Comment: Stephen, congratulations and well done on the great deal of progress that you have made with your research this year!

Comment: Thank you for linking to our web site and for sharing your work with us.   I have added a link to your site from ours - you can view your links description  here: http://www.dyslexia.com/cb/linkid?1296085015

This can be found at www.dylsexia.com/links.htm in various ways, including by 
keyword search, and through some topic headings, such as Health Information:  
Vision Education: Reading 

Also, of course your site is currently at the top of the "Newest Links" page.

As to your work and research -- we have found it to be quite common in our work 
to find children and adults who are more comfortable reading (and sometimes 
writing) inverted or reversed text.   Thus your experience and research confirms 
our own view that dyslexia very typically entails perceptual differences, rather 
than being merely tied to basic reading skills such as phonetic learning.   

However, it has also been our experience that we can correct perceptions through 
orientation training, and that this can be done very quickly and easily in most 
cases.  That is why we begin every dyslexia program with Orientation Counseling 
and help our clients to recognize and self-correct for disorientations.  Our own 
observation has been that reversals or inversions are associated with an 
orientation point that is too far forward (which we sometimes refer to as an 
"athlete's orientation") and we are careful in working with clients to be alert 
to that issue.

Thus, we see the condition that you describe as "print inversion" to be a 
functional issue related to how the student is using their brain, rather than a 
hard-wired structural condition of the brain which would be more difficult to 
change.   So our approach with working with such a child would begin with 
Orientation -- which you might analogize to simply teaching a child or adult how 
to reposition a webcam inside their heads, sot that the information will be 
perceived right-side up.   (We refer to that as "mind's eye" --  but I am using 
the above example to make clear that the repositioning is not a permanent change 
or perspective, but rather a change that one learns to invoke at will).

I think this is confirmed with your videos of children who are flipping back and 
forth in their reading, and your report of the little boy who could only read 
upside-down, but was able to transition to right side-up reading after a few 
weeks.   Our view of that would be that as the child's confidence with reading 
grew and his frustration decreased, he became better able to control his own 
orientation.  In other words, while our approach is to begin with orientation 
training and then address symbol confusion -- your approach probably 
accomplishes a similar result by addressing the symbol confusion first.  (See 
http://www.dyslexia.com/library/anatomy.htm for an explanation of the connection 
between confusion, disorientation, and perceptual shifts) 

We do think that your work is a valuable contribution to the field, and may be 
particularly helpful to classroom teachers who do not have the resources or 
ability to arrange for or wait for outside therapy for their students.   You are 
providing the teachers with a very simple tool -- the permission in their work 
to simply allow students to try reading books that are flipped over and to see 
how it goes  -- which may in itself be a sufficient intervention to prevent some 
children from falling behind in school.  In fact, your approach may be a 
time-saver for some teachers, who will realize that they do not have to 
consistently try to "correct" a child who is holding a book upside down.    (See 
also http://www.dyslexia.com/library/edart.htm for a look at the harm to 
self-esteem in such situations).

-- 
Best regards,
Abigail Marshall
Information Services Director
Davis Dyslexia Association International
Website: http://www.dyslexia.com/

Comment: I have had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Round working with the children, Tiger and Isaiah. The boys have made remarkable strides in reading and now have joy in picking up a book. It is wonderful to see them have such excitement and eagerness to read.

Comment: I am an employee at Mr. Round's dentist office here in Greenville, Rhode Island, and I have an interesting story to tell. Last February Mr. Round came in for his routine visit, and during our conversation about "what was new" he mentioned that he had discovered a very unusual, but highly effective, way to reach his lowest performing First Grade readers.

