A lovely young lady who is a friend of my daughter’s is visiting for the weekend. She just graduated from high school. I have had the opportunity to speak with her about her experiences.
She had an IEP from first grade on. She learned to read through Orton-gillingham methodology and could read. However, reading was very tiring and too much reading would give her a headache. Her rate was slow and her overall reading remained depressed by several years.
During her freshman year in high school a school counselor referred the family to a behavioral optometrist (family paid, counselor just trying to be helpful, so suing). The optometrist diagnosed several vision problems, perhaps the worst of which was poor convergence. She then spent two years in vision therapy. She was also tested by an “Irlen” practitioner who helped her to procure tinted reading glasses.
She said that before the vision therapy letters would blur when reading, she had trouble keeping her place, etc. She credits the vision therapy with helping her to overcome the reading difficulties. Her grades improved, she was able to do her homework, etc.
The most helpful technique she found in learning to spell was to visualize words, to develop her visual memory, perhaps along the lines of techniques suggested in “Seeing Stars.”
This is just one story, however as a practitioner to is successful teaching my students to read, at least shorter selections, on or near grade level, I continue to find that they experience difficulties: reading rate almost always remains below 100wpm (orally), sloppy oral reading errors decrease, but continue to occur several times more often than they “should,” they appear to tire and can read well one day and make many errors on another and spelling remains weak. I have become almost convinced that there is a visual basis for this reading behavior, despite the mounds of research that insists that the primary deficit is phonological processing. To that I say, “Yes, but there is often more.”
Re: 18 year old dyslexic
The vision therapy was a huge committment. She had to see the therapist weekly, and it was out of town, a long drive. She spent 30 minutes per day doing the vision exercises. She claims that between that and the tinted lenses, her reading is good. She reads silently at a rate better than average, she can read indefinitely without tiring.
While I agree that the phonological processing is an issue, I personally do not think it tells the whole story. This is just based on my years of experience teaching my RSP students and watching them develop almost grade level proficiency, but still seeing that sloppy oral reading errors persist in greater numbers than are seen in nondisabled readers. Plus, despite my teaching, multi-syllabic words continue to be challenging. My students CAN chunk and sound out each chunk, but getting it all back together often causes problems, they add and delete short syllables. The higher the verbal aptitude is, the better they do just because they have greater command of vocabulary. So, I am thinking of adding a more structured vocabulary (meaning and understanding) component for the 5th/6th graders.
If I only had more time each day!!! 7 grade levels running through my program daily is just too much to allow the time to do the job that needs doing.
I have sometimes wondered if I might visit your program? You said you are running your program this summer? I am teaching Monday/Wednesday only this summer in an alternative-like program for high school students. If you are going to be around, at school, could I drive down someday and see what you folks are doing?
Re: 18 year old dyslexic
Anitya,
This is exactly what Rod thinks, too. I have no doubt there are some kids like that. Unfortunately the resources are not very accessible for many people.
Janis
Re: 18 year old dyslexic
Maybe for some people difficulty with reading is primarily a phonological processing issue but for my son and myself, it is definately a visual processing issue. Learning to read is like writing an e-mail on the computer and then not hitting the send button. The words don’t get to where they are supposed to go so they can’t be accessed when needed. Eventually, with a lot of practice, over many years, it does get somewhat easier but the problem never goes awa entirely.
Re: 18 year old dyslexic
I agree! I, too, have never felt that phonological processing was the main cause (one of the causes, yes, but not the main one). So many dyslexics do have the ability to differentiate between the sounds they hear—it’s matching them to the visual form that presents difficulties for them.
Yours truly,
Kathy G.
Re: 18 year old dyslexic
This has been our experience. My son could learn to read even with a severe visual deficit. He just could not sustain the effort and would make sloppy errors or lose his place frequently.
After vision therapy he loves to read and his spelling while still not great, is vastly improved. I have also seen a recent further improvement in handwriting as well.
Vision therapy is not easy. It is very difficult and takes time and patience.
Re: 18 year old dyslexic
I think that the most severe reading disabilities often do have something more. For my 10 year old son, that “something more” beyond phonological processsing seems to be tied up with his motor and vestibular system. We did vision therapy early on and vision exercises with PACE but both had minimal effect on my son’s reading. He has had tracking issues as well as tiring when reading.
My son’s tracking errors suddenly were reduced by about 50% when we did auditory-motor work with Neuronet this spring—something I find very odd, although the therapist told me it would help. Auditory-motor is basically the ability to say what you hear—my son did not self correct when he read and after these exercises he did. I think the tracking improvements were because he made more sense out of what he read so he was more careful.
Then we started doing head stands (vestibular work) and again when my son became competent at the exercises (they aren’t full head stands yet), I noticed a big improvement in tracking—about 75% reduction in remaining errors. He now reads a page in Harry Potter and only skips four or five words–not normal, I know, but a major major improvement. (On repeated readings, he does not skip.)
