Research on the Relationship between Reading and Vision—What Does it Mean?

Abstract

Clinicians and teachers who want to pragmatically utilize research that has sought to relate various aspects of visual functioning to reading are often confused by conflicting findings. This article reviews and interprets some of the literature that has investigated the relationships between refractive status and reading and between binocular status and reading. These bodies of investigation are presented as being representative of studies that have explored the relationships between other visual entities and reading both in terms of basic research design and apparent inconclusiveness. The point is made that a major contributory factor to the general inability of the research to more definitively relate vision to reading has not been faulty design or statistical treatment but rather the way most researchers have chosen to characterize the visual process. Recommendations are made for more meaningful future research.