Comment: Well, just had a very similar discovery with an 8 year old today in the Adopt-A-Reader Program at my local elementary school where I volunteer as a friend of the kids having most difficulties reading. This little boy struggles so hard...Anyway, today when he turned his reader over, almost by "mistake", he instinctively went to the lower right hand corner of the page (which would be the top, if he were reading normally) and read with the improved fluency we've all been wishing for him for the whole year! I was flabbgergasted and had him repeat this trick to the reading specialist and his regular classroom teacher. They immediately wanted to correct him. I wanted to find out how he was able to do this, so came home and started research which brought me to this site. I'd really like to hear other people's opinions and experiences with dyslexia being treated by reading upside down. Tell me more, and what else I can do to help this kid? He's very bright, but I don't know any more of his medical or family history, other than lots of people have been frustrated in their efforts to improve his reading thus far. What else can I do?

Comment: I now have run into several colleagues whose autistic children watch TV upside down. Great to see you and Sue last week will write again soon.

Comment: 

Mr. Round, I would like to know how do you teach a child like this? I know you say let them learn according to their natural way (upside down), but when they are learning new things how does that work (show it to them upside down and spell & pronounce correctly the normal way for us)? I have a 6-year old daughter in the 1st grade that sees words, letters, numbers, pictures, and can read upside down. When she was in Kindergarten, I noticed that she would write some letters and numbers backwards. I mentioned to her teacher and school counselor that I thought she might have some form of dyslexia. They told me that it was normal and by the end of the school year it will clear up. Well, it didn't and 2 weeks before school was out, they informed me that my daughter was having difficulties with reading and writing. All through her kindergarten year, I noticed that she was having difficulties with homework. She seemed so frustrated when we did homework and kept squinting her eyes like she was having difficulties seeing what was on the page (she has good vision). She is a very bright and an intelligent little girl. She communicates very well and is outgoing for her age. She loves to learn new and different things, but when she began to bring homework home that is when I noticed her frustration. She went to summer school this past summer, and I continued to work with her on letters, words, numbers, and reading. I continued to see the frustration and difficulty that she was having with the things she had already learned. A week before school started this year on a Tuesday I did my own experience on her. We were going over her words (are, play, find, me). Something told me to turn the words upside down, and when I did she was able to identify the first word "are" correctly. I thought I was imagining things, so I showed her the next word "play", and I asked her how did it look to her and she said funny, so I turned it upside down and she was able to identify it correctly. We did the next words "find" and "me" upside down, and she did it again without hesitating. The next day, that Wednesday, we did numbers. First, I showed her the numbers correctly and she said that they looked funny, so I turned them upside down. She identified all the number correctly without hesitating. The following day, that Thursday, I asked her about the TV (what does she see & does it look funny to her when she is watching it). She said it looks fine, except when there are words on the TV. Also, I asked her about pictures and I showed her a picture the correct way and she said it looked funny. Then I turned it upside down, and she said it looked better. On that Friday, I asked her to read 2 of her books to me and she read them correctly upside down. I have even printed out your test on your webpage and she was able to identify all the letters correctly upside down. Apparently, my daughter is going both ways now that I have discovered what is going on. I think she is forcing herself to see it the conventional way at school, so she doesn't want to be different. Her teacher is saying that she is looking at things the conventional way and has not ask for it to be turned upside down, but when she gets home I see her struggling with the words and reading. I think she has worked so hard at school to convert things the conventional way that when she gets home she is tired of converting them, because if we go to another subject like math she perks up and is eager to do the work. I called her pediatrician and was told to take her to an Optometrist first to get her eye check. In August she had her physical and her eyes were checked then (20/20 & 20/30), but I did take her to the Optometrist. The Optometrist checked her eyes and dilated them. They said her vision is 20/30 & 20/35 and that she has a slight stigma, so they prescribe glasses for her. I did not like the test because when my daughter was asked to identify the different letters she had trouble identifying them. My daughter was facing a wall with a mirror on it that had the letters on it, and I was facing the opposite wall that had the monitor on it. The monitor that I was looking at had the letters appearing backwards. The mirror that my daughter was facing has the letters looking correct. Most of the letters that my daughter tried to identify were wrong and not even close to what the letter was. My daughter knows all of alphabets. The technician even made the comment that my daughter was off the chart. When the technician left the room, I asked my daughter to turn around and look at the monitor that I was looking at and identify the letters. She was able to identify all the letters correctly. I informed the technician and told her that my daughter could identify all the letters that were on the monitor which were backwards. The technician told me that from where my daughter was standing that was not 20/20. She said from where my daughter was sitting and how the monitor projected the letters on the mirror that made it 20/20. I was very discouraged because I did not take my daughter to the Optometrist because of the distance of her sight, but because she sees things differently (upside down) as I had stated to them while I was there. The Optometrist had not seen a case like this before, but I did leave her a copy of your article with your website information. She said that she would do some research and if she find anything she would get back with me. After that appointment, I took my daughter to her pediatrician. I told the doctor about my experience with my daughter, and I let my daughter identify some words, numbers, and read in front of her doctor. The doctor said she had never seen or hear of a case like this before. I had the doctor to write a letter saying that she has observed my daughter identifying words, numbers, and reads upside down. I wanted to have something from a medical professional stating this because I feel as though her school is not looking more into this. My daughter's pediatrician said that she would look into this (consult with another Optometrist). I left her with a copy of your article with your website. I have meet with my daughter's teacher, tutor, and counselor about her situation. Her teacher and tutor says that she is progressing and that my daughter has not shown any signs for wanting to read upside down with them. They said that when they have asked her or even turned the book upside down she says that's not right. My daughter has come home and said that she wanted to ask her teacher to turn the book upside down, but she was afraid and that she did not want the other students to see her looking at the book upside down. I think my daughter condition may be coming and going. She has a reading tutoring on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, and she says that everything looks good with the tutor. My daughter has mentioned to me that in her regular class that sometimes things look different (upside down). I don't know if things are better for her in the mornings and as the day progresses that things flip on her. Doing homework is so frustrating. She does not like to work on her words, writing, and reading. I tell her that if it is better to turn the book or words upside down that it is ok, but she hesitates which way she wants it. I think my daughter is afraid to tell me everything that is going with what she sees, because she does not want to go back to the eye doctor and get her eyes dilated again. She has stated that she does not want to go back to the eye back and get her eyes sprayed. I have been encouraging her to let me know what is going on because I'm trying to help her. I am very caution about discussing this situation around her, but I do ask her about her day and how does thing look to her. I would appreciate any advise you may have. Sorry my note is so long, but I wanted to give you some background as to what I have gone through. Thanks, M. Farnswarth