My son’s reading speed is now about 135 wpm up from 30 wpm 2 1/2 years ago. Again, not normal, but he will be functional, I think.
Now, should these types of therapy, including vision therapy, be the responsibility of the schools? Personally, I think not. I think it is medical rather than educational and requires intense parent involvement which schools can not mandate.
Beth
Re: 18 year old dyslexic
Beth, your feelings on the responsibility are not necessarily the norm. The line is blurred on this issue. While I do agree, I also know that in the community where I teach very few parents can afford these programs, so my students get me and no one else to help them. I wish I could do more for them because I want them to have a future full of opportunity.
Re: 18 year old dyslexic
You are very welcome to visit. We will be here from June 17 to July 25 from 8am to 2:45. We are off the 15 fwy and I’d be happy to pick a date when you get your summer schedule settled. My work number is 858-693-5447. I can probably learn more from you, but it would be nice to share.
Re: 18 year old dyslexic
We have so many similar issues. Auditory processing, yes, but some visual, motor, large and small. My son was admiring one of those beautiful decorative swords and I asked him to try making a sideways figure eight with the blade (crossing the midline). He need to stick his tongue out and really work at it. He did vision therapy in the office and then a home computer form. We tried a patterning kind of perceptual motor training long ago, but didn’t see much improvement. We have stayed away from other therapies since we just didn’t know which $2000 investment would be right for him. Still we move ahead and gratefully accept a liitle improvement here and there.
Re: 18 year old dyslexic
Can anyone give me any links to research articles re: vision therapy? I’m afraid I’m a skeptic but if it might help my son, I’ve got to look at it. Seeing Stars makes some sense to me and I’m going to look into it further.
Re: 18 year old dyslexic
I think it would be very difficult to achieve eye teaming without dealing with bilateral motor integration problems if they exist.
This is a major problem for my son.
You might want to try something like Brain Gym as the book is only $9.00.
We do alot of bilateral integration and laterality exercises through our vision therapist.
Re: motor based issues
Kids like yours and mine are very difficult. They don’t fit the standard dyslexic mode. We have done a slew of therapies along the way…FFW, TLP, PACE, IM, vision therapy, and Neuronet (are there any others out there?) We’ve had some improvement from everything, but not always in proprotion to the money and energy spent. With my son’s underlying motor issues, we have had the most bang for the buck from IM and Neuronet. Neuronet is not available widely but there are some other therapies that do some of the same things. Brain Gym, which Linda mentions, is one. Balametrics, which NN incorporates, is another. IM (interactive metronome) is available widely and did wonders for my son. We had done NN first, which I think helped.
Beth
Re: 18 year old dyslexic
I agree the line is blury. I think part of my thinking is that what we have done requires intense parental commitment because I have had to do therapy at home with him on an almost daily basis. It requires one on one work and I don’t see that being realistic in a school setting.
Maybe the better question in your situation is whether there are things you could do efficiently and inexpensively to improve the outcomes for your students. I think, Brain Gym and similar programs are often used in school settings with good results. There are materials available that work on visual tracking–they weren’t enough for my son but he is a really difficult case. He had issues differentiating his head and eyes so would move his head instead of his eyes—which didn’t help anything. The one book I have is LDLearning.com.
Beth
Re: 18 year old dyslexic
Hi Beth,
When I was thinking about doing vision therapy, an OT who has alot of experience in working with people with NLD which I have said that I should go for vestibular type of work. Since you have mentioned in the past that your son was diagnosed with some type of right hemisphere dysfunction, I thought I would mention what this person had said.
I think I had even investigated neuronet at one point they seemed to only be in your neck of the woods. Or am I wrong about that?
Anyway, I am sure it is out of my price range since I am currently unemployed.
Definitely glad your son benefitted from it.
PT
Angela and Anitya--count me in too!
I want to get togther with your two ladies too!! It has been awhile since I have seen you Angela and Anitya and I have been trying to get together every summer but our schedules never gelled. I am doing a practicum as an SLP this summer but I am off on Fridays so I can drive down to meet you or Angela on any of those days…This would be so much fun!
Re: 18 year old dyslexic
Patti, I am working Mondays and Wednesdays as an RSP at a Charter school for secondary students. I now have a home/hosptal student who has multiple handicaps: blind, MR, displays some autistic-like behaviors….boy do I need to get some help to learn to help her.
I have some flexibility. The Charter school is closed next week, so I only have home hospital. I might be able to do something Friday the 27th. Perhaps we can visit Angela’s program, if it is OK with her. Contact me at [email protected]
Interesting observations. My son had VT and really needed to spend more time at it, but it is hard. This summer we are trying Read Right which involves a lot of oral reading. I’ll let you know how it goes.