Abstract
D.Phil.
Efficient ocular saccadics with a clear visual memory are essential functions in reading fluently. A child needs to sequence the eyes in a controlled jump called a saccade in order to form a picture in the mind of what is being read. The child is therefore primarily aware of a story rather than individual words. This sequential visual input of the written text contributes to efficient reading skills. The letter sequencing therapy used in this research is designed to improve the ocular saccadics and also to simultaneously develop an efficient visual memory. This improves the reading skills and creates good comprehension. The above exercise program illustrated that visual therapy, in general, done not only as a physical exercise but by improving the visual memory, will integrate very quickly into a child's perceptual development. Visual therapy can therefore improve the learning skills in an effective and efficient manner. The development of learning skills can be expanded to benefit children that have poor reading skills as a result of cultural deprivation. Until recently, due to apartheid and cultural differences at the pre school level disadvantaged children were deprived of the same standard of education as advantaged children. This research compared the average visual skills in reading of educationally advantaged children to educationally disadvantaged children. This illustrated the gap created by apartheid, differences in culture and preschool stimulation in the two levels of education. 167 children with no particular learning or visual problems were randomly selected from a group of pupils at an average middle class educationally advantaged white school and an average middle class disadvantaged black school. 100 of the children came from two standard 2 and
two standard 3 classes of the educationally advantaged school while 67 of the
children came from one standard 2 and one standard 3 class of the educationally
disadvantaged school. All the children were evaluated before the therapy program began with respect to ocular fixations, ocular regressions, reading rate, directional attack, span of recognition and relative efficiency. All the children were given letter sequencing therapy under supervision of the class teacher. Strict controls were applied.