Comment: I accidentally discovered that one of my students, who reads 2nd grade level on his best day, was reading from across the table. Further investigation showed that he could read better "PI" than he could normally. Googling produced some forum posts which led me here. In an Education career of 22 years I would not have guessed "PI" existed if I had not experienced it. I am grateful to be able to help a young man begin to read. 

 Alan R. McDaniel, Jr.
 Sp.Ed. Dept. Head
 GHS Goliad, Texas

Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Alan. You are the first High School teacher we have heard from. I know you won't be the last...

Mr. Round

Comment: Hi M.Farnsworth, Your experience with the Optometrist, raises a most important issue. Where given that a Letter Chart is one of the most common tools to identify vision difficulties. With a PI difficulty, this would make a Letter Chart test invalid and give a false indication. But further to this, is a test for 'visual tracking', and the ability to move the eyes smoothly across a line, when reading. Where I would suggest that PI would significantly impact visual tracking when reading. But not be a problem, when the page is inverted? I will be writing to a professor of Opthamology about this. As a test for PI could easily added to Optometrists tests. By simply adding a few lines of inverted letters, to a Letter Chart. Geoff Dobson,

Comment: 

Steve, 

 Yesterday was the first I had ever had any inkling that this problem existed.  I have been a teacher, coach, High School administrator, and  am currently the Special Education Department Head at our high School (That is a much bigger sounding title than the job entails, but...)  C.J. is a 10th grader (16 years old) who has been in Special Education for his entire school life, with learning disabilities and dyslexia.  My wife is our Elementary school Principal and over saw his early years as many interventions failed to produce results with his reading abilities.  He is/was one of those extremely frustrating cases in which no matter what was attempted it never worked.  In fact it seemed that he was regressing at times.  He can copy legibly but cannot write a complete sentence or even spell.  

