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Students Jeremy Walker and Michael Wright did poorly
at school until a device to train their eyes to see
better, developed here in Cookeville, opened up a new
world-and a new life-for them and others.
Seventeen-year-old Michael Wright and was diagnosed
as having Dyslexia when he was at the third grade. He
spent the next five years in "Resources" classes
facing taunts of being stupid.
The "When I was younger, kids made fun of me so
much that I had a chip on my shoulder. I turned mean.
I was a total jerk," the high-school senior told
the Herald Citizen.
Then his Dad heard about an optometrist in Cookeville,
who has developed a treatment for Dyslexia.
"I ran into an old high-school friend who had
been dyslexic in high school and whose son was dyslexic
too. His son was now reading. I couldn't believe the
joy this man had because of Dr. Miller's Program,"
said Dan Wright.
So Wright took Michael to Dr. James Miller.
The improvement was dramatic. Before he started treatments,
in the first semester of his junior year, Michael failed
every class. By the middle of the second semester, his
grades were in the '80s.
"I never read books before. In three months, I've
read 6. The last one I read was The last of the Mohicans.
"The difference was life changing," his father
said. "Before, he was reading at the third grade
level and expected to receive an attendance certificate
at graduation. Now he is raised his reading level. His
self-confidence has skyrocketed. He's considering college.
"
The treatments by Dr. Miller have been so successful,
he feels they have the potential to improve the sight
of most kids diagnosed with Intermittent Central Suppression,
a vision disorder often misdiagnosed as dyslexia.
To reach more kids, he has joined forces with Cookeville
inventor Ted Haselton and computer expert Randy Robbins
to create N2reading Inc., a corporation which will provide
the software to treat ICS through computer access to
the Internet.
But to getting the program up and running and getting
the financial support that would enable the fledgling
corporation to spread its wings has been hard. Most
grants require extensive studies and statistics to validate
giving money to experimental treatments.
'N2reading' has been tested only on slightly more than
a hundred patients, and most of the corporation's evidence
is anecdotal.
"We've tried three times for grants," Miller
said laughing. "But if you don't know what you're
doing when you apply, it's hard to know the right words
to use. "
So the little Corporation keeps plugging away, one
patient that time
They hope to create Vision Training franchises where
optometrist around the world can use the techniques
Miller has developed to help focus kids' eyes.
"This program will enable us to provide international
access," Miller said. "The possibility exists
to do it anywhere the world through qualified health
services. "
The ICS condition results went to pathways to the visual
cortex don't work together as they should, causing people
to see sequences of letters and words incorrectly.
Sometimes the eyes will jump around so that the reader
will find himself reading words from one line of type
only to have the eyes jump down and start reading words
from the different line.
Sometimes the reader will have double vision.
Some people who suffer from ICS find that the letters
in a word take on a life of their own. The letters in
the word "This" for instance, can rearrange
themselves 24 different ways. To the reader who has
ICS, it's just a guess which is the correct sequence
of letters.
The treatments Miller has developed for ICS are a bit
like physical therapy for the eyes.
The patients use the 3D type of glasses to view a computer
screen which shows words that blink at certain frequencies.
The glasses, with one red lens and one blue lens, allow
patients to accurately read the blinking words, and
the exercise brings the nerves in the eyes of youngsters
back into a normal position.
Miller's work is based on the 1990 findings of Dr.
Eric Hussey, an optometrist from Spokane Washington,
who, while working on a treatment for exotropia--a condition
opposite to across eyes--found that the same treatment
worked on ICS. He wrote several articles about that
discovery, one of which was titled, "Intermittent
Central Suppression: A missing link in reading problems.
"
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" When I read that article, it all just made
sense to me," Miller said. "Blinking"
glassesHussey had discovered that by having patients
use electrical "Blinking" glasses when they
read, he could control the frequency of the blinking
in order to train the eyes to work together.
Enter Ted Haselton, an inventor with 13 registered
patents to his credit. "--None of which has made
any money, " he says, laughing.
The two were able to recreate the blinking glasses
but found that early models were too cumbersome and
had to be constantly tweaked to get the rate of blinking
just right.
But the testing they had done with the glasses reinforced
both men's view that the program would be of tremendous
benefit to youngsters with ICS--and that the benefits
and could come very quickly.
Patients were asked to use the glasses for an hour
a day for 30 days. Those who followed that plan found
that suddenly they could read and read accurately. Like
athletes working out to increase muscle strength and
coordination, patients were training the nerves in their
eyes to focus together and to stay focused.
Jeremy Walker, third grader in Overton County, felt
the change take place in
just one week.
"His handwriting was the first thing to improve,"
his grandmother, Lilly McCowan, said. "To me, it's
amazing. He couldn't read the simplest book, and now
he can sit and read to us.
"We had a war every night over homework. Now,
he'll sit down and work with you. "
After a month, Jeremy found out something about himself
he'd never known before.
"I love to draw," he said. "Before,
I didn't know what I wanted to be. Now I know I want
to be an architect. I want to design homes. "
For Jeremy, wearing the blinking glasses made the words,
which had always jumped around when he tried to read,
standstill. And being able to read meant school wasn't
so bad.
"I used to read so bad and that I didn't want
to go to school anymore," he said.
"But after I started wearing the glasses, I decided
to go back. "
But Jeremy's experience highlights one of the prerequisites
for Miller's Program: parental involvement.
"I sat with him every night and made him wear
those glasses for an hour. He wanted to wear them for
20 minutes and then take a break. I made him wear them
for 30 minutes and that gave him a five minute break
and then made him go right back," Jeremy's grandmother
said.
When Miller and Haselton tried the system in a six-week
trial here at Algood School last spring and, the results
again were spectacular for some students, but of course
the result depended on how conscientious and they were
in sticking to their "Training".
"It was difficult to use it in a school setting,"
said Algood School principal Richard Norton. "The
kids have to buy into it. The glasses were cumbersome
and always needed adjusting. With someone there to adjust
them, it would work. "
Norton said that 50 percent of the students and showed
improvement. "There were a lot of variables in
that program," he said. "Some of the students
were conscientious, some weren't.
"I certainly think it shows promise," he said.
And many of the parents and teachers of kids in the
program saw a quick and definite improvements
.
But Miller and Haselton agreed that the blinking glasses
weren't as user-friendly as they had hoped.
That's when they met Randy Robbins, a founder of N2theNet,
Inc. Of Cookeville.
Robbins has been putting the blinking frequency program
into computer software. So the program will be accessible
to those doctors who qualify to administer the training.
Because the testing is so extensive in diagnosing ICS--Miller
has patients take 21 specific tests plus 8 more generalized
tests-- he feels the program needs to be left in the
hands out of health professionals.
His hope is that franchising will provide professionals
who can work independently with patients or work with
school systems to help ICS sufferers.
The first trial run of treating students over the Internet
is scheduled to start up in February in Madison Tennessee
where Dr. Joseph Edmiston, is going to work with six
to 10 students there.
To access N2Reading's web page, click on www.N2reading.com.
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