Your child has been diagnosed with dyslexia. They're working with a reading specialist, and you're seeing progress. But one thing keeps coming up: headaches. Tired eyes. Rubbing their eyes during practice. Maybe even complaints that the words look blurry or move.
That's worth paying attention to, because those aren't typical symptoms of dyslexia itself.
Dyslexia makes reading hard. It doesn't usually make it hurt.
Dyslexia affects how the brain processes the sounds and structure of written language. It makes decoding slow and effortful, and that can be mentally exhausting. But physical symptoms like these more often point to a vision problem:
Headaches around the forehead or eyes during or after reading
Blurry, double, or moving words
Eye rubbing, squinting, or covering one eye
Losing place or skipping lines
Symptoms that get worse the longer they read
What could be going on
Common vision problems that cause these symptoms include:
Convergence insufficiency: The eyes struggle to stay aligned for close work.
Focusing problems: The eyes' focusing system tires quickly.
Eye tracking problems: The eyes don't move accurately along the line.
Uncorrected prescription, especially farsightedness.
These can occur in any child, including children with dyslexia.
Why it's worth checking
Dyslexia intervention asks a lot of reading practice. If every session comes with headaches or eye strain, your child may tire sooner and resist practice more. Identifying and treating a vision problem won't treat dyslexia, but it can make reading practice more comfortable.
What to do
Keep your child's dyslexia intervention going.
Schedule a binocular vision evaluation to check eye teaming, tracking, and focusing.
Share the results with your child's reading specialist so the team is on the same page.
Schedule a vision evaluation in Clermont
Hope Vision Development Center provides binocular vision evaluations and vision therapy for diagnosed vision conditions. Our In-Office Training program is an approved Florida Empowerment Scholarship (FES-UA) service through Step Up For Students.
Call 352-243-4673 or email pcc@hopevdc.com to schedule. We're at 235 Citrus Tower Blvd., Suite 107, Clermont, FL.