His oral expression is higher than his reading/writing but is still not on grade level. Obviously there are reasons for all of this.  He is currently taking "American Sign Language" which we count as a foreign language credit.  He does very well and after one six-week grading period is producing excellent marks.  It was from this class that he came to me for help in taking a written exam.  I had read a passage to him and asked him to respond orally answering the question.  This process has become drill for him over the years and has proven to be the only way to check for understanding and mastery of coursework.  As he began responding to my question I noticed his eyes following the listed answers in the passage I had read.  I was sitting across from him and he was reading the answers word for word upside down.  The phenomenal thing about this was that he cannot read at all right side up.  In fact upon his completion of the answer I turned the book around and asked him to read it again.  He could not.  I typed out a short passage and printed it in large font. I presented this to him to read inverted without any explanation.  He read the passage with minimal prompting from me.  Even with the prompting on words which had "wh' and "th" blends he read better than he had  ever read before.  Upon presenting the same passage to him normally, he could not read any of it.  When I handed the paper to him right side up I watched his eyes and they immediately looked at the bottom right hand corner of the page, and quite understandably he could not read the passage.  

I sent him back to class and allowed MY head to stop spinning.  I called him back later in the day and we went through a few more very informal exercises, which further solidified in my mind that what I was experiencing was actually real. I broached the subject of "why" with him.  He stated very matter-of-factly that, "That is the way I learned to read".  I had coached this child in football and I responded in a coach-like manner that no one learns to read upside down, and asked him to explain further.  He said that when the teachers would give him something to do or read that when he asked for help they would.............(now get this kicker) - take the paper from him, turn it around and read it to him and he would follow along as they read. 

 I'm afraid I was unable to completely hide my stunned expression.  I had just been told by a lifetime Special Ed student that essentially, very well meaning teachers and teacher aides had in fact taught C.J. very well.  He had learned to read exactly as we had taught him.  

Now, as I have calmed down a bit and have read a bit more, I realized that he had a reading problem all along and perhaps he may not have learned to read at all if it were not for the inversion (inadvertent as it was) taking place early on.  During the course of my informal exercises I had to take a walk down the hallway to gather my thoughts.  When I returned to my room I found him reading the newspaper upside down.  I asked him if he was understanding what he was reading and he replied that he was having trouble with some of the words.  This is not surprising since I would have trouble with phonics upside down and backwards.  The words that were giving him difficulty were place names and words that were not phonetically recognizable.  

Unfortunately, he was absent from school today and I did not get a chance to continue working with him.  I sincerely hope that these circumstances will prove to be a breakthrough for him in his reading.  The best moment of the day was when I returned to class and found him reading the newspaper.  It was a display of initiative that was beyond anything he had ever done before.  He had, of his own accord, sought out reading material and was reading on his own.  I cannot overemphasize the significance of this act.  

I will try to keep you posted as things progress.

Alan McDaniel

GHS Special Education 

armjr@goliadisd.org

Comment:

Comment: Tutoring a 3rd grade girl. Very bright. Insisted that b was d, m was w, n was u. Tried her reading and writing with a mirror last week, and she read and wrote perfectly. Thrilled! Think I'll try upside down writing. Should she get vision therapy, or will this self correct?

Hi Ruth,

Comment: I used to tutor special ed kids in grades K-2nd in reading and math (yes, I was a math tutor... great idea, right?). Anyway, one of my kids, who I will refer to as Bobby, was a first grader labeled by his teacher as possibly dyslexic and "difficult" in the classroom setting due to ADHD. He was impulsive, didn't sit still well, had a hard time staying on task, and was reading 2-3 levels below where he was supposed to be for his age. The levels were kind of arbitrary, but a first grader was expected to be a "level 10" reader. Bobby was reading at level 7-8 depending on the book.

