Eye Tracking Exercises: Saccades, Pursuits and Fixation

Updated 2026-10-25

Written by the Optics Trainer team from published research, with every source linked below.

Eye tracking exercises, also called eye movement or oculomotor exercises, practice the ways your eyes move: jumping between targets, following something that moves, and holding steady on one spot. This guide explains the main eye movements, how eye tracking problems show up and are tested, and what studies of these exercises did and found in healthy adults, children who read poorly, and people with concussion, stroke or vertigo.

Eye movement exercises: saccades, pursuits, fixation, vergence and the VOR

Clinical reviews describe several eye movement systems:

Saccades: fast jumps that bring a new target onto the fovea, the sharpest part of the retina, as when you look from word to word. An anti-saccade is a deliberate jump away from a target that appears.
Smooth pursuit: following a moving target, such as a bird or a ball, without moving your head.
Fixation: holding gaze on one spot. Even then, the eyes keep making tiny movements, called microsaccades, drift and tremor.
Vergence: the two eyes turning in or out in opposite directions to look nearer or farther. Our guide to binocular vision and eye teaming covers it in depth.
Vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR), the basis of gaze stabilization exercises: when your head moves, your eyes move the opposite way at the same speed, so the world stays clear and steady.

Eye tracking problems: symptoms and causes

Eye movement problems can come with a concussion, a stroke, an inner-ear (vestibular) problem, eye-teaming trouble or other neurological conditions. Symptoms depend on the cause.

After a concussion, a 2022 statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics with ophthalmology and orthoptic groups lists trouble reading, blurred vision, difficulty focusing, losing one's place and eye fatigue while reading. It says visual symptoms clear up without treatment within 4 weeks for most children and teens, and that saccades are abnormal in as many as 25% to 33% of children and adolescents after concussion. After a stroke, a Cochrane review says eye movement disorders may affect over 70% of patients and can make reading, near tasks and scanning a room harder. With inner-ear hypofunction, the physical therapy guideline lists dizziness, imbalance and oscillopsia, where the world seems to bounce when you move.

For reading, a 2011 American Academy of Pediatrics report, written with ophthalmology and orthoptic groups, says vision and eye health in children with dyslexia do not differ from those of other children. A 2010 study comparing reading directions concluded that unusual eye movements are more likely an effect of reading difficulty than its cause.

Sudden double vision, vision loss, eye pain or new symptoms after a head injury need a doctor promptly, not exercises.

How clinicians test eye movements

There is no single eye tracking test. The 2022 concussion statement says an exam should check smooth pursuit, saccades, the VOR, near point of convergence and focusing. Common named tests include:

NSUCO: a subjective oculomotor test, scored by the examiner while watching your eye movements. A 2025 study compared it with an eye tracker for saccades in children. Eye care professionals can read our clinician guide to saccades, pursuits and fixation.
DEM (Developmental Eye Movement test): timed number reading in columns and rows. The authors of the 2010 study above said it should not be used to diagnose eye movement problems in a child who reads poorly. See our clinician page on the DEM test.
King-Devick: timed reading of numbers across cards, often used in sports concussion screening.
VOMS (Vestibular/Ocular Motor Screening): checks pursuit, saccades, near point of convergence, the VOR and motion sensitivity, and records whether each provokes symptoms. Our clinician articles cover eye movements after concussion and gaze stability and VOR testing.
Eye tracking: a camera-based system records where the eyes point, moment by moment, including while reading. Clinicians can see reading eye tracking and Optics Tracker, our clinical eye-tracking platform.

Saccade and smooth pursuit exercises in healthy adults

A 2004 review describes saccade adaptation: when a target is secretly moved during each jump, saccade size gradually changes to reduce the error, though usually not completely, and the change is kept in the dark.

In a 2005 study, 30 people practiced one task every day for 2 weeks. Those who practiced anti-saccades made fewer anti-saccade errors without getting slower. Those who practiced ordinary saccades made more anti-saccade errors, and those who practiced fixation showed no change. In a 2015 study of 23 healthy adults, 2 weeks of daily anti-saccade practice made responses faster, with no change in error rate, but the jumps fell further short of the target.

In a 2012 study, 10 healthy adults followed a randomly moving target in two 6-minute sessions on 3 days, and pursuit was still better 5 days later. Ten adults who took a break instead did not show the gain. These studies measured the trained eye movement, not reading, sports or daily life.

Visual tracking exercises for kids and reading: what studies found

Reading results below are given as each study reported them. Eye care professionals can read our clinician article on reading eye tracking.

Medical groups have taken a position on this. A 2009 joint statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, AAPOS and others says vision problems do not cause primary dyslexia and does not endorse eye exercises for learning disabilities. The 2011 report says the evidence does not support ocular pursuit-and-tracking exercises as a treatment for learning disabilities, and that dyslexia treatment should target language skills. A rebuttal to the 2009 statement was published in the journal Optometry.

Eye movement training and reading in children
Study	Design	Who	What was done	Follow-up	Main result
Fischer 2000	Before-and-after training study	85 children aged 8 to 15 with dyslexia and eye movement deficits	Daily home fixation and saccade tasks on a handheld device	3 to 8 weeks	Saccade control improved and was no longer statistically different from a control group; reading not reported in the abstract
Leong 2014	Single-blind randomized crossover trial	Elementary school students	King-Devick saccade software in school, 20 minutes, 3 days a week	6 weeks	Reading fluency higher after training than in the control group
Dodick 2017	Randomized crossover trial	327 first and second graders	Eighteen 20-minute King-Devick sessions	5 weeks	Fluency up 6.2% vs 3.6% and comprehension up 7.5% vs 1.5% in control
Peyre 2018	Randomized crossover trial	11 children aged 7 to 12 with dyslexia	Computer training of saccades, vergence and attention	3 and 6 months	No effect on reading; some short-term effects on other skills and a later effect on one writing measure; authors called the analyses exploratory
CITT-ART 2019	Randomized placebo-controlled trial	310 children aged 9 to 14 with convergence insufficiency	Office vergence and focusing therapy or placebo therapy	16 weeks	No significant difference in reading comprehension or other reading tests
Facchin 2025	Non-randomized pilot study (groups set by availability)	21 children aged 7 to 12 who read poorly	Office saccade training (14) or a reading exercise (7)	6 weeks	Reading improved in the saccade training group only

Oculomotor exercises for concussion, vertigo and dizziness

After a concussion, therapists and eye care professionals may use eye movement and vestibular exercises. The 2022 concussion statement says there is a "lack of high-quality evidence to support isolated treatment of visual symptoms", and says two randomized trials give early evidence that active rehabilitation for balance and vestibulo-oculomotor problems helps patients with symptoms, and that more studies are needed. Our guide to Brock string exercises covers a 2025 concussion trial of convergence practice.

For dizziness and vertigo from inner-ear problems, a 2015 Cochrane review included 39 studies with 2,441 people. In pooled data from four studies (565 people), dizziness was less frequent with vestibular rehabilitation than with control, and the authors described the evidence as moderate to strong. For BPPV, repositioning maneuvers worked better in the short term. The 2022 American Physical Therapy Association guideline, citing strong evidence, says clinicians should offer vestibular rehabilitation, and that saccade or pursuit exercises done without head movement should not be used to improve gaze stability.

After stroke, a 2011 Cochrane review found two drug trials with 28 participants, 5 of them with stroke, and no trials of eye exercises, and called for well-designed trials. In sports, a 2012 report found a college baseball team's batting average rose from 0.251 to 0.285 after a season of vision training.

Studies of oculomotor and vestibular training after brain injury
Study	Design	Who	What was done	Follow-up	Main result
Schneider 2014	Randomized controlled trial	31 people aged 12 to 30 with lasting dizziness, neck pain or headache after sport concussion	Weekly physiotherapy; one group also had neck and vestibular therapy	8 weeks	Cleared to return to sport: 73% (11 of 15) with added therapy, 7% (1 of 14) without
Kontos 2021	Double-blind randomized controlled trial	55 teens aged 12 to 18 within 21 days of concussion (50 completed)	Home vestibular exercises or activity and lifestyle advice, 30 minutes a day	4 weeks	VOR scores improved more with vestibular exercises; motion sensitivity difference not significant
Kleffelgaard 2019	Single-blind randomized controlled trial	65 adults with mild to moderate brain injury and dizziness	Group vestibular rehabilitation or control	About 3 and 4 months	Dizziness scores better at the first check, no difference at the second
Thiagarajan 2014	Placebo-controlled study; each person did both	12 adults with mild brain injury and near-vision symptoms	Fixation, saccade and simulated-reading training or placebo, two 45-minute sessions a week	6 weeks each	Fixation, saccade and simulated-reading measures improved after training, not after placebo
Ciuffreda 2008	Retrospective record review	33 people with mild brain injury and 7 after stroke who finished therapy	Office vision therapy for eye movement problems	2 to 3 months after	Success in 90% and 100%, by the clinic's symptom and sign criteria

Where Optics Trainer fits

Optics Trainer is a set of game-based vision and brain training apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, web browsers and Meta Quest. Its Drills tab has watch-and-follow drills, with no score or level, that use saccade, pursuit and fixation tasks like those defined in the first section. Drills come in slow, medium and fast speeds and 1, 2 or 3 minute sessions, and they ask you to keep your head still, so they are not gaze stabilization (VOR) exercises.

