[senco-forum] Jerky eye movement

Do you have access to LUCID VISS? (LUCID Visual Stress Screener).

Using the program it's possible to do some testing yourself to discover what
it is she is actually seeing on the page. It won't cure the jerky
movements/nystagmus you describe, but should provide you with information on
illusions of shape, movement and colour in the text; distortions of print
and loss of clarity and help decide whether or not coloured overlays or
tinted glasses will help this particular student.

There are two versions of the program for age 7-11 and 11-17 and it runs in
Windows 2000 and XP.  If the optician is recommending a program to alleviate
a medical, rather than a processing, problem then it might be worth asking
the NHS to supply the relevant program.

Yours

Colin

Colin Redman
SEN Marketing

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Phil
Sent: 05 October 2007 14:52
To: 'Ruth Newbury'; senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk
Subject: RE: [senco-forum] Jerky eye movement

I also think it is nystagmus - James Gallway the flutist has it as does my
brother who is albino - it's very common in people with albinism. I would
beware of any computer programme that says it will fix it - I think there
are some exercises that help with slight visual tracking but not with an
incurable condition like nystagmus. 

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Ruth Newbury
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 5:24 PM
To: senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk
Subject: [senco-forum] Jerky eye movement

I am currently teaching a yr3 little girl – doing catch up with her – she
can read – and write and spell – but slowly.  Working hard – but her efforts
– and the hours we have done have not paid off as well as I would normally
have expected.

As usual – I recommended that parents got sight and hearing tests done –
hearing has still to be done – but she has just had her eye testing done –
and she has a “jerky eye” movement.

Now I have not knowingly taught anyone with this particular problem before
named by an optician – I’ve normally got eye movement sorted out quite
quickly – and I have not before had it identified as the problem after an
eye test – and I suspect that it must be quite severe for it still to be
showing up as the problem.

I actually think I see some up and down jerks too – as well as the
horizontal movement – if she reads without a book mark – we can move up and
down the line of reading as well – and she has a tendency to attack a new
word – with the right sound – but as an anagram – she doesn’t always start
at the beginning of the word – I am currently making her put her finger at
the beginning of a word if she doesn’t know it and needs to work it out –
and that generally gets the  word started correctly – and if it is not too
long – completed correctly – long words are more problematic.

To date we have attacked a number of word lists to build up a sight
vocabulary – her preferred – and most successful approach is to learn the
words from and individual flash card (we do each word three consecutive
times correctly – and then file it away.  As she can read them – we learn to
spell them as well – as we build up the sight vocabulary – I make longer and
longer flashcards out of them – and we are currently on three words long
ones – and just about to move to four – like “at the big house” – and we
write these as well.

Her favourite thing to do is “radio reading” (the name shows my age – at
least I am not calling it wireless reading!)  Here we get the easiest books
from my stock – and see how long she can read like the radio – without a
pause or a hesitation – very useful that – she has an on/off button – a
volume control – and one for expression too – and I pretend to turn her off
or on and turn up the volume etc.

Now – the optician has recommended an expensive American computer programme
which will attack this sort of problem – around £90 – and he says that the
USA has developed this sort of programme – but there is nothing home grown
that does this.  I’ve had a preliminary google – but I don’t know the
correct medical name for this problem – or to sort out what remediation
might be on offer.  What I have been doing is merely a response (that is
currently working – but not as fast as I would like for all the effort she
is putting in).

Can anyone help me with more details of this problem – and any more teaching
ideas that have worked for your students who have had this problem – and has
anyone had any experience of this – currently nameless – computer programme
– can’t get hold of the optician yet.

Regards

Ruth