Comment: Let me first say, I am just a mom of a wonderful 10 year old boy named Jacob.   He has always loved learning about new things.  As a young child he always wanted to read books especially about the solar system.  I would have to read encyclopedias and atlases of the universe to him at night.  It wasn’t until he started 1^st grade that we discovered school was not going to be easy for Jacob.  His teacher contacted us in November to set up a PPT meeting to discuss Jacob’s progress (or lack thereof).  I knew Jacob had a hard time with spelling and math because he would reverse letters and numbers.  However, the school kept insisting this was completely “normal” for his age and he would out grow it. 

Jacob hated going to school.  It was heartbreaking to wake him up in the morning and listen to him cry.  He would tell me that school was torture.   Jacob insisted he was stupid, dumb and not as fast as all the other kids.  The school placed him in Special Education and we began having IEP meetings.  He finished 1^st grade still not able to read all the sight words.  Writing was even worse.  You could not understand any of his penmanship.  So, we had him repeat 1^st. He completed the second year of 1^st grade with a reading level of mid-kindergarten.  He progressed to 2^nd grade being 1 ½ years behind in reading skills, still not able to write and struggling in math. 

By now Jacob was really able to understand that he was not like all the other kids in his class. He started to become very anxious about going to school. He began to bite his fingers to the point of bleeding.  Despite all of our encouragement and intervention, Jacob continued to decline both academically and emotionally.  During 2^nd and 3^rd grade, he made no progress in reading or writing and little progress in math. The IEP team decided to have a full Neuropsychologial evaluation performed to try to figure out why he was not making any progress.  The result was a diagnosis of dyslexia and dysgraphia with executive functioning delays.  We were told he was never going to achieve the educational levels of his peers. One of the recommendations was to fast track him into technology so he could start expressing himself. However, this was even more anxiety producing for Jacob.

In February 2012, we decided to pull Jacob out of the public school system and enrolled him in New Hope Academy.  The first day he met with Mr. Rounds.  That night my little boy asked me if he could read me a grade 4 level chapter book inverted.  He didn’t once ask if he "could be done".  He was so excited that he could read.  This was DAY ONE of a new life for him.  Since then he also discovered that he writes perfectly inverted.  He now gets 100’s on his spelling tests and keeps up with the class on writing and reading assignments.  He no longer chews his fingers.  He loves school and is actually disappointed that the school year is ending on June 1^st.  I have seen his self confidence blossom because he discovered how he learns and is encouraged to do so. 

Like I said, I was a mom of a great boy who was frustrated beyond belief in his inability to read, write and perform with his peers.  Now I’m a mom of a boy who reads, writes and performs with his peers.  He just does it a little differently.  

Comment: My 12 year old son is an inquisitive, bright boy who has problems reading. Since age 3, he attended the French American school. He thrived in the bilingual environment during the preschool years. Both his dad and I are librarians who have read to him constantly. His first present was alibrary card given to him the day he was born. He has been surrounded with books his whole life and spent numerous hours in the public library. He loves to listen to a good story, yet struggles with the written word. 

Comment: 

Comment:Dear Mr. Round,

Comment: Hello Stephen, thank you very much for the very interesting talk about the PI print inversion topic. As I had promised I have contacted several fellow students (physics and math) who did have enormous problems with reading and writing at school. I stay tuned and look forward to their reactions. All the best! Christian Kasztelan

Comment: A great site with some good issues from us all at Tom Thumb and friends. Thank you.

Comment: Supporting all those who expose injustice your friends at http://www.tomthumb.info/tt/ Yours Tom Thumb and friends.Thank you.

