What is a Tracking Problem?
For us to use our vision efficiently, our eyes must move accurately and smoothly from one location to another. Our eyes jump from one word to another while reading and must do so accurately to allow for cohesive reading. Tracking is also important to follow moving objects in sports. Good hand-eye coordination starts with accurate eye movements.
Tracking skills are considered a fine motor skill. Like other fine motor skills, tracking will continue to develop and improve as a child gets older. Tracking problems will result in slow, inaccurate reading which will affect reading fluency and comprehension.
Tracking problems exhibit themselves with frequent loss of place during reading, skipping lines, omitting and substituting words, head movement, finger pointing, slow reading speed, poor copying, and poor hand-eye coordination.
This is what reading looks like with a tracking problem:
