Visual-Kinesthetic Remediation: The Eye-Stability and Movement Work

By Laura Lurns · Reviewed by Philip Weaver · Last reviewed 2026-10-13

What the name means

Visual-kinesthetic remediation is a name we have used for our own work. The work practices eye and movement skills. It does not correct a disorder. It covers two kinds of practice. One is eye-stability work. The other is movement work.

On this page, visual means the eye work. Kinesthetic means the movement work. The name does not sort children into types of learner. It names the work, not the child.

This is not vision therapy. It is not a dyslexia treatment. That was never its intent. Reading improves with reading instruction.

No study of any Learning Success program exists.

Eyes first: an eye exam with near vision

In our view, an eye exam is worth doing early. Ask for one that includes near vision.

Some children avoid close work, rub their eyes or lose their place. In our view, that is a reason for a full eye exam. If an exam finds an eye problem, that problem needs its own care.

We are not against eye care. Our eye work does not take the place of an eye exam.

Our page on vision therapy and dyslexia has more.

How our eye work is built

This part tells how we built our own work. It is not a study result.

In one of our eye courses, a child follows objects moving across a screen. The objects move in set patterns. The head stays still. It takes a few minutes a day, with no equipment. Another course does the same work in graded steps. It ends with everyday tasks for the eyes.

Steady eyes, stable mind. The martial arts have taught it for centuries. The martial arts teach that attention tends to follow the eyes. In that teaching, a darting gaze and a scattered mind travel together.

That is the teaching of a very old tradition. It is also our founder's experience of decades in the martial arts. It is our reason for this work. We hold it as our position, not as settled science.

Here is what you can check for yourself. The eyes are practicing a real skill. The practiced eye skill improves. You can watch it improve inside the exercises.

One use of our eye work is two minutes of quiet eyes before homework. That marks the start of focused time.

Tracking a line, holding the eyes steady on one point and shifting focus can be practiced. Practice improves them. Keep any such practice alongside reading instruction, not in place of it.

How our movement work is built

This part tells how we built our own work. It is not a study result.

Some of our programs include coordination and body-awareness movements. They are adapted from kung fu. Each one is broken down into steps on video. A parent with no kung fu background can do them with the child.

One movement asks for head and eye stability while the body moves. Three limbs cross the middle of the body at once. In our view, it is hard to learn, and that is the point. The child gets to practice something hard.

The martial arts are our reason for these movements. That is our view, not settled science.

Coordination practice builds coordination, and that is what these exercises train. No study of any Learning Success program exists.

Our own program, Brain Bloom, includes coordination and body-awareness movements.

Keep any movement work alongside reading and handwriting teaching, not in place of it. Handwriting improves most consistently with handwriting practice; motor work alone has not been shown to improve it. Reading improves with reading instruction.

What studies have tested

No study of any Learning Success program exists. So nothing is claimed for this work on reading, attention or schoolwork.

One small study gave adults a single short session of eye exercises (Di Noto and colleagues, 2013). Afterward, they were more accurate at picking out letters in a fast-changing display. Their speed did not change. The study tested no reading, no children and no one with dyslexia. That is a finding about a small group of adults.

None of the eye therapy or eye exercise trials we hold measured reading. Reading improves with reading instruction.

The American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus advises: "Don't recommend vision therapy for patients with dyslexia."

To us, better eye skills and better reading are different claims. Ask which one a program has shown.

If your child has lost a skill

Some children could do something and now cannot. That is different from a child who has not built the skill yet. Our position is that a lost skill goes to a doctor first, not a tutor.

When to ask for help

Each of these is a reason to ask for help on its own.

• Little change, even with steady practice and good teaching.
• Schoolwork well below what school expects.
• A teacher who raises a concern about learning.
• Extreme upset about schoolwork.
• Complete avoidance of school or learning.
• Hopelessness about learning.
• Sadness or worry that lasts.
• Significant delays in speech, language or motor development.
• A skill that was there and has gone. Our position is that a lost skill goes to a doctor first, not a tutor.

If no skill has gone, start with the teacher. Say what you are seeing at home, and what you have tried. Beyond the teacher, the right person depends on what it turns out to be about. If the work is too hard, someone who works on that school skill. If worry or mood is the thing, someone who works with children's mental health. In our view, delays in speech, language or movement are worth raising with your child's doctor. In our view, if you are worried enough to ask, a professional evaluation is worth asking about.

Any talk of hurting themselves is a same-day call to your doctor or a crisis line.