Short sight, fine motor skills and Phonological development Yesterday I worked with a student who was extremely short sighted. She had glasses on which were very strong. The optician had told her that she needed to wear them all the time. When I checked her ‘near point’, how close she could hold a book with her glasses on, this was about 20 centimetres, however anything over 40 cms away became very blurry, out of focus. Without her glasses the near point was less than 10 cms. She would never have been able to focus on writing for long. If she could at all, she would most likely have found it very painful, especially between her eyes (Aesthenopia). If she tried to write, placing her hand between eyes and page would have definitely put it out of focus. Essentially without glasses, before the age of 10 years, her vision had been so poor that she would not have been able to see let alone decode or blend sounds. From then on she was able to see what was on a page, see her own handwriting. As such she should, one would expect, have been able to develop fine motor skills in her writing, with good hand-eye coordination. But there was another twist. A short series of tests suggests that she cannot actually see the words clearly, with her glasses until the font size is 48; not yet considering colour background, This Blog has been published in Font 14. I shall copy a block at the end into font 48 for your easy comparison, At font 12 reading was extremely slow, and decoding was so poor you might mistake it for dyslexia. At font 48 it went up to 154 wpm! This is not rocket science! It might seem strange but it is a simple concept. One student at a university needed a font 35, no colour, no glasses needed. A big computer screen though! Yesterday’s student, with her glasses, could still not see a blackboard to read. She has always had to copy other people and get into trouble for doing it. Becoming marginalised. To see her writing, it needed to be large. Not fitting on the lined paper. Small writing would be hard for her to see and give rise to poor feedback from eyes to the muscles controlling hand movement. More marginalisation. The system is stacked against people with big or scruffy looking writing. It is associated with low intelligence in the world of education. Font 48 To see her writing, it needed to be large. Not fitting on the lined paper. Small writing would be hard for her to see and give rise to poor feedback from eyes to the muscles controlling hand movement. More marginalisation. The system is stacked against people with big or scruffy looking writing. It is associated with low intelligence in the world of education.

Short sight, fine motor skills and Phonological development

Yesterday I worked with a student who was extremely short sighted.  She had glasses on which were very strong. 

The optician had told her that she needed to wear them all the time.

When I checked her ‘near point’, how close she could hold a book with her glasses on, this was about 20 centimetres, however anything over 40 cms away became very blurry, out of focus.  Without her glasses the near point was less than 10 cms. She would never have been able to focus on writing for long. If she could at all, she would most likely have found it very painful, especially between her eyes (Aesthenopia).

If she tried to write, placing her hand between eyes and page would have definitely put it out of focus.

Essentially without glasses, before the age of 10 years, her vision had been so poor that she would not have been able to see let alone decode or blend sounds.

From then on she was able to see what was on a page, see her own handwriting.

As such she should, one would expect, have been able to develop fine motor skills in her writing, with good hand-eye coordination. But there was another twist.

A short series of tests suggests that she cannot actually see the words clearly, with her glasses until the font size is 48; not yet considering colour background,

This Blog has been published in Font 14. I shall copy a block at the end into font 48 for your easy comparison,

At font 12 reading was extremely slow, and decoding was so poor you might mistake it for dyslexia. At font 48 it went up to 154 wpm!

This is not rocket science! It might seem strange but it is a simple concept.  One student at a university needed a font 35, no colour, no glasses needed. A big computer screen though!

Yesterday’s student, with her glasses, could still not see a blackboard to read.  She has always had to copy other people and get into trouble for doing it. Becoming marginalised.

To see her writing, it needed to be large. Not fitting on the lined paper. Small writing would be hard for her to see and give rise to poor feedback from eyes to the muscles controlling hand movement.

More marginalisation. The system is stacked against people with big or scruffy looking writing. It is associated with low intelligence in the world of education.

Font 48

To see her writing, it needed to be large. Not fitting on the lined paper. Small writing would be hard for her to see and give rise to poor feedback from eyes to the muscles controlling hand movement.

More marginalisation. The system is stacked against people with big or scruffy looking writing. It is associated with low intelligence in the world of education.