When is a person with difficulties reading a dyslexic person?

When is a person with difficulties reading a dyslexic person ?

Tomorrow I will meet for the second time a group of people who have found getting employment really difficult. Whether an educational psychologist would define/label them as Dyslexic I do not know and in a way is not relevant.

• They have difficulties when they read.
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• They find reading job descriptions difficult.
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• They find filling in forms difficult.

I think that most of them had problems at school and I know some of them had a lot of support at school. Tomorrow I will find out just how well they can read and whether they can be easily assisted.

I will not be teaching them. I will be listening to them and then using some basic biology to  find out how their visual system and then their phonological processing responds to changes in the appearance of the text..

We will consider

1. Basic eye function.
2. Font size
3. Computer screen brightness.
4. The RGB settings of the computer screen background.

We will use a binocular eyetracker to measure the perceptual span as they read. ( please see previous postings)

1. In default conditions.
2. In the identified optimal conditions.

I will report any changes in outcome on the blog.

A study in the relationship between visual processing and phonological processing in Primary school children

A study in the relationship between visual processing and phonological processing in Primary school children

I keep trying to get others to look at the role of visual processing in the question of ‘to read or not to read’, so central to what journey each person goes on through life.

I am a now associated with a group of people who are determined to make sure that in the UK at least the contribution of visual processing as a barrier to reading is minimised.

A colleague optician and I are about to embark on a pilot scheme with primary school children to find out just what can be achieved.

We will report all of our findings, anonymised of course. It will look at the issues of.

1. Optometric need
2. Orthoptic need
3. Visual attention span/perceptual span
4. Crowding
5. Font size
6. Computer screen background
7. Reading performance

This will be a longitudinal study and will cost us and the associated school a great deal of time.

The information which it reveals will be open to others to interpret. 

It is hoped that it will contribute to the planning of the larger scale programme we envisage. 

I am confident that many will regard this as anecdotal and be dismissive of it as not being a ‘DBPCT’, a double blind Placebo controlled trial. They may even dismiss it as being undertaken by people with a commercial interest.

 Most likely that would be the response to any favourable outcomes that appear to contradict their own mental constructs, their version of truth.

If so then I challenge them to invest their time and energy into a parallel trial which tests their hypotheses.

The design of the pilot will be published in this blog. Readers and interested parties are welcome to contribute their ideas on its structure through emails and the blog itself.

Contributions suggestions will be published in the blog.

Remember this is about real life intervention. It is about maximising reading performance. NOT about pure science. 

Eyeshields for low vision patients and other low vision aids.

For a long time now different colored eye shields have been recommended for various low vision conditions. People talk and write about evidence based research and not relying on anecdotal evidence.

I challenge anyone to find the evidence based research or even the anecdotal evidence to support the recommendations about the color of eye shields. I can find none.  

Most low vision aids for reading concern themselves with the ability to raise the font up to compensate for loss of acuity.  This in itself restricts visual span and perceptual span such that the person finds themselves having to decode words one or two letters at a time.

The reading is really slow and the fluency is lost together with comprehension and a lot of the enjoyment.

We are looking at the way objective analysis of visual performance and text parameters may increase visual span and everything which flows from it. It should be a useful research project.

If you work with low vision patients you will already be aware that colour background to text is an option from a limited palette on much of the specialist equipment and software.

The palette offered, as with many accessibility options on websites is totally irrational and not evidence based. 

Let’s see what happens. It could contribute to the visual processing and phonological processing interaction components of dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties.

The phonological / visual debate continues.

The phonological / visual debate continues.

I have received many responses provoked by the recent posts. I broke off though to listen to a discussion on the BBC concerning the research towards ‘Absolute Zero.’

·        Minus 273 degrees Centigrade.

·        0 degrees Kelvin.

At the end of the nineteenth century this research was being hampered by the unwillingness of teams to collaborate. There was competition, with claims and counterclaims, outright hostility, mistrust of motive.

The only thing that really mattered was to push the research forward. What was learnt on the way is what has become useful to the Human Race.

In our endeavours to increase the literacy of our people, we endeavour to identify and reduce or remove the barriers to their reading performance.

What matters is that the transmission of ideas through text gets better for more people. That way the ideas do not get lost in ‘translation’, from eye to mind.

Most people with poor reading, poor access to text, will never get diagnosed as dyslexic, Dyspraxic or any other label.  They will just assume that what they experience is ‘Normal’ and get on with life. But it is likely that their lives and their contribution to society will be limited by their poor abilities with text.

For a long time our ancestors believed many, what we now consider to be strange ideas about   disease.  But they made sense to them at the time. Science was about questioning orthodoxies. accepted  'truths'.

It is hard to change the way people think especially since we are all sort of addicted to the ideas/explanations that have made sense to us up to now. Our own mental constructs of reality.

But there is excitement in looking closely at where our models do not work. It is our duty to test our ideas to destruction.

I again restate the contents of an earlier post.

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Phonological processing or visual processing? Which is in control when you read?

This is a very important question. Possibly it is the most important as we move towards enabling more people to have more access to text.

It is obvious that reading is a ‘phonological output.’ Text is a ‘substitute for the spoken word, our thoughts are speech based.

A second question that needs considering is this.

What controls phonological processing?

I ask you this one question.

Does the font you are reading affect how easy it is to read?

Does the font you are reading affect how easy it is to read?

Does the font you are reading affect how easy it is to read?

Does the font you are reading affect how easy it is to read?

Does the font you are reading affect how easy it is to read?

If your answer is yes then you are saying that  

‘My phonological output is controlled by my visual processing.’

