Chapter+2+Eye+Movements+and+Reading

Chapter 2: Eye Movements and Reading: What Teachers Need to Know S. Jay Samuels, Timothy V. Rasinski, and Elfrieda H. Hiebert Chapter Group Members:

Dawn Belden, Ida Beal, Darryl Loring, Rachel Roberge, Courtney Bishop, Laura Chianese

**Discovery of Eye Movements and Eye Physiology **
Through the course of history, in regards to the eye takes in information and the brain interprets this information has led to many misconceptions and eventually discoveries. This is also true of the reading process and how the eye works during this. It has been determined that while reading, ocular movements that take place include the following: More recently it was discovered that printed information is taken in and processed only when the eye pauses during eye fixations. Teachers should be conscious of faulty eye movements in beginning readers such as regression and rereading text because it can affect word recognition. Regressions are far more common in beginning readers.
 * **Fixations** - momentary eye pauses on print that the brain interprets for meaning.
 * **Forward Saccades-** reading from left to right and the eye movements involved in dropping down to the next line of text.
 * **Backward Saccades-** backward eye movements **(**rereading and regression) whose purpose is to improve comprehension or to corrrect faulty eye movements.

Retinal Cells and Instructional Implications
Anatomy of the Eye:
 * Fovea **
 * Found in the retina of the eye
 * This is where a visual image is seen clearly
 * Only 6-8 letters are in clear focus at once, however this is dependent on letter size and the distance the letters are viewed from
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Cone Cells **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Found in the retina of the eye
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">These cells allow a person to see clearly
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Concentrated in the fovea where there are about 10 million cone cells
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Rod Cells **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Contribute to word recognition
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Found outside the fovea
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Sensitive to word shape and word length



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The eye is NOT ideally suited to reading! This is because not all words in the English language are 6-8 letters long (the amount of letters in clear focus at once in the fovea). <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Therefore a reader needs to use a variety of other strategies and clues to identify words:
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Instructional Implications: **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">spelling information
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">word shape
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">white space surronding a word

=<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Fixation Pauses: =

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Why is the study of eye movements and patterns an important area of study for educators? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">It is imperative that educators be well versed on the theoretical aspects of our profession in order to accurately identify and intervene with appropriate academic services. We can look at <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">what skills that fluent readers have acquired in order to better understand the deficit areas of our struggling readers. The Automaticity Theory can be used to help answer these questions. It states that one is automatic at a skill such as reading if two complex things can be done at the same time. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Normal reading eye movement patterns have 3 principal components: (1) small saccades that move the eyes from word to word, (2) large saccades that return the eyes to the beginning of the next line, and (3) fixation pauses between each saccade for information processing. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The fixation pauses represent the time between saccades when the eyes are steady and information processing occurs. The two complex skills that fluent readers can do at the same time with a single eye fixation is decode (word recognition) and comprehend, while the non-fluent reader must do each task separately. The time sequence explains what occurs during an eye fixation. The term "fixation pause" implies that the eye is motionless. That is not the case, as there is a slight eye tremor that occurs as neurons are being activated in the retina so they will continue firing(Gilbert, 1959). An "eye fixation pause" represents the time spent on a single fixation, whereas the term "gaze duration" suggests the total amount of time the reader spends on a word across several eye fixations. Typically a fixation pause lasts approximately 1/3 of a second and in that time a non-fluent reader can only accomplish one of the tasks. Therefore, a beginning reader must regress and fixate on the word again in order to comprehend it. The act of reading becomes a two-step process that is much slower and less accurate because there must be an attention shift and a thought pattern change. This switch from word recognition to the new task of word comprehension also hampers short-term memory and makes learning to read an arduous and often frustrating process for the non-fluent reader. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Having this capacity for recognizing these deficit areas is vital to planning specific practice exercises to strengthen fluency and to support the student's cognitive ability to perform the two necessary reading tasks during a fixation. This automaticity of decoding can be realized through sustained reading practice, therefore teachers must also employ motivational strategies that will ensure engagement and personal connection to the text.

media type="youtube" key="zQmf5TkJrJ8?version=3" height="360" width="640" align="center"

