I am a new teacher and have a student who says the words jump all over the page. She can read well when she can focus but reads very slowly. Her comprehension is wonderful and she loves to be read to. Is there a tool I can use to help her focus on the words? She has many things in her diagnosis (bi-polar, adhd, others) and is on lots of medication.
Re: reading
There are some people whose eye muscles are too tight and the “words jumping all over the page” is a good way to describe how it feels. She should have an appt. with a developmental optometrist who can see if this is a problem for her. In my experience, quite a number of ADD individuals have this problem. There are corrective glasses for this.
Also, try these two things: Have her use an index card as she reads line by line so her eyes don’t have to strain over the whole page. Also have her use a slant board for all reading work. It allows her eyes to look straight at the page rather than having to change angles. One of my students was able to solve that eye jumpiness with the use of a slantboard only.
Re: reading
You can try using different colors of plastic overlays to lay over the page. Studies have been done on this topic and research has proven that if you run off the material on different colored paper (blue and light green seem work well for me) or have the child pick a colored overlay to place on top of thier page, that it minimizes the number of words/letters that they see jumping around the page. Hope this helps.
Some people swear by coloured plastic overlays or lenses. There is little scientific research supporting their claims, and the claims go way too far and get into the snake-oil range, so don’t go overboard with it. However, it is reasonable that you can reduce glare and eyestrain by using some sort of light filter; try cheap tinted plastic, not too dark, available from the local office store, and if you find one that rests her eyes, good.
Fluorescent lights can really bother sensitive people (most of my family); we can actually see the lights flicker at 60 cycles per second, and it can turn your stomach. Try sitting her near a window with real direct sunlight on the page; if your school is one that has banished anything natural, try a small lamp with an ordinary incandescent lightbulb.
Beware of excuses (which may be unconscious) — it’s much cooler to have a rare disease where the words run off the page than to just not want to do the work of focusing, especially if reading really is hard work for you. Once you get into the habit of defocusing your eyes so that the words run, it can be a hard habit to break.
In writing, try to break the infantilization that is now standard in schools and ban grey pencil on grey paper. Use a good dark pen with nice flowing ink (I go for cheap roller balls these days) and always use a clean sheet of fresh white paper — particularly for math, which is not trash.
And of course a really good eye exam is called for. Not just a quick read of the eye chart, but a look at where and how she is focusing and tracking. A person who sometimes posts here, Rod, is well-informed about this — look at his old posts and get in touch with him.