-----Original Message-----
From: John Nissen <jn at cloudworld.co.uk>
To: The Focus on Basics Discussion List <focusonbasics at nifl.gov>
Cc: Debbie Hepplewhite <debbie at syntheticphonics.com>
Sent: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 11:46:38 -0000
Subject: Re: [FocusOnBasics] Fwd: Three more thoughts on writing

Hi Robin,

Interesting point about prevalence of vision problems.  What proportion 
of
your students have this would you say?

I found this with Google, suggesting 3-5% might have a certain type of
binocularity problem called "convergence insufficiency" which would 
affect
their reading.
http://www.emedicine.com/oph/topic553.htm

However it is rare in children, so would hardly ever be a cause for a 
person
not to have been able to learn to read as a child.

Is this "convergence insufficiency" the kind of problem you are 
finding, or
are other problems more common?

Cheers from Chiswick.

John

John Nissen
Cloudworld Ltd - http://www.cloudworld.co.uk
maker of the assistive reader, WordAloud.
Try WordAloud with synthetic phonics:
http://www.cloudworld.co.uk/teaching-synthetic-phonics.htm
Tel: +44 208 742 3170  Fax: +44 208 742 0202
Email: info at cloudworld.co.uk



----- Original Message -----
From: <robinschwarz1 at aol.com>
To: <focusonbasics at nifl.gov>
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2006 3:51 AM
Subject: [FocusOnBasics] Fwd: Three more thoughts on writing




I don't want to forget to mention the amazing Emily Griffiths
Opportunity School in Denver. This is a century-old ESL school for
adults that has a large program for non-literate refugees. They do a
wonderful job--and when I visited in November, the director described a
program for non-literate Somali women that was highly successful in
getting the women to speak, read and write English--very gradually and
gently. Perhaps someone can contact the school and find out more about
how they do it.

Thinking about the writing question also made me think of the Sudanese
I have worked with and another cultural issue--I think I mentioned that
in the article-this was the situation where the learners were not
interested in answering what they considered to be obvious
-ridiculous??--questions. When given a different set of prompts about
topics they were interested in, they did very well.

And finally, I cannot emphasize often enough how important it is to be
sure your adult learners can SEE. Adult ESOL learners typically do not
give vision care very high priority-- yet many have vision challenges.
It is very hard to write clearly and form letters accurately if you
cannot see. Wherever possible I urge that you facilitate eye exams--and
urge the optometrist to check for binocularity problems as well as
acuity problems. Binocularity is the ability to focus both eyes on one
object and keep them there--then move them smoothly together. A
suprising number of adults who struggle to read and write have this
problem. To help your learners in the meantime, provide colored paper
to write on, and larger than usual figures to copy or trace. The
reduced glare and larger figures make it easier to see to write.

Robin
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