=**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Instructional Implications (eye fixations) **= <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Reading fluency can be defined by a reader being able to decode and comprehend during one eye fixation. For Students to be able to do this decoding must be automatic.Readers have to have lots of practice and be motivated to read to be able to have this become automatic. For the eye to see all the words on the page the eye needs to move from one word to the next systematically. Word length and white space around the word have a huge impact on seeing the word. A crucial part of reading is the eye fixations. This is when the eye pauses and takes in all the information on the page and begins to make meaning. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">An average fixation lasts anywhere from 100 milliseconds to 500 milliseconds. When the eye goes into a fixation pause the eye is not motionless, there is a slight movement that keeps the neurons in the retina activated. Only during the fixation pause is the brain taking in information when an individual is reading a text there are three fixations per second. Beginning readers cannot always identify words or parts of words in a single fixation they may have to isolate one word to recognize it. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">High frequency words usually consists of four to five letters which is also the number of letters the fovea can see clearly. A good reader should process three words a second and they should be able to read and comprehend 180 words in a minute. Research has shown how troublesome round robin reading is in the classroom. Round robin is not the best choice because when a slower reader is reading orally a better reader is having twice as many eye fixations. The worry surrounding this is that is trains the eye to have bad oculomotor habits. The solution to monitoring students fluency is to have them read orally for one minute an count the words correct, doing this periodically to track improvement or concerns. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">When words are printed in lower case letters were recognition is easier. Reading becomes difficult when a words shape and length are undetermined. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Here is an example of how difficult it is to read without spaces and using all upper case letters:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Research has shown for a first graders to read a 100 word text they had 224 eye fixations and when 12th graders read a 100 word text they had 94 fixations. media type="youtube" key="VFIZDZwdf-0" height="315" width="420" align="center"

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">This is a video on eye fixations and the difference of fixations depending on fluency. [|Fluency Activities]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Ida Beal



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Regressions, thought to be different than rereading, occur for the following reasons:
====<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">As students advance in reading abilities, regressions drop drastically. “By the time students reach collage, the number of eye regressions is only 17% per 100 words reader, but for first graders, it is 52%” (p. 45). ====
 * 1) ====<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Eye movement adjustments – early readers learn how to self-correct when skipping words or misjudging the length of words ====
 * 2) ====<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Poor reading habits – when fluent readers follow along with less fluent readers ====
 * 3) ====<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Decoding problems – a reader’s need to go to an earlier passage in order to substantiated what they have decoded ====
 * 4) ====<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Comprehension check – skilled readers, when reading a difficult text, will return to previously read portions to ensure for understanding ====
 * 5) ====<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Constructing meaning – young readers first decode then construct meaning. When this process is interrupted or labored, the reader regresses or starts over. ====

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px;">Forward Saccades:

 * ====<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**Saccades** are the rapid movement of the eyes, both jumps and fixations, when reading left-to-right in a forward reading pattern. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Eye movements are so fast, that vision is suppressed, causing a person’s vision to blur during movement. It is only during fixations, or no eye movement, that the brain can process the information a person is reading. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Skilled readers are sensitive to the white spaces between the words. The rods cells control how far the eye moves between those white spaces allowing the reader to read each word. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Because the peripheral vision blurs words within ten letter spaces of the focal word, it is very important the eye is trained to plan how far to move the eye in a forward saccade. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Inaccurate forward saccades cause reading speeds to slow down and comprehension to be limited. ====

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Here is a great website with eye tracking and vision games!]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Indicators of Eye Problems in Reading
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Oculomotor deficiencies or **__Oculomotor Dysfunction__** (OMD) exist when one or both eyes do not move smoothly, accurately, and quickly across a line. This includes the inability to fixate ones' eyes onto a single target like a word on a printed page.



