Comment: Stephen, congratulations and well done on the great deal of progress that you have made with your research this year!

Comment: Thank you for linking to our web site and for sharing your work with us.   I have added a link to your site from ours - you can view your links description  here: http://www.dyslexia.com/cb/linkid?1296085015

This can be found at www.dylsexia.com/links.htm in various ways, including by 
keyword search, and through some topic headings, such as Health Information:  
Vision Education: Reading 

Also, of course your site is currently at the top of the "Newest Links" page.

As to your work and research -- we have found it to be quite common in our work 
to find children and adults who are more comfortable reading (and sometimes 
writing) inverted or reversed text.   Thus your experience and research confirms 
our own view that dyslexia very typically entails perceptual differences, rather 
than being merely tied to basic reading skills such as phonetic learning.   

However, it has also been our experience that we can correct perceptions through 
orientation training, and that this can be done very quickly and easily in most 
cases.  That is why we begin every dyslexia program with Orientation Counseling 
and help our clients to recognize and self-correct for disorientations.  Our own 
observation has been that reversals or inversions are associated with an 
orientation point that is too far forward (which we sometimes refer to as an 
"athlete's orientation") and we are careful in working with clients to be alert 
to that issue.

Thus, we see the condition that you describe as "print inversion" to be a 
functional issue related to how the student is using their brain, rather than a 
hard-wired structural condition of the brain which would be more difficult to 
change.   So our approach with working with such a child would begin with 
Orientation -- which you might analogize to simply teaching a child or adult how 
to reposition a webcam inside their heads, sot that the information will be 
perceived right-side up.   (We refer to that as "mind's eye" --  but I am using 
the above example to make clear that the repositioning is not a permanent change 
or perspective, but rather a change that one learns to invoke at will).

I think this is confirmed with your videos of children who are flipping back and 
forth in their reading, and your report of the little boy who could only read 
upside-down, but was able to transition to right side-up reading after a few 
weeks.   Our view of that would be that as the child's confidence with reading 
grew and his frustration decreased, he became better able to control his own 
orientation.  In other words, while our approach is to begin with orientation 
training and then address symbol confusion -- your approach probably 
accomplishes a similar result by addressing the symbol confusion first.  (See 
http://www.dyslexia.com/library/anatomy.htm for an explanation of the connection 
between confusion, disorientation, and perceptual shifts) 

We do think that your work is a valuable contribution to the field, and may be 
particularly helpful to classroom teachers who do not have the resources or 
ability to arrange for or wait for outside therapy for their students.   You are 
providing the teachers with a very simple tool -- the permission in their work 
to simply allow students to try reading books that are flipped over and to see 
how it goes  -- which may in itself be a sufficient intervention to prevent some 
children from falling behind in school.  In fact, your approach may be a 
time-saver for some teachers, who will realize that they do not have to 
consistently try to "correct" a child who is holding a book upside down.    (See 
also http://www.dyslexia.com/library/edart.htm for a look at the harm to 
self-esteem in such situations).

-- 
Best regards,
Abigail Marshall
Information Services Director
Davis Dyslexia Association International
Website: http://www.dyslexia.com/

Comment: I have had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Round working with the children, Tiger and Isaiah. The boys have made remarkable strides in reading and now have joy in picking up a book. It is wonderful to see them have such excitement and eagerness to read.

Comment: I am an employee at Mr. Round's dentist office here in Greenville, Rhode Island, and I have an interesting story to tell. Last February Mr. Round came in for his routine visit, and during our conversation about "what was new" he mentioned that he had discovered a very unusual, but highly effective, way to reach his lowest performing First Grade readers.

Comment: Well, just had a very similar discovery with an 8 year old today in the Adopt-A-Reader Program at my local elementary school where I volunteer as a friend of the kids having most difficulties reading. This little boy struggles so hard...Anyway, today when he turned his reader over, almost by "mistake", he instinctively went to the lower right hand corner of the page (which would be the top, if he were reading normally) and read with the improved fluency we've all been wishing for him for the whole year! I was flabbgergasted and had him repeat this trick to the reading specialist and his regular classroom teacher. They immediately wanted to correct him. I wanted to find out how he was able to do this, so came home and started research which brought me to this site. I'd really like to hear other people's opinions and experiences with dyslexia being treated by reading upside down. Tell me more, and what else I can do to help this kid? He's very bright, but I don't know any more of his medical or family history, other than lots of people have been frustrated in their efforts to improve his reading thus far. What else can I do?

Comment: I now have run into several colleagues whose autistic children watch TV upside down. Great to see you and Sue last week will write again soon.

