John--  as I have pointed out on other lists,  the company I work for 
has data showing that in the population of adult learners identified as 
having a high risk of some serious learning barrier (using a widely 
known and used tool which is a list of 13 questions that were deemed 
sensitive to indicating the presences of some learning barrier or 
other)  50% had vision problems that were uncorrected --including the 
convergence insufficiency--which we call binocularity difficulties, I 
believe (a partly scientific term, I acknowledge).  We have a tool to 
screen for binocularity problems as well as for distance and near point 
acuity.

More prominent however, is a problem your British colleagues call 
visual linked stress syndrome (known here as scotopic sensitivity or 
the Irlen syndrome.) My business partner just spent a week in January 
consulting with four different researchers in Britain about their 
findings and methods of identifying this and about its relationship to 
what you call convergence insufficiency.   In our data, 85% of the 
learners, who were all dentified as struggling to learn (according to 
that screening tool mentioned above),  had this problem.   It is helped 
by use of colored overlays or colored lenses.  The British researchers 
have variously developed a diagnostic process on a computer or with 
lights or another device to identify it and to measure the outcomes 
that change with use of lenses and overlays.  Two of them have 
developed a rather efficient way for having adults choose lenses to 
help those who are significantly affected -- more than just reading.    
One of these researchers is one of the world's leading voices on 
binocularity problems and contends that visual linked stress syndrome 
may be the real reasons many of our learners appear to have 
binocularity problems.  In any case, there is mounting evidence that 
this syndrome has very profound effects on the brain and all it 
processes.

We continue to accrue more data on these learners and this problem-- it 
is undeniable and profound for many.   It does not affect only poor 
readers. We continue to encounter persons who would be considered 
unimpaired because they have graduated from college but who, in fact, 
confess to being highly reading-aversive--they do not read unless they 
absolutely have to because reading is so uncomfortable.  Given 
overlays, these persons, too, become avid and fluent readers.   One 
person we screened in NM reported two months later that though he had 
literally gone from 2nd grade through college without ever reading a 
book because his compensatory skills were so highly developed, he now 
reads 3-5 books PER WEEK and adores reading.    The stories of their 
struggles in school are heart rending because no one believed them when 
they said things moved on the page and reading gave them headaches and 
other physical symptoms.

The easiest way to know that reading problems likely stem from 
visual-related difficulties is if the person can actually decode single 
words effectively --proivded font is large and not on white paper.   If 
they can do that, but cannot read text well or for longer than a few 
minutes without beginning to make a lot of errors such as dropping 
words or lines, losing their place easily, using a finger or pointer to 
read, guessing words or leaving off parts of words , substituting 
letters and words, and read very haltingly, then visual problems must 
be very strongly suspected.  Clearly they have mastered the 
sound-symbol association process but cannot attain fluent reading.    
As noted earlier, these people will almost always tell you that things 
move if shown that in fact, they do NOT move.   We recently screened a 
36 year-old lady-- an 8th grade dropout who was diagnosed as having LD 
in 2nd grade.  She did NOT report that things moved--but when given an 
overlay, looked up in surprise and said that the lines stopped 
swirling-- she said she had never known that they were NOT supposed to 
move.   Her 9-year old daughter had identical symptoms and also 
reported that words and lines stopped "sliding off the page"  and 
disappearing--she was already in remedial reading for her halting and 
inaccurate reading, and like many others, when asked, reported that her 
eyes watered and burned and that she got headaches from reading.   With 
her overlays (she chose two--one color over the other),  she read 
adult-level material fluently.

This puts an awful lot of conclusions about reading fluency outcomes 
and other reading problems in question.......


Cheers back from Ohio--  Robin Schwarz


(
-----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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