For years optometrist James Miller and his business partners have been fine-tuning a vision treatment that has helped adults and children labeled as dyslexic to become readers.
   Now the state of Tennessee has recognized the value of N2Reading, Inc. and has made it one of 21 supplemental reading programs offered through the Tennessee Title One program
   Miller is a happy man.
   "I'm elated. I can't believe it," he told the Herald Citizen.
   He hopes that the exposure that N2Reading will receive from being available to kids on Title I will help spread the word about the reading program than the word-of-mouth reputation that has been enthusiastic, but slow moving.
   "We hope that allowing us to provide this service statewide will open people's eyes to what a change this program can make," he said.
   Thirteen-year-old Jared Atkins and his mother, Becky, heard about the N2Reading program, word-of-mouth, last February when they moved to Celina from Dayton, Ohio. Jared had been battling with dyslexia nearly all his life.
   "We were told that he had dyslexia when he was in the first grade," his mother told the Herald-Citizen.
   "We went through so many programs we can't even list them all. We sent Jared to specialized summer schools, he was in special programs in school. Once we waited nine months for him to be admitted to a program.
   "None of them made any difference. We were always concerned about what had gone wrong," she said.
   By seventh grade the tall, good-looking youngster didn't want anything to do with reading, was discouraged about school, and refused to read out loud in class.
   When the Atkins moved to Celina, Becky heard about the new treatments that Dr. Miller was conducting in Cookeville. Miller examined Jared and found that he had a problem called Intermittent Central Suppression, a vision disorder, often misdiagnosed as dyslexia, where the eyes don't coordinate and will jump around so the reader will be reading words from one line of type, only to have his eyes jump down and start reading words from a different line.
   Miller put Jared on a 30-day program where he had to read text for one-hour a day from the N2Reading on-line software while he wore special 3-D-like glasses. The combination of software and special glasses forced Jared's eyes to work together.
   Did Jared remember when things began to turn around?
   "I don't know if he remembers, but I do!" laughed his mother.
   "It was after two weeks. I saw that he was actually beginning to read and was understanding what he read. It was just amazing. I don't have the words to say what a miracle it was. We tried for years to find something that would help him, and here, when we'd just about given up hope, it only took two weeks.

   "And you wouldn't believe the change in Jared. He's so much more confident and outgoing. He never would read out loud, but now he does. He wanted to get a library card this summer and he's been reading all vacation," she said.
   His favorite books? Science Fiction.
   Now Jared continues on a vision exercise program for half hour twice a week that exercises his eyes to continue focusing together.
   Miller estimates that it can take up to a year for a student who may have been in resource classes all his life to test out of them and be at the appropriate reading level for his age. But often it only takes a few months.
   "We emphasized to the state that this is not a tutoring program. By simply exercising the eyes to focus corectly, kids will actually start reading," Miller said.
   Miller's especially delighted to be working with very young children.
   "This problem should be picked up by the end of the first grade, not by the end of third grade. Children in Putnam County don't get referred to resource classes until they're two years or more behind in their reading. That means kids have sometimes been suffering taunts and ridicule, and loss of self-esteem, for two years before we get them. There is no need for that," he said.
   For the program to really work, though, the system depends on children having alert teachers, access to optometrists, and parents that make sure they do the exercises.
   "We rely on teachers to pick up on reading problems. After a teacher recognizes that something is wrong, she can recommend a comprehensive eye exam. This does require a battery of tests to see if the child's binocular system is running normally.
   "So we're going to be depending on doctors who specialize in vision training. They're like sports coaches, they're actually giving kids physical training for the eyes.
   "In the end I want to have a select group of interested doctors who want to participate in the program. It's a program I'd like to administer rather than have to work on just one child at a time," he said.
   Miller has worked for sever years with Cookeville inventor Ted Haselton and computer expert Randy Robbins to put together the complete package that utilizes the Internet to begin the exercises that will help kids, and adults, develop strong and coordinated eyes... and may be the end of dyslexia for as many as 88 percent of people diagnosed with it.
   "If we can do this with the poorest of the poor under Title I, think what we can do across the board," Miller said.
   "I'm confident that it can't not work!" he said.
   To learn more about Miller's program and see the test questions that will help determine if his program is right for you or your child, go to www.n2reading.com.
 

  
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