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">People who have tracking problems are not limited to beginning readers – many experienced readers share this problem as well. This problem is most commonly encountered at the end of a line when the line of print extends across an entire page. The longer the line, the more difficult it is to keep one’s place. This fact led many newspapers to use short narrow columns in the 1950’s.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Ideally each eye should coordinate with the other and both eyes should work as a team when this happens, this is known as __**binocular coordination**__. A lack of coordination can become very disruptive to readers to the point where individuals have been observed to cover one eye and read only with the other eye. Some readers will find this task so difficult that they will avoid reading all together. For these types of readers, words can appear as double images and increases in the number of eye fixations as well as an increase in the duration of fixation pauses. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*Adults who have faulty binocular coordination report that when driving they may see two cars when only one automobile is in front of them.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">When reading ones’ eyes need to turn inward toward each other and focus on the letters of the words being read. Convergence insufficiency occurs when the ability of the eyes to converge and focus properly is compromised. If a convergence insufficiency is occurring then a student may report blurred or double vision, headaches, burning of the eyes or excessive tearing.

**__<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Things to look for when working with a student who is struggling to read: __**

 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Reports of visual discomfort
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">A willingness to read for only a short period of time
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Eyes burn or fill with tears while reading
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Frequently loses place
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Words seem blurred or fuzzy
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Seeing double
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Uses a finger or an index card to track lines of text
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Omission of words when reading orally
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Has one eye that drifts or points in a different direction from the other eye
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Squints or closes one eye or covers one eye with hand while reading

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Personal Experiences:
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I noticed that one of my students was covering one eye when he was reading. When I asked him about this, he did not seem aware that he was doing it. He would also use his book to cover his eye, while reading with the other eye. I asked him if the words on the page were moving, he said that were not. However, something was not right. He avoided reading at all costs, he would lose his place and seemed to get tired and makes more mistakes the longer I had him read aloud. His parents said he was lazy. After visiting a website recommended by a colleague and watching a video on vision disabilities, it sounded like my student!! I was able to connect the parents to a developmental/ behavioral optometrist and it was confirmed that he had a some weak muscles in his eyes and required the use of special lenses in glasses and vision therapy. This was something that was never picked up in a regular, routine vision test. I felt that it was a success for this student, because it was a step towards a solution to his reading difficulties! Check out this website for lots of information and resources on vision issues-- [|www.pavevision.org] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">-Darryl Loring

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">In the past five years of teaching, I have run across only a few students who have had documented eye problems. This year, I have a student who has to sit in a certain seat in my classroom in order for him to be able to clearly see what is written on the board. On this individual basis I know what to look for in this student to make sure he is appropriately seated and focusing on the material. However, up until this point I did not take into consideration eye problems as something that would affect performance at the high school level. However, after reading this chapter, I now know of cues to look for to see if this is a problem for a student in my classroom and will be more aware of this problem. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The American Optometric Association has a great web page that includes a section with teacher resources. [|www.aoa.org]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">~Rachel Roberge
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">During my student teaching experience in first grade, one of my highly distractible students was struggling with maintaining eye focus, which caused him to lose his place and fail to comprehend text. He was incorrectly diagnosed with ADHD and all visual exams within the school appeared normal. It was not until the child was examined by a developmental optometrist, that he was diagnosed with having eye teaming problems. Convergence excess was identified and reading glasses improved his ability to decode and comprehend text. This experience and studying these readings has made me realize the importance of having a broad theoretical working knowledge that allows us to view our students through an informed lens. If we have the skills to identify and then remove a child's stumbling blocks to learning, then more time can be spent on reaching academic goals. I found this website to be very informative and quite useful as I was seeking to further understand the correlation between reading difficulties and eye movement and tracking control. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">~Dawn Belden

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Over the past few years, I have worked with a young girl who has Noonan’s Syndrome. Along with many other defects, this syndrome causes learning disabilities and eye problems. Her eyes jerk and flutter randomly, she has inward turned eyes, and she has sensitivities to light. She gets headaches often because of these side effects of the syndrome. In the classroom she needs to have large print texts, front row seating, and extended time for class work. Reading has always been difficult, but with constant education about her condition and modifying the curriculum to suit her needs, she is able to be successful. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Though I know a lot about my student and her condition, it was really important for me to read this chapter and contemplate the reading difficulties other student may have because of their vision. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Check out www.naset.org for vision impairment resources. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">~Courtney Bishop