 If it does not then perhaps your phonological processing might not be being controlled by visual processing.  You would need to check more carefully.

If a colour or screen brightness makes it easier or harder to read then again visual processing is in charge.

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Research in this area is controlled to a great extent by the way terms such as ‘Dyslexia’ are defined.

If it is defined as having an etymology based on a ‘phonological deficit’

Then that will skew the selection of people in experimental or control groups. 

There are many people/adults whose phonological processing appears to be influenced by the parameters controlling the visual appearance of the text they are reading.

I would love to see research into the way these parameters affect visual span and crowding.

But is that disquieting to some? If so why?

Interaction between Phonological processing and visual processing

Interaction between Phonological processing and visual processing

http://anniemurphypaul.com/2013/02/the-link-between-dyslexia-and-the-way-the-brain-encodes-sounds/#comment-23492

The work referred to in the link above is highly relevant o my work.

There is additional evidence concerning what is referred to as Visual attention span, which shows a close link to reading issues and the number of letters that the 'visual/ auditory system can parallel process.

 In addition there is the link to 'perceptual span' which appears to be associated with the number of 'visual spans ' that can be processed within one fixation.

 The first,’ visual span' is likely to be a product of edge detection speed which is associated with another phenomenon called 'visual crowding'. 

These capabilities are most likely 'plastic' to some extent, that is they can be affected by parameters which control the visual image and the 'total reading experience of the person. 

The total reading experience of a person will be a product of.

Their reading speed

1. Their reading stamina
2. Their phonological processing speed, probably limited by Way their Brain Encodes Sounds
3.  Their grapheme-Phoneme matching speed
4. Their syntax prediction capability (Close system capability)
5. Of course their visual systems’ visual span, possibly limited by optometric parameters.

Phonological processing speed may well control the rest when a person is learning to read, but as their reading matures it appears to be no longer the limiting factor for many.

The issues are these.

Is the visual system limiting the rate of the encoding of the link between grapheme and phoneme?

Are what point in a person’s reading development does the visual processing become limiting to performance?

The article suggests that it is possible to improve the encoding process in a child.  This suggests that a child will more rapidly reach the stage where phonological processing is no longer affecting their reading development.

At this point other parameters will become limiting. It is possible that in addition to the training envisaged in the article that optimising the visual factors would accelerate that development further and faster still.

The implication is that the reading performance at any one moment is a product of the two interacting. Work being reported at the Oxford-Kobe symposium in April, suggests that for adults the phonological processing speed is no longer dominating for most people and there is a visual 'deficit' which needs addressing.

What happens when people are not tested 'at near'

This is a virtually a repost  of an earlier one.

I believe it to be particularly relevant to my last post and also to work I am doing at an FE college, with adults many of who are in a way victims of the failure  to ‘test at near’ and the consequential failure of the educational system to realise what could be possible.

I am not saying that it will solve all reading problems, but for many adults it is a component of why they have functional reading problems that should have been dealt with and removed from the story.

The survey I am doing  suggests that in addition to those taking examinations  this year who have never been to an optician there may be 50,000 ( yes 50,000!) who were wearing glasses in primary school but stopped.

It is possible that many of those who stopped, found that when they wore them, their teachers expected any reading difficulties they had would be solved. If they were not solved, then the child would decide that the glasses were not helping and stop wearing them. Parents in this situation would find it hard to argue with the children and win. 

I have been told that bullying does not appear to be an issue for the children wearing glasses, although it may have been an issue for those who stopped at secondary level.  How do we find out?

Many university students, I have met, have told me that the glasses they had actually seemed to make their eyes ache, or that they would feel nauseous, as well as making little difference. These were clever successful students who had struggled but succeeded at school. They were saying it as it was. At Further education level, I tend to meet students with bigger reading difficulties, bigger visual problems, which have never been resolved even though they could be. It seems likely that millions of pounds are spent each year trying support students when the fundamentals have been missed.

I remember in one FE college, a student who clearly needed glasses, had never been to an optician, who could read if the font on a computer screen was set at 27, and actually could read quite fluently; immediately after the teacher had been told of his difficulty, he was told to read out aloud from a Dickens novel to the class!  The student tried  but was laughed at and humiliated in front of his peers. Unsurprisingly he got angry, upset and walked out. Another success story!!!!!

This guy had been in special needs since he was 11 years old. This had been happening for years.

Slow reader? Dyslexic? What to ask your optician?

 Slow reader? Dyslexic? What to ask your optician?

It is all very well my going on about visual processing but I need to take you a little further.

When a child or most adults see an optician they get checked for vision problems ‘at distance’.

For reading the person needs to be tested for vision issues at ‘near’. Within an arm’s length.  Within the distance you would hold a book, or sit in front of your computer screen, hold a pen.

 It should take no longer than an ordinary vision test. About 15 minutes.

Where will you find such a capable optician?

They must be rare, mustn’t they?

Well actually no EVERY optician (except dispensing opticians who should not be testing you anyway) has done this stuff and passed their examinations in it to get their degree!

So just ask your optician! …….Please test me/my child ‘at near’.

They might want paying for it (I am certain they will) but it should not be much. It is not a specialist skill.

Now let’s think about eye tests at school. Here in the UK, it is school nurses who do the eye test. NOT opticians.

At school they do not test at near.

If unsure ask your optician tell them what you want.

It should be cheaper than employing tutor for an hour!

If any of this advice is wrong in the opinion of the reader. PLEASE let me know. Put it in comments.

This as my Optician colleague tells me is not rocket science.