optical tracking problem?

[jammiedodger2]

Hi. I've just had a meeting with my 6yr old DS fab teacher. She thinks he might have an optical tracking problem and has suggested I get him tested.
She thinks he is quite bright (up until now he has been labelled as naughty and put in the bottom groups for everything) and seems to be getting some really good work out of him but says he can't cope at all when he has to work from the white board.
Has anyone else come accross this type of problem?
thanks
jx

The first thing that springs to mind would be Irlen's Syndrome. This usually relates to perception difficulties and that might be what the teacher means when she says that your DS struggles to track words on the whiteboard - or on white paper too.

This would be worth mentioning to whoever you get to test his eyes.

Look it up and see if it seems to match. It is easily sorted either with tinted glasses (to a specific colour according to the test) or using coloured overlays.

It would certainly explain his previous 'behaviour' issues.

Good luck.

Hi, maybe he just can't see the whiteboard? He may just be a little bit short sighted, or may have a nuscle imbalance that can be corrected with glasses or exercises.
He def needs an eye exam ASAP!
(Optometrist)

He had an eye test last year but I've booked him in for another with the optician next week as a first step. I feel quite positive as it's great to have a teacher who seems so keen to help ds. Have also tracked down a 'behavioural optometrist' nearby but he's private so I think that could get quite expensive, will see what the optician says first! Thanks for the feedback
jx

DS 15 has SLD and one of the problems is that he couldn't remember what he had read on the board by the time he looked down to the paper to write ie if he was copying a sum down. He still can spell a word 3 different ways on a page even if the word is printed correctly in the header. It might be worth looking to see if he has this type of problem as well.

He also had problems reading large chunks of text in a book when he was younger. He soldved this himself by using a ruler to track the sentence, He read the whole of Harry Potter with a ruler.

Thankfully he does seem to have grown out of some of these problems.

I don't think a standard optician will test for eye tracking. I think you need a behaviour optometrist (BABO). It is a fairly common problem (although often not diagnosed.)