Visual Difficulties

What are visual difficulties? Visual difficulties cause visual discomfort and / or binocular instability and affect ‘about 40% of dyslexic readers’ who have perceptual rather than visual problems (Moody, 2010: 46). These visual disturbances are not related to common short or long sightedness problems and are not picked up in ordinary eye tests.

Binocular instability will cause tracking problems (losing one’s place on the page), missing out bits of words and letter reversals.

Visual discomfort, which may cause ‘glaring’ of black ink on a white background, and / or the perception of letters moving and swirling on white paper, is likely to make print difficult to decipher. Those with visual disturbances may experience eye strain and headaches after reading for a short time. It is recommended that prior to a diagnostic assessment for dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties, individuals have an eye test, conducted by a registered optometrist, to rule out any medical concerns.

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