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Date:         Sat, 15 Aug 1992 12:35:00 +1000
              <AUTISM@SJUVM.BITNET>
From:         LNCJB@CC.NEWCASTLE.EDU.AU
Subject:      Re: losing speech
X-To:         AUTISM%SJUVM.BITNET@pucc.Princeton.EDU

Rosanne,

No, there doesn't seem to be any connection between eye color and sensitivity.

I have amassed quite a collection of articles on the subject, but as I don't
have access to a scanner and I am a little too financially embarrassed at the
moment to send these to you by snail mail, I'll endeavour to summarize them.

The article HOW DIFFICULT CAN READING BE? NEW INSIGHT INTO READING PROBLEMS
by Paul R. Whiting (Sydney College of Advanced Education), which appeared in
"The Teaching of English" Vol. 49, October 1985, suggests that some of the
symptoms are:

> They skip lines unintentionally
> They skip words unintentionally
> They repeat the same line
> They exhibit eye strain symptoms; headaches; red and sore eyes (often
> observed rubbing or shading their eyes); etc.
> They move their head across the page as they read
> They use their finger to keep the place
> They confuse similar letters like m/n, i/l, p/b/d/q and so on
> They read word by word, or even in small units if the words are long words
They report that black words on white paper are too dazzling and that the
white spaces between the lines resemble 'little rivers'.
> Seeing double images, words appearing to spread apart, letters or symbols
> appearing to move about, and symbols blinking on and off.
They also have difficulty sustaining focus (and tense the muscles around their
eyes in an effort to do this). The adults tested have a restricted span of
focus and report problems with depth perception......catching balls;
unsteadiness going down staircases; difficulty with entering or leaving
escalators; uncertainty judging the distance of oncoming traffic, and
other distance-related problems. They also report difficulties when trying to
work or read under fluorescent light, of a need to wear sunglasses outdoors
(and even indoors in some cases), of being bothered by lights when driving
at night, of having trouble adjusting from bright light to darkness, or from
darkness to bright light.

A study done by the Los Angeles County Office of Education - POOR READERS
WHAT DO THEY REALLY SEE ON THE PAGE? by Laurel Adler and Marie Atwood, suggests
some compensatory strategies for these students.
> - tinted lenses
> - colored overlays
> - colored paper
> - elimination of fluorescent light
> - use of tape recorder
> - tutor and/or reader
> - magnifying bar
> - non-timed tests
> - oral or essay exams ( no true-false or multiple choice)
> - student projects as opposed to written reports

Dr. Greg Robinson of our Special Education Dept. at the Uni. tested Helen,
Tony and me, after I had gone to see him on another matter. During the
course of our conversation, he interrupted me to ask why I was still wearing
my sunglasses inside....I hadn't even been aware that I was....that was five
years ago. He asked if I would mind letting him run me through his battery
of tests - that was how it all started, I had known nothing about his work
before that. The first test involved reading aloud to him - starting with
large print material and moving through gradually diminishing size of print....
this was the 'fluency' test - the smaller the print got, the less fluent was
my reading, until I couldn't discriminate anything on the page at all. The
next test required me to count the number of squares (without using my finger)
across the top of a cube (subdivided into 11 x 11 squares) - I lost count
around 6. There were a few other tests, but I don't remember details of them
now, and loads of questions concerning what I perceive when I look at a page.
After that first session he gave me a coloured overlay to use for a week and
then I went back for further testing, which this time was conducted using
various tinted lenses. I finally chose a teal and rose combination with
ultraviolet screen.....my left eye required a darker shade of teal than the
right. Tony was the next to be tested and not surprisingly he chose a very
similar combination to mine without any forknowledge of my choice. As soon
as Helen could communicate her preference, she was retested (the initial
testing at age 4 showed that she had the problem but she was too young for
us to be able to determine which colour was best for her....as a stop-gap
measure I had a pair of sunglasses made up for her tinted to a shade
approximating the colours that both Tony and I had chosen, which she wore
during Kindergarten). Helen independently chose my right-eye colours. Neither
Chris nor Tim would go to be tested, but Chris, after working on a computer
screen that had a blue overlay pasted over it only a few weeks ago, thinks he
might now.

One suggestion that Dr. Robinson made that I haven't seen in the literature is
to allow the child to wear a tennis shade or baseball cap in class to shield
his/her eyes from overhead lights - that in combination with the coloured
paper might prove helpful.

Carolyn
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