Comment: 

Mr. Round, I would like to know how do you teach a child like this? I know you say let them learn according to their natural way (upside down), but when they are learning new things how does that work (show it to them upside down and spell & pronounce correctly the normal way for us)? I have a 6-year old daughter in the 1st grade that sees words, letters, numbers, pictures, and can read upside down. When she was in Kindergarten, I noticed that she would write some letters and numbers backwards. I mentioned to her teacher and school counselor that I thought she might have some form of dyslexia. They told me that it was normal and by the end of the school year it will clear up. Well, it didn't and 2 weeks before school was out, they informed me that my daughter was having difficulties with reading and writing. All through her kindergarten year, I noticed that she was having difficulties with homework. She seemed so frustrated when we did homework and kept squinting her eyes like she was having difficulties seeing what was on the page (she has good vision). She is a very bright and an intelligent little girl. She communicates very well and is outgoing for her age. She loves to learn new and different things, but when she began to bring homework home that is when I noticed her frustration. She went to summer school this past summer, and I continued to work with her on letters, words, numbers, and reading. I continued to see the frustration and difficulty that she was having with the things she had already learned. A week before school started this year on a Tuesday I did my own experience on her. We were going over her words (are, play, find, me). Something told me to turn the words upside down, and when I did she was able to identify the first word "are" correctly. I thought I was imagining things, so I showed her the next word "play", and I asked her how did it look to her and she said funny, so I turned it upside down and she was able to identify it correctly. We did the next words "find" and "me" upside down, and she did it again without hesitating. The next day, that Wednesday, we did numbers. First, I showed her the numbers correctly and she said that they looked funny, so I turned them upside down. She identified all the number correctly without hesitating. The following day, that Thursday, I asked her about the TV (what does she see & does it look funny to her when she is watching it). She said it looks fine, except when there are words on the TV. Also, I asked her about pictures and I showed her a picture the correct way and she said it looked funny. Then I turned it upside down, and she said it looked better. On that Friday, I asked her to read 2 of her books to me and she read them correctly upside down. I have even printed out your test on your webpage and she was able to identify all the letters correctly upside down. Apparently, my daughter is going both ways now that I have discovered what is going on. I think she is forcing herself to see it the conventional way at school, so she doesn't want to be different. Her teacher is saying that she is looking at things the conventional way and has not ask for it to be turned upside down, but when she gets home I see her struggling with the words and reading. I think she has worked so hard at school to convert things the conventional way that when she gets home she is tired of converting them, because if we go to another subject like math she perks up and is eager to do the work. I called her pediatrician and was told to take her to an Optometrist first to get her eye check. In August she had her physical and her eyes were checked then (20/20 & 20/30), but I did take her to the Optometrist. The Optometrist checked her eyes and dilated them. They said her vision is 20/30 & 20/35 and that she has a slight stigma, so they prescribe glasses for her. I did not like the test because when my daughter was asked to identify the different letters she had trouble identifying them. My daughter was facing a wall with a mirror on it that had the letters on it, and I was facing the opposite wall that had the monitor on it. The monitor that I was looking at had the letters appearing backwards. The mirror that my daughter was facing has the letters looking correct. Most of the letters that my daughter tried to identify were wrong and not even close to what the letter was. My daughter knows all of alphabets. The technician even made the comment that my daughter was off the chart. When the technician left the room, I asked my daughter to turn around and look at the monitor that I was looking at and identify the letters. She was able to identify all the letters correctly. I informed the technician and told her that my daughter could identify all the letters that were on the monitor which were backwards. The technician told me that from where my daughter was standing that was not 20/20. She said from where my daughter was sitting and how the monitor projected the letters on the mirror that made it 20/20. I was very discouraged because I did not take my daughter to the Optometrist because of the distance of her sight, but because she sees things differently (upside down) as I had stated to them while I was there. The Optometrist had not seen a case like this before, but I did leave her a copy of your article with your website information. She said that she would do some research and if she find anything she would get back with me. After that appointment, I took my daughter to her pediatrician. I told the doctor about my experience with my daughter, and I let my daughter identify some words, numbers, and read in front of her doctor. The doctor said she had never seen or hear of a case like this before. I had the doctor to write a letter saying that she has observed my daughter identifying words, numbers, and reads upside down. I wanted to have something from a medical professional stating this because I feel as though her school is not looking more into this. My daughter's pediatrician said that she would look into this (consult with another Optometrist). I left her with a copy of your article with your website. I have meet with my daughter's teacher, tutor, and counselor about her situation. Her teacher and tutor says that she is progressing and that my daughter has not shown any signs for wanting to read upside down with them. They said that when they have asked her or even turned the book upside down she says that's not right. My daughter has come home and said that she wanted to ask her teacher to turn the book upside down, but she was afraid and that she did not want the other students to see her looking at the book upside down. I think my daughter condition may be coming and going. She has a reading tutoring on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, and she says that everything looks good with the tutor. My daughter has mentioned to me that in her regular class that sometimes things look different (upside down). I don't know if things are better for her in the mornings and as the day progresses that things flip on her. Doing homework is so frustrating. She does not like to work on her words, writing, and reading. I tell her that if it is better to turn the book or words upside down that it is ok, but she hesitates which way she wants it. I think my daughter is afraid to tell me everything that is going with what she sees, because she does not want to go back to the eye doctor and get her eyes dilated again. She has stated that she does not want to go back to the eye back and get her eyes sprayed. I have been encouraging her to let me know what is going on because I'm trying to help her. I am very caution about discussing this situation around her, but I do ask her about her day and how does thing look to her. I would appreciate any advise you may have. Sorry my note is so long, but I wanted to give you some background as to what I have gone through. Thanks, M. Farnswarth

Comment: I accidentally discovered that one of my students, who reads 2nd grade level on his best day, was reading from across the table. Further investigation showed that he could read better "PI" than he could normally. Googling produced some forum posts which led me here. In an Education career of 22 years I would not have guessed "PI" existed if I had not experienced it. I am grateful to be able to help a young man begin to read. 

