CPOC is the Colchester Primary Ophthalmic Clinic, directed by Dr Annette Grounds (PhD, Imperial College). It offers the rare, if not unique service, of combining established ophthalmic techniques, such as exercises to improve the convergence of the eyes, with tinting and close analysis of the movement of the eyes during reading, using a machine called Readamatics. I had arranged for a pupil to be referred to CPOC using the NHS Choose and Book Scheme - this required a letter of explanation to the pupil's GP, who did not know of the service.
The pupil had weak eye convergence, which led to switches of focus between eyes, and made it hard for her to switch her attention from near to far objects (eg from a whiteboard to her own writing.) She did not have clear left-right dominance, and would often lose her place while reading, sometimes up to two lines. She had, though been making very good progress in reading more complex texts, including Heather Angel's monogram on Macaque Monkeys, which has adult text, but in fairly large font. The smaller the print size, the more problems with reading.
The Readamatics machine allowed Dr Grounds to track the movements of each eye separately as the pupil read, and to see exactly where she lost her place. It was interesting to see the link between eye convergence and reading, but more interesting still that the eyes, as they tracked print, did not move in straight line, but wriggled, as if they were tracking the forms of letters in order to recognise them as the pupil was reading. This needs to be investigated.
In the meantime, the depth of Dr Grounds' examination, and the clear link to reading difficulties that would not otherwise have been established, confirms the view that I have formed in my 37 years' experience that visual factors are a bigger obstacle to reading than has been understood, and almost certainly as big a problem as those associated with dyslexia. Sir James Rose should have paid more attention to the issue.
