Poor Reading: A Deep Dive
Hands-on games to strengthen eye tracking
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Offline strategies for eye tracking work
In addition to computer-based interventions, several offline exercises and games can help strengthen eye tracking skills. These are easy to do at home or in the classroom and complement digital training by addressing similar symptoms in a tactile way.
Each of these hands-on strategies can be adjusted to the child’s level and made more challenging as they improve.
When combined with computer interventions like BrightWay Kids, they provide a well-rounded approach to strengthening the “visual brain” for better tracking, reading, and overall academic performance.
Ball games for tracking
Playing simple games with a ball can greatly improve tracking. One classic is playing catch with a lightweight ball or balloon. As the child watches the ball arc toward them and into their hands, their eyes practice smooth pursuit movements. Ping-pong is another excellent activity – even watching a ping-pong match forces the eyes to rapidly track back and forth. The key is to have the child keep their head still and use only their eyes to follow the object. This strengthens the eye muscles’ coordination and can reduce the need to move the head when reading. Therapists often use a suspended ball (Marsden ball) that the child visually follows in various patterns as a targeted tracking drill.
Scanning and letter-finding games
This exercise builds saccadic accuracy. Give the child a page of text and ask them to find all instances of a specific letter or word. For example, circle every “the” on the page, or every letter “A”. The child’s eyes must jump methodically from line to line, which trains the exact skill needed to move the eyes in an organized way during reading. You can time the activity to add a fun challenge (encouraging the child to beat their previous time, which pushes them to make faster eye movements). This kind of practice directly addresses line-skipping and omission errors – it teaches the eyes to systematically cover all parts of a page.
Laser pointer tracking
A flashlight or laser pointer on a blank wall makes for a fun tracking exercise. In a dim room, shine a laser dot on the wall and slowly move it around in different directions. Instruct the child to follow the dot with just their eyes (no head movement). You can move in horizontal lines, vertical lines, circles, and figure-eights to exercise all directions of eye movement. This activity mimics the pursuit training of digital games but in a physical space. Varying the speed helps the child learn to maintain fixation on a faster target – over time, their eyes will better keep up with moving stimuli (like a line of text). This also tends to improve convergence if done at various distances.
Tracing patterns and mazes
rksheets. For example, tracing along a curvy path without lifting the pencil forces the child to continually use their eyes to stay on the line. Mazes similarly make the eyes lead the way through the correct route. These activities address symptoms like poor handwriting spacing and letter placement by building the habit of the eyes guiding the hand. They also improve visual planning – the child learns to look ahead along the path, a skill that translates to looking ahead in a sentence while writing or reading. As a bonus, such pencil-and-paper tasks can be turned into games (timing them or turning them into art projects) so that the child remains engaged while practicing crucial visual tracking skills.
Next up: The science behind computer-based interventions
The effectiveness of eye tracking skill building and digital games
This blog post explains why computer-based eye tracking interventions are so effective. It explores how these strategies leverage neuroplasticity, enhance visual attention, provide instant feedback, and deliver real-world improvements in reading, writing, and focus. Programs like BrightWay Kids strengthen eye-brain connections, leading to lasting changes in visual processing.