Reading
Individuals that are functioning using these deflected patterns have such difficulty recognizing words that reading is not enjoyable. They spend so much attention attempting to decipher words that they only visually recognize a few. They soon decide that reading is just a complicated task of word decoding, which is not what successful readers do.
Children who struggle with reading often fail to recognize words that they just decoded within the last few lines of print. These children are not even attempting to recognize words because they are too busy decoding.
When reading is introduced to a child who has not developed good eye movement skills and visual dominance, the child will want to avoid reading. Because teachers insist that the child read, the child has to adapt to reading in a way that is available to them at the time which is often auditory (hearing) rather than handling the tasks visually which would be most efficient. So the reason the child doesn't recognize words that they "should know" is because they do not even attempt to visually recognize them since they are so busy decoding. If you or I did what they do, we would avoid reading, too!
The following diagram shows the three essential visual abilities necessary for effective reading. They are good eye movement skills, visual recognition of words, and visualization or visual imagery.
As you can see, there is no mention of phonetic decoding in this illustration. This is because the successful reader does not phonetically decode during reading. In fact, reading actually stops when phonetic decoding begins. If the goal in reading is to obtain an understanding of the subject (visual imagery), it is necessary to first be able to visually recognize the written word (visual memory). The following passage illustrates this point.
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, the oredr of ltteers in wrods deosn't mttaer, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteers are proeprly pclaed. The rset can be uot of oredr and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed by sonuding out ervey lteter but by recgoinzing the wrods as visaul wlohes.
A good reader is able to read this passage fairly easily for three important reasons. First, phonics is clearly not highly involved. If phonetic decoding was necessary for word recognition as most people seem to believe, you would not be able to read this passage. Second, as stated in the passage, visual recognition of whole words with particular emphasis on the beginning and end of the word is the primary word-recognition method used by good readers. The third important point is that a prediction of what comes next based on the content of the passage already ready is essential to reading fluency. Fluency, speed, and comprehension usually increase as the knowledge of the content of the passage being read increases.
In order to solve reading problems, the root visual problems must be solved. MVTC uses a combination of behavioral optometric vision therapy and Integrated Visual Learning (IVL). Vision therapy corrects the poor eye movements skills as well as beginning work on visual imagery and visual dominance. IVL completes the establishment of good visualization and visual dominance and then teaches the individual how to learn visually. This process retrains how the individual distributes their attention when confronted with written text. Because an error in normal individual visual development caused these problems, the normal developmental sequence of visual development is followed. The illustration above shows the normal progression of visual cognitive skills from object to picture to symbol to word, and this is the same progression used at MVTC. When the individual has established good eye movement skills and visualization abilities, reading is reintroduced using the new and more efficient visual approach. Nature is on our side since vision is the dominant cognitive system in humans and, therefore, is very easy to use once it is working properly.
