I think you have received some excellent suggestions for your 
student.  Multisensory instruction should be helpful.  You might also want 
to try having her hold the book upside down.  This is helpful to some (very 
few) people.  Make sure she is seen by an ophthalmologist, not just an 
optician, and make sure that she explains her reading complaints to the 
doctor.  Finally, you might want to explore the research done at Dr. Keith 
Rayner's eye movement lab at UMass.  A good place to start is 
www.childrenofthecode.org/interviews/rayner.htm.  Good luck, this sounds 
like an interesting and challenging case.
Mary S. Kelly, PhD
Director, Fisher Landau Center for the Treatment of LD
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
1165 Morris Park Ave.
Bronx, NY 10463
718-430-3908


At 03:50 PM 3/29/2007, you wrote:


>Hi all --

>I have a student who says that tracking left to right gives her a 

>headache, but tracking right to left is OK.  This might be a result of a 

>closed head injury:  I have lots of questions about this student, and have 

>yet to get her started with a tutor because of other health issues that 

>she has.  The learning problems began long before the possible head injury 

>a.  I hope to try her with a Wilson tutor.   I'd like to screen her for 

>Irlen syndrome but want to make sure she's had a recent eye exam first.

>         Does anyone else have experience with headache in regard to 

> (only) one direction of tracking?

>                                 Kathie Mcdonald, Tutor Student Coordinator,

>                                 Project Second Chance Adult Literacy 

> Program, Contra Costa County, CA.

>

>

>"Josh Hayes" <therealjoshhayes at gmail.com>

>Sent by: learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov

>

>03/29/2007 08:42 AM

>Please respond to

>The Learning Disabilities Discussion 

>List        <learningdisabilities at nifl.gov>

>

>To

>learningdisabilities at nifl.gov

>cc

>Subject

>[LearningDisabilities 987] Re: Looking for expert advice to 

>help        literacy student

>

>

>

>

>Carolyn,

>

>I was very intrigued by your student's strategy.  If this approach worked, 

>I would say run with it.  But it seems that the right/left decoding method 

>is causing her substantial difficulties.  Using a phonics system for 

>instruction is going to require that she not approach the word from right 

>to left.  I don't want to diminish her perspective on her reading 

>approach, however her inability to discriminate vowel sounds and the 

>pattern reversals on some letters suggest sound symbol correlation 

>difficulty more than visual processing challenges.  There is no reason why 

>a d should be more commonly confused with b or P.  They're all circles 

>with lines attached.  She seems to have difficulty with directionality on 

>both planes, and she might benefit from multi-sensory practice in 

>determining the connection to letter name and shape orientation.  These 

>are all things that can be taught.   I would start with phonological 

>awareness and segmentation exercises.  What she may be looking for, and I 

>say may, is common pattern clues using consonant endings with the 

>vowels.  Again, if this was efficient, there would be nothing wrong, but 

>you need to experiment with other methods.  Wilson is probably a very good 

>match, but she needs to replace strategies and hone her ability to 

>discriminate sounds.

>I would also recommend that, if possible, she ensure that she has no 

>sensory problems, such as poor hearing or vision.  If she sees the page 

>clearly head on but blurry in the mirror, that would be the first things 

>I'd want to check out.

>

>Good luck,

>

>Josh

>

>Joshua Hayes

>Instructional Coordinator

>SEARCH Homeless Project----------------------------------------------------

>National Institute for Literacy

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