The High Cost of Masking a Reading Struggle

We’ve all seen that student.

The one who can build a complex LEGO masterpiece or explain the life cycle of a star—but when a book opens, the room shifts.

The fidgeting starts. Sometimes avoidance. Often distraction.

And suddenly, a simple line of text becomes a mountain.

As an OT and the founder of Eye Learn Pro, I tend to look at what’s happening underneath that moment—especially with reading.

Because when the focus stays only on phonics, it’s easy to miss the invisible physical systems that make reading possible in the first place.

When Reading Was Never Easy—Even for Successful Students

I once mentored a group of eight occupational therapy students at a local college.

Graduate students.

Bright. Motivated. Future clinicians.

In one of our conversations, two of them shared something that stopped me.

They both had dyslexia.

And they had made it all the way to a master’s program without ever receiving formal support in school.

Not because they didn’t need it—but because they had learned how to get by.

They described relying heavily on technology to access reading:text-to-speech, audiobooks, anything that helped them keep up.

They adapted well. They succeeded academically.

But reading itself was never easy.

Hearing that stayed with me.

Because from the outside, no one would have known how much effort it took just to access the same material.

And that’s exactly why I do this work.

There’s More to Reading Than What We See

Moments like that shift how you think about learning.

We often treat reading as a reflection of intelligence or effort.

But for many learners, the real challenge isn’t understanding—it’s access.

Reading is not just a language-based skill.

It also depends on how the eyes and brain work together in real time.

It requires:

• Eyes that can move smoothly across a line of text

• Both eyes working together to stay aligned

• The ability to visually attend and stay with the task

• Stamina to maintain that system over time

When these systems are working well, reading feels automatic.

When they’re not, reading can feel effortful—even for someone who understands exactly what they’re reading.

What Research Is Showing Us

Research shows that many individuals with dyslexia demonstrate differences in eye movement patterns during reading—such as less efficient tracking or increased re-reading.

And I always want to be clear:

Improving eye movement is not a cure for dyslexia.

Dyslexia is not caused by an eye problem, and it is not a problem of the eyes themselves.

It is a complex, neurological difference in language processing.

Dyslexia is a complex, beautiful, neurological gift in how the brain processes language.

At the same time, when visual efficiency is reduced, reading can become significantly more effortful. Research has shown that some struggling readers demonstrate less stable eye movements (Eden et al., 1994; Bucci et al., 2008). Others show more frequent regressions or re-fixations during reading (Rayner, 1998). Also when visual skills aren't strong, the language system has to work harder just to keep up (Stein, 2001; Vidyasagar, 2010).

When your eyes are out of sync, it can feel like trying to read a sign while jogging on a bumpy road.

You can piece it together if you’re skilled enough—but it takes effort, and it’s exhausting.

The piece that often gets missed

Eye movement is rarely the whole story.

But it is a physical piece of the reading system that is often overlooked in traditional classroom environments.

And that is the gap I created Eye Learn Pro to address.

We are not correcting the neurological basis of dyslexia—that is language-based.

Instead, we are supporting the foundational motor systems that allow reading to feel more accessible.

When the eyes can move more efficiently across a page, the brain is no longer working as hard on mechanics.

And that frees up capacity for meaning, comprehension, and engagement.

And when this is paired with explicit, evidence-based reading instruction, progress doesn’t just increase—it often accelerates.

Why This Stuck With Me

Those graduate students were successful by every traditional measure.

But they were working significantly harder than most people ever realized just to access information.

And I see that pattern often.

Students—and adults—who are compensating so well that their struggle becomes invisible.

They figure out systems to succeed…but the effort never fully disappears.

That realization is part of why Eye Learn Pro exists.

Not to diagnose dyslexia.Not to replace reading instruction. But to support it.

And to make the invisible parts of learning more visible—so we can better understand how someone is accessing reading, not just what they can produce.

A Few Things to Try Today:

For parents, educators, and even adult learners, small shifts can make a meaningful difference:

• Use a finger or guide to help maintain place on the page

• Build in short visual breaks during longer reading tasks

• Notice fatigue—when reading looks harder than it should feel

• The "Reading Window": Use an index card to hide the lines of text below where they are reading. It stops the eyes from getting "lost."

• Warm Up: Before homework, warm up eye muscles- my favorite is play a quick game of throw and catch. I’ll add more activities within the next coming weeks.  One of my favorite games is Toss and Catch Game.

• Embrace the Bridge: Audiobooks are a helpful option. My Master's students proved that technology allows a brilliant mind to keep moving while working on the underlying physical skills.

• Pair listening with reading to support understanding while reducing effort- have text read while reading with it.  There are applications that can help with this- I will share in upcoming posts.

A Different Way to Think About Reading

Those graduate students reminded me of something important:

Struggle is not always visible.

And effort is not always proportional to what we see.

These learners weren’t struggling because they lacked ability.

They were struggling because accessing the task required more effort than anyone could observe.

And often, that effort continues for years without being recognized.

When we begin to understand the invisible side of reading, we stop asking people to simply “try harder.”

And start asking a better question:

👉 What would make this more accessible?

Research & References

• Bucci, M. P., Nassibi, N., & Gerard, C. L. (2008). Immaturity of the oculomotor system in dyslexic children. Neurophysiologie Clinique, 38(3), 187-193. Link

• De Luca, M., Di Pace, E., Judica, A., Spinelli, D., & Zoccolotti, P. (1999). Eye movement patterns in dyslexia. Cortex, 35(5), 617-632. Link

• Eden, G. F., Stein, J. F., Wood, H. M., & Wood, F. B. (1994). Differences in eye movements and reading problems in dyslexic and normal children. Vision Research, 34(10), 1345-1358. Link

• Rayner, K. (1998). Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research. Psychological Bulletin, 124(3), 372-422. Link

• Stein, J. (2001). The magnocellular theory of developmental dyslexia. Dyslexia, 7(1), 12-36. Link

• Vidyasagar, T. R., & Pammer, K. (2010). Dyslexia: A deficit in visuo-spatial attention, not phonological processing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 14(2), 57-63. Link

Up Next: 

In my upcoming posts, I’m moving from the why to the how. I’ll be sharing the exact OT-approved tools I use to bridge the gap between a brilliant mind and the physical act of reading.