Comment: Trained as a special education teacher, I have a strong interest in reading and early literacy. I've been a Title 1 aide, an afterschool tutor and a paraprofessional (though never a teacher). My own son struggled to learn to read in spite of being a talented artist with a photographic memory. He's in college now and I can't wait to have him try to read upside down or sideways. Anyway, I regularly work with kids who struggle with reading (as does any teacher). I can't wait to try some upside down reading experiments soon. Great website. Do you do any trainings? I am in New England.

Thanks for your comment, Julie.  It will be interesting to see if your son has a preference in directionality of print.  Please let me know what happens.  My wife, who has been with me on this PI journey and who has been a teacher and Instructional Consultant, has screened almost 200 children and has recorded her findings on directionality preference in these children.  We have shared the information we have gathered locally to a group of elementary reading specialists who then invited us back to speak to the entire faculty of a school.  We have also been invited to present a Spring workshop at a local community college in New England.  I will be happy to forward you the specifics at a later date when it is advertised by the college.  Once again, thank you for your comment. I look forward to hearing from you again.

Comment: My son is 4 and a half and has learned to write his name pretty well over the last month. He even writes it quickly. Anyway, today he signed something and wrote his name as an upside down mirror image. I held it to the mirror upside down and it was perfect. Thanks for your website. I find it insightful. I am going to keep watching him. I find this very interesting. :-) Toni

Comment: Blessings to you Stephen, for doing what you feel is in the best interests of those with gifted visual skills , I highly endorse what your doing .

Comment: Sir, hats off for this discovery. This amazing method in children that we all were not able to see. One of my kids struggled with reading and kept turning books upside down. She is an A student today but her brother is going the same route and If I knew now what I found out she will have accomplished this earlier. Her brother does the same while trying to read books, keeps turning upside down. Sometimes he writes backward letters. This'll help him. I ask why haven't the schools recognize this? Thanks

Comment: I am so happy I have found your site! My son, now 8, is left-handed. When he was little he always, very consistently, wrote backwards. Writing or reading from left to right seemed inconceivable to him. He simply had to go the other way. By the time he was six or seven, he had turned himself around and was able to read left-to-right quite easily. He began writing left-to-right most of the time. BUT... as he flipped himself around to go the "right" way, he lost his consistency and began to confuse "b" and "d" or transpose letters in spelling. He began to struggle with the difference between right and left (he'd been good at telling the difference as a preschooler). I am wondering if I should encourage him to return to writing backwards as a summer project. Maybe he will then recover his lost sense of orientation...? Very curious to hear your thoughts.

Comment:Note: This comment was originally posted on the AtoZ teacher forum. It is used with permission....

I have a 6th grade student with severe dyslexia who has come to me reading at a Kindergarten level. He has received intensive interventions and made some progress, but not a lot.

Today I was rolling through a pile of phrases on sentence strips that contain high-frequency words. We usually complete this routine, and per usual, he was struggling.

Do you know that I accidentally had one in the pile upside down and he read the entire thing with NO mistakes? I remembered teacherman and all his PI threads and decided to turn them all around. He read them three times faster than he does right side up.

So we got several books....flash cards...anything I could grab. (This was tragically 5 minutes before dismissal. ) He read them all. Not perfectly, mind you. But fewer errors and way better fluency. I have no clue about comprehension cause I was too busy dying over him actually decoding words, but I plan to investigate further on Monday.

WHAT THE HECK?!???!

We both nearly fell out of our chairs. That was the first time he ever smiled while reading.

I am NOT saying that we still shouldn't research it....or that we need to return to posting 400 threads on PI.....but today my foot is in my mouth a little bit.  

Comment: Note: This is a follow-up to the comment above when asked by e-mail if there was any news on the PI student's progress...

Yes, some. It is all coming out now how this has been easier for him all along. He expressed being embarrassed at reading things upside down but that he wanted to. We started him working in the hallway with an aide until he got more comfortable. I revisited the whole "everybody learns differently and needs different things to be successful" discussion in morning meeting without calling him out. The other day he chose to read upside down at his desk! I gave him one of our school PBIS dollars. Nobody has laughed....in fact they're all jealous that THEY can't read upside down. My aide keeps saying "I don't get it! I just don't get how he is so much faster!"

