Reading Problems in Children

The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Ophthalmology, and American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology issued a joint policy statement concerning pediatric learning disabilities, dyslexia, and vision. The policy offered the following statement withregard to reading problems in children. Eye defects, subtle or severe, do not cause the patient to experience reversal of letters when reading, words, or numbers. No scientific evidence supports claims that the academic abilities of children with learning disabilities can be improved with treatments that are based on visual training, including muscle exercises, ocular pursuit, tracking exercise, or training glasses (with or without bifocals or prisms), neurological organizational training (laterality training, crawling, balance board, perceptual training), or colored lenses, such as is found in tinted reading glasses. These more controversial methods of treatment may give parents and teachers a false sense of security that a child’s reading difficulties are being addressed, which may delay proper instruction or remediation.

The expense of these methods is unwarranted, and they cannot be substituted for appropriate educational measures. Claims of improved reading and learning after visual training, neurologic organization training, or use of colored lenses are almost always based on poorly controlled studies that typically rely on anecdotal information. These methods are without scientific validation. Their reported benefits can be explained by the traditional educational remedial techniques with which they are usually combined.

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