 Alan R. McDaniel, Jr.
 Sp.Ed. Dept. Head
 GHS Goliad, Texas

Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Alan. You are the first High School teacher we have heard from. I know you won't be the last...

Mr. Round

Comment: Hi M.Farnsworth, Your experience with the Optometrist, raises a most important issue. Where given that a Letter Chart is one of the most common tools to identify vision difficulties. With a PI difficulty, this would make a Letter Chart test invalid and give a false indication. But further to this, is a test for 'visual tracking', and the ability to move the eyes smoothly across a line, when reading. Where I would suggest that PI would significantly impact visual tracking when reading. But not be a problem, when the page is inverted? I will be writing to a professor of Opthamology about this. As a test for PI could easily added to Optometrists tests. By simply adding a few lines of inverted letters, to a Letter Chart. Geoff Dobson,

Comment: 

Steve, 

 Yesterday was the first I had ever had any inkling that this problem existed.  I have been a teacher, coach, High School administrator, and  am currently the Special Education Department Head at our high School (That is a much bigger sounding title than the job entails, but...)  C.J. is a 10th grader (16 years old) who has been in Special Education for his entire school life, with learning disabilities and dyslexia.  My wife is our Elementary school Principal and over saw his early years as many interventions failed to produce results with his reading abilities.  He is/was one of those extremely frustrating cases in which no matter what was attempted it never worked.  In fact it seemed that he was regressing at times.  He can copy legibly but cannot write a complete sentence or even spell.  

His oral expression is higher than his reading/writing but is still not on grade level. Obviously there are reasons for all of this.  He is currently taking "American Sign Language" which we count as a foreign language credit.  He does very well and after one six-week grading period is producing excellent marks.  It was from this class that he came to me for help in taking a written exam.  I had read a passage to him and asked him to respond orally answering the question.  This process has become drill for him over the years and has proven to be the only way to check for understanding and mastery of coursework.  As he began responding to my question I noticed his eyes following the listed answers in the passage I had read.  I was sitting across from him and he was reading the answers word for word upside down.  The phenomenal thing about this was that he cannot read at all right side up.  In fact upon his completion of the answer I turned the book around and asked him to read it again.  He could not.  I typed out a short passage and printed it in large font. I presented this to him to read inverted without any explanation.  He read the passage with minimal prompting from me.  Even with the prompting on words which had "wh' and "th" blends he read better than he had  ever read before.  Upon presenting the same passage to him normally, he could not read any of it.  When I handed the paper to him right side up I watched his eyes and they immediately looked at the bottom right hand corner of the page, and quite understandably he could not read the passage.  

I sent him back to class and allowed MY head to stop spinning.  I called him back later in the day and we went through a few more very informal exercises, which further solidified in my mind that what I was experiencing was actually real. I broached the subject of "why" with him.  He stated very matter-of-factly that, "That is the way I learned to read".  I had coached this child in football and I responded in a coach-like manner that no one learns to read upside down, and asked him to explain further.  He said that when the teachers would give him something to do or read that when he asked for help they would.............(now get this kicker) - take the paper from him, turn it around and read it to him and he would follow along as they read. 

 I'm afraid I was unable to completely hide my stunned expression.  I had just been told by a lifetime Special Ed student that essentially, very well meaning teachers and teacher aides had in fact taught C.J. very well.  He had learned to read exactly as we had taught him.  

Now, as I have calmed down a bit and have read a bit more, I realized that he had a reading problem all along and perhaps he may not have learned to read at all if it were not for the inversion (inadvertent as it was) taking place early on.  During the course of my informal exercises I had to take a walk down the hallway to gather my thoughts.  When I returned to my room I found him reading the newspaper upside down.  I asked him if he was understanding what he was reading and he replied that he was having trouble with some of the words.  This is not surprising since I would have trouble with phonics upside down and backwards.  The words that were giving him difficulty were place names and words that were not phonetically recognizable.  

Unfortunately, he was absent from school today and I did not get a chance to continue working with him.  I sincerely hope that these circumstances will prove to be a breakthrough for him in his reading.  The best moment of the day was when I returned to class and found him reading the newspaper.  It was a display of initiative that was beyond anything he had ever done before.  He had, of his own accord, sought out reading material and was reading on his own.  I cannot overemphasize the significance of this act.  

I will try to keep you posted as things progress.

Alan McDaniel

GHS Special Education 

armjr@goliadisd.org

Comment:

Comment: Tutoring a 3rd grade girl. Very bright. Insisted that b was d, m was w, n was u. Tried her reading and writing with a mirror last week, and she read and wrote perfectly. Thrilled! Think I'll try upside down writing. Should she get vision therapy, or will this self correct?

Hi Ruth,