Phonetic training makes the problem worse.  What, then are poor vision skills?

Eyes are directed by muscles  The muscles of the eyes work together to move from left to right, up and down in circles  or obliquely.  They must triangulate(converge) at near point to read. The united movement of both eyes are required to read adequately.    Sluggish muscle tone impairs student’s ability to move their eyes from left to right or to store word meanings. A fast eye movement called a SACCADIC FIXATION allows the visual system to store one or more words and to understand it’s meaning. The non-reading students often have non-functioning saccadic fixations.

Saccadic fixations are the target of the VANTAGE READING PROGRAM.  Restoring this function is vital to the student’s academic succes and to their well being.This is a learning disability that is curable. Six weeks of training is all that is required.

CALL US TODAY AT 250-554-1105.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FAILURE AND A LIFETIME OF SUCCESS IS A PHONE CALL AWAY. THE AUTHOR HERSELF WILL ANSWER THE PHONE. BELIEVE IT!

www.vantagereading.com

Very few teachers have any coursework in how vision skills impact learning and success.  It is just not part of the teacher education training system despite the import link between good vision skills  and school success. The following is a summary of various vision skills. We hope you find it useful.

The Importance of Vision and Vision Skills in Reading

We “see” with our eyes, and this “seeing” begins a series of events that culminate in what we call Vision – the interpretation of what we see. Our visual system is our prime information gatherer, the dominant human sense in organizing knowledge, detail, time, and space.  The eye has many specific duties it must do well for a person to read easily and fluently.  Consequently, if one system is dysfunctional it alters the function of all of the other systems.

Even though students may have 20/20 vision and can see perfectly, it is necessary to also have proper near vision skills to use their eyes efficiently from day to day.

Fixation

To get a clear concise picture, each eye must aim at an object precisely enough that the light falls on the fovea – the receptors at the back of the eye.  Even a small degree of deviation in one or both eyes will alter this acuity, the sharpness with which one sees.

Focus

Almost simultaneously with fixation, the eye adjusts its crystalline lens so that an object is clear, both at near point and at far point. Any dysfunction in this system causes blurring.

Convergence

Using your eyes to look at an object up close is very different from looking at an object that is far away.  When looking at an object up close, such as letters on a page, eye muscles must be able to work in partnership to pull the eyes in, or triangulate (convergence), so that the light still falls on the fovea in each eye.  If the eyes do not work together properly, you will have double vision.  In contrast, when looking at an object far away, eyes are parallel, and the eye muscles are relaxed.  Success at seeing something up close or far away is also linked to the performance of the eye lens.  When looking in the distance, eye muscles are relaxed.  When shifting to near point, the two medial rectus muscles make the visual axis converge or the two eyes triangulate.  When shifting to far point from near point the lateral muscle make the axes parallel.  Convergence and divergence are linked to lens performance.  The two systems aid each other in function.  Vision specialists refer to it as the AC/A ratio.  A normal AC/A ratio is 1/3.  If the ratio is off it indicates a malfunction of one system.  Convergence must be held in position for all near point tasks or students may see double.  If accommodation does not hold at near point students may see a blur.

Fusion

If you close either eye, you can still see what you are looking at.  If each eye sees on its own, why don’t we see two objects when we see something?  Our eyes are made to focus and aim with extreme accuracy, and with this precision, the brain processes the information into one single object.  This is called fusion.

Fusion and Steriopsis

When images fall close enough on the fovea of both eyes they have achieved fusion.  The object of the focal point is the same whether viewed by the right eye, the left eye, or both eyes.  Subtle differences are ignored or suppressed by the brain.  Eyes are placed geometrically in different positions.  The brain measures the disparity of difference, and from it constructs a three dimensional image.  This process provides us with depth perception.  This ability is mature at five months of age.  In fusion, subtle differences are ignored; in steriopsis the brain recognizes subtle differences.  Students who lack fusion and steriopsis cannot excel in sports that include fast moving flying objects, like balls or pucks.  They cannot judge velocity.  Instead they must rely on size perception, texture and perspective to judge distance.  Night driving is difficult because in the dark their perspective and texture markers are gone.

Saccade Fixations

During reading or scanning, eyes move in quick motions called saccades, but for very brief milli-seconds between these quick successive saccade movements, the eyes do not move.  This stop time is called a fixation.  When the eyes are fixating the vision system is partly responsible for storing pertinent information.  If you have slow saccade function the eye’s ability to store information easily and well is altered.  As well, difficulties with reading fluency and comprehension appear.

Another tool in your toolbox!