Sample Activity: Saccadic Track

Dear Reader,

This is just a sam­ple of the entire activ­ity set to help strengthen ‘saccadic’ skills (reading eye movements) required for effortless reading. This activity does not require any experience with reading, but is most appropriate for ages 5 years and up. Remem­ber this is only a sam­ple of one activ­ity in the library; for the full instruc­tions and access to the entire library, sub­scribe to eLVT.

Dr. Boulet

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Purpose: To reinforce reading eye movements, that is, left-right, up-down rapid sequential eye movements that are necessary for quickly and accurately acquiring visual signals from the printed page.

Material/Equipment: Print off the Saccadic Track Sample. Ensure the client is wearing glasses if prescribed for near distance work (this is almost always advisable.) Stopwatch.

Procedure:

1. Start at the Harmon Distance, with the paper in the child’s hands or on the table. Ensure good lighting.

2. Say ‘go’ then have the child look at each letter across each of the four lines as quickly as possible. Tell him you’ll be watching him. Tell him that when he comes to the end, he should simply continue staring at the last letter and say ‘stop’.

3. Write down the time in the first space. Repeat the sequence 3 or 4 times, trying to beat the previous time. It’s ok to take a break in between trials, but no more than 30 seconds.

4. Proceed to the next smaller x’s as is appropriate, or simply move on to another exercise.

Focus:

1) Do a couple of practice runs where the child simply ‘feels’ his eyes as they move in rapid sequence across the page. Don’t worry about timing this, but he should go as fast as he can.