The Washington times., 1937-02-12
SOLVE
0LDREADING
PROBLEM
Why can't he read?

For years parents have been
asking this question. Schools con-
cerned over the high percentage
OF failures in reading and related
subjects by intelligent children,
have at last found the answer
defective vision.
About a year ago DR.. Marion
Monroe, Pittsburgh eye specialist
who had solved reading problems
Of hundreds of Pittsburgh school
children came to Washington.
She brought along her eye-testing
machine. With the cooperation
of Superintendent Frank w.
Ballou, several were installed in
the elementary schools. Three
teachers whose knowledge of
young children especially fitted
them for the job, were taught
how to use the machines, how to
test eyes, to diagnose and to treat.
Many Defective
Children who failed to go for
ward because of low reading
marks were found to be suffer
ing from defective vision-some
serious, but most OF them
remedial.
Thirteen inches is considered
reading distance. It was found
that out of 10000 elementary
pupils approximately 1000 were
suffering from minor eye defects,
such as lack of muscular balance,
fusion and coordination. Two
hundred and fifty were found
to be suffering from serious de-
fectS, including reversal tenden-
Cies (the child read backwards
and "was" looked like "saw'O or
that they lacked depth of vision.
It was found too, that not only
did such children hate reading,
but that they were emotionally
upset because of their inability
to keep up with the others. Fear
of failure, and pressure brought
at home by worried parents in
most cases confused the child
and increased the nervous and
physical strain.
4ohCA4 44O444 O11C SC11OO1
teacher was doing good job, yet
in spite of her the child was re-
tarded, And retarded children,
the schools have learned to their
sorrow, are expensive. Kept in
the same class year after year,
they cost the taxpayers money.
Remedial Reading
Now-under the new eye tests,
such children are given remedial
reading. Sometimes a child had
reached the sixth grade before
the cause of his failure was dis
covered.
In the remedial reading room,
especially designed to attract, the
teacher works daily with these
youngsters. Sometimes she has
classes of five or siX-if the cases
are similar-Sometimes just one
child.
In the Thomson School at
Twelfth and L Streets Northwest,
one retarded child was found to
be Language case" Born of
foreign parents and speaking their
tongue, he had not yet grasped the
English pronunciation. Reading
was a dragon to be feared and
hated.
Six months after he had been
given remedial treatments his
progress was amazing. He dis
covered that those words meant
stories, and now every time he
passes the remedial reading room
he sticks his head in the door
and asks hopefully:
"Can 1 come in and read?"
Asked how she handled diff
cult cases, Mrs. Jane Hilder, who
teaches in the Thomson School,
said
First we build up a hopeful
attitude. We often find chill
dren who confuse the voweTs
and cOnSOnantS. If we can
straighten these out, get him
over his hump we call it-Our
job Is half done. The next step
is to get him to practice read.
ing voluntarily-and then we
know he will be all right"
Glasses, improved physical con-
dition, and, in reversal cases, using
the KinaeSthetic method Grain
ing the child as one does a blind
person through the use of his
hands, have successfully solved
the problem, Mrs. Hilder said.