Quick Vision Check printable pdf download

Quick Vision Check

How often your students move their eyes off the music can give you valuable information

about why a student is struggling with reading. Use this form with all of your students over

the course of 1 week.

Reading Rating- use a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 means no or extremely limited reading and 5

means proﬁcient sight reader.

Music Selection- a section of music that your student plays which you can use to assess

reading ability. With younger or less experienced students, I often use 8-12 measure sections

and will count the number of notes or beats. This gives me a rough estimate of how many eye

movements there are per note, which I can use to compare good readers with those who

struggle.

Eye movements- how many times a student moves their eyes to and from a page of music.

Comments- use this space for any observations you have about your students’ reading.

What do you do with the information?

Is there a relationship between how many times a student moves his eyes and how well that

student reads his music?

Do students who read well move their eyes more or less than students who don’t?

Do you have students who don’t look at the music at all?

Do you have students who tilt their heads to the side when reading?

Do you have students who move their heads from side to side when moving their eyes across

the page?

Do your students’ eyes track in the right place in the music?

Piano teachers are in a great position to inform parents when they suspect a vision problem.

If you suspect a vision problem, recommend a good Developmental Optometrist or an

Ophthalmologist who specializes in vision and how children learn. Two websites that can

help with this are and . You may want to call around your area ﬁrst

so you have a connection with various doctors.

When speaking with the parents about what you suspect, put yourself in the shoes of the

parents ﬁrst. Often parents are already overwhelmed with managing jobs, children, activities

Learn. Play. Teach.

Quick Vision Check