I have two sons who struggled to learn to read. When the one hadn't learned to read by winter break in first grade, I bought "Hooked on Phonics" and taught him myself. The "learn to read by osmosis" approach in his school just didn't work for him.
Through our quest to address the boys' learning needs, the teacher who worked with them at Jefferson Academy noticed they had tracking problems. This was demonstrated in their difficulty in copying problems from the board. Their eyes didn't follow the line and then go to the next line of text. This was addressed by having them do eye exercises and finding sequential letters in random letters representing "words." One of the eye exercises involved my son laying on his back and me standing above him with a tennis ball suspended on a string. I'd move the ball in a circle and watch his eyes track it. His eyes would jump around rather than making a smooth circle. This meant I'd have to slow the ball until his eyes followed it smoothly. We did this every day for a long time and it, along with everything else we were doing at home and at school, made a difference. Additionally, the eye doctor prescribed reading glasses for my son so his brain wouldn't have to strain as much to read/see text and could instead focus on comprehension.
Years later several charter schools starting purchasing and using a Visograph. The Visograph is a computer with "goggles" attached. I did the examination myself to see what it was like. I read a paragraph, with the goggles on. The computer got data from the movement of my eyes to show how many regressions I had (didn't track to the end of a line before jumping to the next line), how fast I read, and numeorus other data. After reading the paragraph I answered 10 comprehension questions on the computer. After analysis and diagnosis, the Visograph programs offers computer-based therapies. For example, the text on the screen may be in different colors for students who find they can read better with a yellow overlay. Another program only shows one word, or phrase, at a time to teach the student to read every word in the line before going to the next line.
Oftentimes students have a physiological reason for an inability to read. Whether it's their eyes, how they process auditory information, how their brain receives and transmits oral/auditory information or some other reason, this physiological barrier--if not addressed--changes their lives forever.
2 comments:
Thank you for addressing this part of "teaching reading" - something that is often ignored in the education community. As a former teacher, I cannot count the number of classes, seminars, workshops that I attended to learn how to better teach kids to read; there were many, but not a single one addressed the physiological reasons why children have difficulty reading. Not only should I have learned about problems like this, but my education classes should have taught about the connections between speech/hearing impediments and literacy challenges. Too much time was spent teaching us to identify different learning disabilities/differences and not nearly enough time was spent learning how to teach reading with strategies that played to or compensated for such differences.
I am impressed by the complicated technology that you've described - it's the first time that I've heard of that tool. Is this screening method something that is widely used or do only a select few have access to it? It seems expensive - and I'll admit that I'm not sure how many children actually require such screening - but I'd be interested to know how much it is used.
The visograph that I mentioned is reasonably priced. Several charter schools have the equipment. Contact Jefferson Academy, Woodrow Wilson Academy or Liberty Common School to see if your school can borrow the equipment or if you'd like to learn more about it.
Post a Comment