Vision Therapy · Inwood, NY

Eye Tracking Disorder
Treatment on Long Island

When a child loses their place, skips words, or reads with a finger — it is not laziness or dyslexia. It is often an eye tracking problem. Vision therapy trains the oculomotor system for accurate, effortless reading.

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Also called

Oculomotor Dysfunction

Covers saccadic (word-to-word) and pursuit (following moving targets) deficits.

Who it affects

School-age children primarily

Frequently identified during reading assessments; also affects athletes and concussion patients.

Often mistaken for

Dyslexia / ADHD

Symptoms overlap significantly; binocular vision evaluation differentiates them.

Typical program

12–24 sessions

Saccadic and pursuit training with progressive difficulty; results are measurable with standardized tests.

What is an eye tracking disorder?

Reading requires two distinct types of eye movement: saccades — rapid jumps from one word to the next — and pursuits — smooth movements that follow a moving object. Both must be precise, well-coordinated between the two eyes, and sustainable over the length of a reading session.

In eye tracking disorder, saccades are over- or under-shooting their targets, pursuits are jerky rather than smooth, or both systems fatigue quickly. The result: the child's eyes land in the wrong place on the page, losing the word they were aimed at. The brain compensates by using the finger as a guide, re-reading lines, or — when compensation fails — simply avoiding reading altogether.

Signs and symptoms

Frequently loses place while reading — skips words or whole lines
Uses a finger or pencil to track text
Re-reads the same line multiple times without realising it
Moves head rather than eyes when reading across a line
Inconsistent copying from board — slow, with frequent errors
Reads slowly relative to phonics and comprehension ability
Difficulty following a ball in sports (pursuit deficits)

Vision therapy for eye tracking

1

Oculomotor evaluation

Standardized tests — including NSUCO oculomotor testing and DEM (Developmental Eye Movement) — objectively measure saccadic accuracy, pursuit quality, and fixation stability.
2

Saccadic training

Hart Chart drills, Saccadic Fixator activities, and computer-based saccade programs train the eyes to jump accurately and efficiently between targets of increasing complexity.
3

Pursuit training

Marsden ball, rotator, and computer pursuit tasks progressively develop smooth, accurate following movements needed for reading and sports performance.
4

Integration with reading

Visual-motor gains are transferred to actual text through speed-reading activities, paragraph tracking, and timed oral reading, ensuring the skill generalises to the classroom.

Frequently asked questions

Is eye tracking disorder the same as dyslexia?

No — but they share many surface symptoms, and children with oculomotor dysfunction are often misidentified as dyslexic. True dyslexia is a phonological processing disorder. Eye tracking disorder is a visual-motor problem that can make reading equally difficult but responds to vision therapy rather than reading instruction alone. A binocular vision evaluation can differentiate them.

What does 'poor tracking' look like in a classroom?

A child with tracking problems may frequently lose their place while reading, use a finger to track across the page, skip words or whole lines, read slowly despite phonics knowledge, struggle to copy from the board accurately, and have inconsistent performance across subjects depending on how much near reading is required.

Can tracking problems be improved with practice?

Yes — with targeted, supervised practice. Generic reading exercises do not directly train the oculomotor system. Vision therapy uses specific saccadic and pursuit training activities that progressively challenge and improve the precision and speed of eye movements.

Related conditions

Ready to take the next step?

Schedule a comprehensive binocular vision evaluation at our Inwood, NY practice. We'll identify whether vision therapy is right for you or your child and walk you through every step of the process.

Schedule a Consultation or call (718) 268-3937

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Eye Tracking DisorderTreatment on Long Island