This book is designed to help you recognize the symptoms of the Reading Disease no matter what it is called (Learning Disability, Dyslexia, Attention Deficit Disorder, Minimal Brain Damage, etc.). The text tells you how to check your child now, get a baseline reading rate and errors, and how to check for improvement as your child goes through the therapies you have chosen.

The available treatments are discussed. The discussions tell you if the treatments are designed to create physical changes in the child or are immediate solutions. It is easy to see that crutches are an immediate help to a broken leg, however, no healing has taken place, they just allowed walking. It suggests using treatment combinations to both strengthen and improve reading; spelling and other related learning problems. The costs of these treatments are briefly reviewed.

After reading this book, the reader should know the cause of the Reading Disease, how to choose correction, why these corrections work, how to assess for improvement, how to trace this problem in families and how to apply this information to one child or a school of children.

Profits from the purchase of this material will be used to forward the development of the electronic therapy described. Thank you!

As a pediatric nurse with a degree in secondary science education, a certificate in school nursing and a victim of learning disability, I have spent thirty years researching the cause and treatments especially of reading disability. I have a good understanding of this learning problem.

I am going to describe the trouble this disease has caused me, hoping you will relate to these problems and be able to change your life with some of my ideas. The book will explain where the problems come from and how to rid them from your life.

As a baby, I was a slow walker. As I grew I tripped frequently. I often spilled my milk or juice. My parents sent me to ballet classes to improve my gait since I was so "clumsy". My physical development was normal. I tripped and fell so frequently that I developed a severe infection in my knee and amputation was a possibility. Fortunately it never went that far.

My school life was a disaster! Frequent failure and corrections were the order of each day from the moment I entered a classroom. No one seemed to know why I made so many mistakes. My alphabet, reading and spelling were filled with errors. After a year or more of mistakes with criticism I began to stutter and developed some facial tics. I also did a lot of blinking. My dad supported me, telling me the teachers were wrong, I was really very bright. I choose to believe him.

My eyes were checked several times. My parents were told I had wonderful vision (20:20), but I was just a little bit "cock-eyed"! As I progressed in school I learned to compensate through hard work and good listening skills. My stuttering subsided and in the fifth grade I was placed in a higher functioning group. I still hated to read. I chose the smallest books and even at that my eyes watered as I read. My spelling was atrocious. Standardized tests showed "I was not college material"! I decided to work my way through college anyway.

I have done a lot of work with children and found learning disabled children have difficulty getting their eyes to work together. As a school nurse I developed easy screens to help families uncover this problem. I have also developed an innovative electronic treatment I believe will eliminate or at least improve this problem in most victims.

SLOW READING

REVERSES LETTERS

INSERTS OR DELETS LETTERS OR WORDS WHEN READING

MUST REREAD MATERIAL FOR CONTENT

HAS DIFFICULTY COPYING FROM A BLACKBOARD OR EVEN A BOOK OR PAPER

POOR SPELLING

USES A LINER OR FINGER TO TRACK WHERE HE IS WHEN HE READS

HAS DIFFICULTY READING CHARTS, TABLES, GRIDS, MAPS, AND MUSIC

HAS DIFFICULTY USING MICROSCOPE OR ANY BINOCULAR DEVICE

SWITCHES NUMBERS (ie. Telephone)

MAY STUDDER

MAY DO BETTER IN MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE THAN READING (check old test scores and report cards)

HAS A PARENT WHO HAS THESE DYSLEXIC PROBLEMS OR HAS "LAZY EYE"

HAS POOR HANDWRITING

HAS DIFFICULTY WITH TARGETS (hitting or catching a ball, darts etc.)

MAY LOOK CLUMSY WHEN DOING A TASK (trips on steps, walks into objects etc.) but is physically well developed

MAY "CLOWN" TO COVER MISTAKES

Examination that a child has a "minor fusion or tracking problem". These MINOR

PROBLEMS CAUSE READING AND SPELLING ERRORS!! They may say this because the child has good eye acuity.

PHYSICAL SIGNS OF READING DISEASE

SQUINTING OR EXCESSIVE BLINKING

COVERS ONE EYE

HAS UNUSUALLY GOOD OR "SIDE" OR PERIPHERAL VISION

UNABLE TO CROSS YOUR EYES ALL THE TIME, ESPECIALLY IF TIRED

THE PUPIL OF ONE EYE IS SLIGHTLY LARGER THAN THE OTHER

SEEMS CLUMSY, TRIPS, SPILLS THINGS, WALKS INTO OBJECTS THOUGH HE HAS GOOD PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

FEAR OF HEIGHTS

HAS MORE BRUISES THAN EXPECTED

RIGHT/LEFT CONFUSION

DIRECTIONALITY PROBLEMS

ONE EYE MAY DRIFT AWAY FROM THE NOSE WHEN TIRED

EYES HEAVE DIFFERENT ACUITY (ie. 20/20 LEFT EYE: 20/25 RIGHT EYE)

EYE DOCTOR REPORTS "A MINOR TRACKING OR MINOR FUSION PROBLEM" AS A FINDING IN AN EYE EXAMINATION (your physician may not emphasize this problem)

EYES "WATER" OR TIRE EASILY WHEN READING

"LIGHTS" IN YOUR EYES (CORNEAL LIGHT REFLEXES) ARE NOT IN THE SAME PLACE IN BOTH EYES (one light may be in the pupil of one eye, while the other is in the iris of the other. This may be checked with a disposable camera)

PROBABLY ONLY SOME OF THESE SIGNS WILL BE PRESENT, THE NUMBER DEPENDS ON THE SEVERITY OF THE CONDITION