Ocular Motor Skills and Their Effect on Learning: Challenges, Testing and Remediation

Course overview

Have you ever noticed that when a student has challenges with an activity like reading, they start using their finger? Why? When we use our finger to help us read, we are switching from saccadic movement (where as we read, we jump from one group of words to another group of words), to a fixation and pursuit (which is a smooth movement) which is not how we read. What you are seeing is a symptom of an ocular motor problem. Occupational therapists, physical therapists and teachers need to be aware of these subtle changes that happen with our ocular motor skills throughout our activities in school. Ocular motor skills have major effects on our children and our clients. They affect reading, writing, functional movement, and even crossing the midline. This class is designed for professionals to recognize the importance of ocular motor skills and how they affect a childs success. This class educates a professional on the visual system, motor system and their interaction. It gives information on problems that present with ocular motility issues. Finally, it gives well established testing methods and real-world solutions to ocular motor challenges seen in our schools and home.