Reading problems and ocular anomalies

Abstract

Children at Moor House School for speech and language disorders were screened for minor ocular anomalies which might have affected their progress with reading. Ophthalmic investigation showed that 17 of the 23 children included in the initial screening had difficulties which merited intervention. The children with exophoria were introduced to a programme of eye exercises. The children with esophoria and those with miscellaneous ocular problems were given appropriate optical corrections. The treatment of minor ocular anomalies was found to have had a beneficial effect upon the rate of reading progress in a speech and language disordered population, and it may be an equally relevant form of intervention for some of the cases of specific literacy problems which are found in the mainstream school population.

Reading Research in Great Britain in 1987

“…Because they speak clearly it cannot be assumed that they will have no difficulty in reading and writing. Bicknell and Ripley (1987) studied 17 children at Moor House School for speech and language disorders that were identified as having difficulties in co-ordinating the activity of their eyes. As well as suffering from delayed language development and various degrees of deviant articulation they had also been identified for inclusion in the study on the basis of their slow progress in reading.…”