Victoria or anyone else,
I didn’t want to hijack the previous thread so I thought I would start a new post. But your comments about reading sparked this post.
This question is going to seem quite silly but I am wondering about proper reading habits since I have difficulties even though most NLDers do not. When I was taking an online reading scanning test, because I had to hunt for non words or strings of words, I was literally forced to keep my head in one position and use only my eyes to scan the lines. If I moved my head, I got dizzy real fast:))
Is that the way you are supposed to read normally? I move my head to read lines.
Anyway, I tried doing that with a regular book and my eyes got tired real quickly. I suspect vision therapy would help although I still think I have some type of dyslexia due to mild to moderate decoding difficulties.
PT
Re: Victoria or anyone else, a reading question
Thank you very much for the compliments.
Two pieces of advice about getting smarter:
(1) EVERYONE makes mistakes. Smart people are the ones who go back and fix them. Really dumb people are the ones who always have to find someone else to blame.
(2) No matter how much you know, there’s always something else to learn. Learn to say “I don’t know” and “I’ll find out” and “can you help me with this?” You look a lot smarter than if you try to pretend and fall flat on your face — and you learn more too.
OK, lots of things about the reading.
Moving eyes is definitely preferred to moving the whole head because it is simply more efficient. Not a question of right or wrong, but a question of time and energy and fatigue. To move your eyes you use some little tiny muscles to move a little tiny weight; less energy and those muscles can move really really fast. To move your whole head you use big strong shoulder muscles and move a weight of twelve pounds or more; there is a definite limit on the speed, and you must get really tired.
I guess reading at all is better than not reading, but you are putting in so much more work than necessary! You’re using a sledgehammer to swat a mosquito. It takes time and effort to change habits, and while you are unlearning an old habit and trying to learn a new one it is very frustrating and you want to slip back to the old way because it SEEMS easier — it isn’t really, but what you are used to always looks easier than what is new and frightening.
Yes, see a good ophthalmologist right away — a real doctor with an MD, not just a person who measures for glasses. If you can get to a university or teaching hospital with an ophthalmology clinic that can be a good place. Then if you don’t get anywhere by that route, you can also try a person who does vision therapy. Rod, who posts here off and on, can help you find qualified people.
From what you say I would think you need to strengthen your eye muscles and train them to track, something that kids with good luck learn in primary school but you probably can still get improvement as an adult, worth working on.
I also have one eye non-functional, severe amblyopia caused by very stupid and prejudiced mistreatment in my childhood. My doctor also found some problems with tracking of moving objects. I have zero depth perception and can never play softball or volleyball or tennis, but it never affected my reading — one reason I read so much, I guess.
You can overcome a lot of weak eyesight with a combination of glasses and work.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Re: Victoria or anyone else, a reading question
Merlin and Victoria,
Merlin, your advice was really helpful even though you are not Victoria. I am glad you answered. And Victoria is right about correcting mistakes. I wish a family member would heed her advice as this person keeps making excuses instead of owning up to the fact that a mistake was made.
I think you both profusely for your advice. Geez, who would have thought an online test would give me important information? Victoria, the analogy about the sledgehammer is so applicable. I definitely get tired from reading.
Since no opthomalogist I have ever seen has commented on the fact that my right eye is weaker than the left, while an optometrist and an OT have, I think I will go back to a developmental optometrist. There is one person I have in mind and I’ll start with her.
PT
[i]I am soo not as smart as Victoria…[/i]
Have you gone to an opthamologist, you can explain that to one and they will test you good. When I was a yougnster, I read like that (and I had hydrocephalus as an infant so it did not help my neck any), and it was because I had (and still have) one eye weaker than the other. I did not grow up with a lot of money, and if you have one eye weaker than the other (and haven’t the means by which to get it helped or if you never needed glasses and just never figured on one eye being “off”), you can have occular dyslexia type of difficulties by the time you are grown…this difficulties show up really well in typing and reading. [b]But, I am not as smart as Victoria…paging Victoria…[/b]
Any how, if you want to try and train your eyes, after going to an opthamologist and listening to Victoria… you can do a mad wicked amount of color coding when you have to read a text and you can use a colored ruler when you have to just plain read a book. They have glasses now a days that have these things called prisms and prisms will help you keep your eyes straight and you neck pain free… But for NLD you will maybe still contort your neck in a unique way for certain things; like I have mad wicked dyscalculia and a Not Otherwise Specified (meaning one for the books) LD and I cannot take a test on unlined paper, I have to break out a ruler and, even though I am right handed, I do everything like a left handed person down to the tilt of the neck and pen grip…no big deal there.
Well, like maybe you have this issue as well? I hope you have better vision than I. Go to an Opthamologist or a really well respected plain ‘ole eye doctor , I am imploring you to do that they have really modern testing for that sort of issue and can help you even if you do not personally wear glasses…describe what is going on and they will give you the skinny.
Paging Victoria