Optics Trainer was not part of any study described here. The Drills tab also has Eye Stabilization: you hold your gaze on a center dot while two columns trace how each eye moves, drawn live from your device's front camera. That trace is for practice, not a clinical eye movement test. Optics Trainer is not a treatment or diagnosis and is not FDA cleared. For clinical eye movement recording, see Optics Tracker on our clinic site. If headaches, eye pain or double vision appear during any exercise, stop and call your clinician. Our guides to eye exercises and whether vision training is working cover more.

Optics Trainer is not a substitute for professional diagnosis or prescribed care. Consult your eye care professional for guidance about your specific condition. Mobile and web access is $14.99 a month or $149.99 a year. The phone and tablet apps start with a 7-day free trial, and a free web account includes 3 plays a day. VR access is $19.99 a month or $199 a year after a 7-day free trial.

Optics Trainer drill categories
Category	What you do	Same kind of task as	Example drills
Saccades	Shift your gaze quickly from one target to another	Saccades	Jump, Directional Jump, Center Out
Pursuits	Follow a moving target smoothly	Smooth pursuit	Zigzag, Bounce, Near and far
Peripheral Awareness	Keep your gaze on a central marker while noticing targets away from the center	Fixation	Side View, Wide View, Peripheral Flashes
Multiple-Object Tracking	Keep track of several marked objects as they move among others	Not one of the eye movements above	Multiple Dots, Multiple Dots 3D, Spinning Pairs

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Frequently asked questions

What are eye tracking exercises?

They are tasks that practice jumping between targets (saccades), following a moving target (smooth pursuit), holding steady on one spot (fixation), and sometimes keeping the eyes on a target while the head moves (gaze stabilization).

What is the purpose of saccade exercises?

Saccade exercises practice quick, accurate jumps of the eyes between targets. Anti-saccade tasks ask you to look away from a target that appears. In a 2005 study of 30 people, 2 weeks of daily anti-saccade practice lowered anti-saccade errors without slowing responses.

What are smooth pursuit exercises?

Smooth pursuit exercises ask you to follow a moving target with your eyes while your head stays still. In a 2012 lab study, 10 healthy adults who practiced following a moving target on 3 days still had better pursuit 5 days later.

What are the symptoms of eye tracking problems?

Reported symptoms include losing your place while reading, eye fatigue, blurred vision and trouble focusing, and, with inner-ear problems, dizziness or the world seeming to bounce when you move. Sudden symptoms or symptoms after a head injury need a doctor promptly.

Do eye tracking problems cause reading difficulty?

A 2011 American Academy of Pediatrics report says children with dyslexia have the same visual function as other children, and that the evidence does not support pursuit and tracking exercises as a treatment for learning disabilities. Some saccade training studies reported reading gains, while others, such as a 2018 trial in dyslexia, found no effect on reading.

Do oculomotor exercises help after a concussion or with vertigo?

In a 2014 trial of 31 young people with lasting symptoms, 73% who had added neck and vestibular therapy were cleared to play within 8 weeks, compared with 7% without it. For inner-ear dizziness, a Cochrane review of 39 studies reported less frequent dizziness with vestibular rehabilitation in pooled data from four of them, and the physical therapy guideline says saccade or pursuit exercises without head movement should not be used to improve gaze stability.

Does eye tracking training work?

Studies measured different things. In healthy adults, practiced eye movements changed. Concussion and vestibular trials reported changes in symptoms and return to sport. Reading studies in children reported gains in some and no effect in others, and a 2011 medical statement does not support these exercises for learning disabilities.

Sources

Related guides

Try the eye movement drills

The Drills tab has saccade drills such as Jump and Center Out, pursuit drills such as Bounce and Free Flow, peripheral awareness drills such as Wide View, and Eye Stabilization, on phone, tablet, web and Meta Quest. The phone and tablet apps start with a 7-day free trial.

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