Comment: Just wanted to say thank you for coming to help Mason. For the first time he was not so frustrated and asked to read that night. He asked if you were coming back and said how nice you were with him.....thank you

Comment: I have always been left handed & found out at an early age I was able to read upside down but never admitted this to anyone for fear of being too ODD. Throughout my life I have had numerous visual issues & to some extent I felt my reading upside down would again be considered more of a problem than not. Now I am pleased to know of my "ability" & that it is far from strange.I enjoy wearing shirts with small writing & make a game of reading the words just as a means to humor myself when I'm bored

Comment: I have an 8 year old that has been struggling with reading. In Canada they won't do testing until they are 8. Last spring we discovered he could write his name uside down and backwards. this summer we discovered he could read upside down with little frustration. I have read lots of posts here and wonder if any of these children were preemies. I would like to know if this could be connected. My son was born 10 weeks early and 1lb 3oz.

Comment: I was having technical difficulties today and could not get a book to print. I posted it on my smart board and we did our guided reading from the smart board. The only problem was that half the pages were upside down. At one point, my 5th grader who is almost a non-reader, read a 7 word sentence fluently without sounding out words or stuttering. I was shocked. I knew his brain didn't process print but could this really be the answer? I can't wait to work with him more tomorrow.

Comment: It's quick, it's simply - turn the book upside down and watch a child smile and fly! Why should any child be denied the right to read, and learn, because they may need to hold a book differently (for awhile)? What a shame, on the public school system, that it is so locked into confrmity, that it is considered better to let a child fail, flounder, and even give up, when there might be s simple solution. PI will not solve every learning stumbling block, but when it works, let it work!

Comment: Mr. Round, I am very intrested in getting some information on this PI reading. My son is 8 years old and is diagnosed mild autism. He is now in his 2nd year of 2nd grade and is struggling so bad with reading, he cant even get any sight words. His theorpist was telling me how he can draw these awesome pictures upside down. So last night I thought I would try flashcards upside down and he read all 18, I then googled it and found your website. Please HELP me with any info I can get to help my son.

Comment: Mr. Round I just viewed your video providing your resignation to Providence. We need more people like you to stand up when we see a program just is not working for the children. I appreciate your courage.

Comment: Welcome to our club of people who have recognized system-generated suffering. Your work in helping young people learn to read is valuable. Some kindred spirits you may not know about are: Brett Veinotte and John Taylor Gatto. You can find their work at http://schoolsucksproject.com (Please don't be put off by the name - you know what they say about judging a book by its cover) and http://johntaylorgatto.com/ I encourage you also to explore voluntaryism at the "Welcome Page" I entered.

Comment: Hi Stephen, I write upside-down and have done since I was 7 years old, I am now 16 and actually doing pretty well in school and my writing is easy to read, parents shouldn't show concern for their kids writing differently because some people find certain things easier, writing with my paper upside-down doesn't affect my maths however I only check sin and cos graphs to make sure they are not wrong but they never are! I am a lefty! I KNOW the children are better of doing things their own way! :)

Comment: Have been tutoring a young woman (age 32) in literacy, native speaker of English. Today she said -- and quickly demonstrated-- " I can read better when the book is upside down." She read the text upside down and did a great job! No formal testing on her for dyslexia but informal signs of it in out tutoring sessions. I was so glad to see your website and posts. Thank you.

Comment: Hi Mr. Round, I am an Occupational Therapist in a school district. I just received info about your website through a sped teacher. Fascinating. I recently went to a training on Bal-A-Vis-X and the presenter, Bill Hubert mentioned that when we are under stress our non-dominant sides shut down (ie. If we are left eye dominant, the right eye shuts down. The left eye takes over and wants to read right to left. Questioning if left eye dominance and left hand dominance are related to P.I.

Hi Bonnie,
I'm not sure how they are related, but studies have shown that just about 90% of the world's population are right-handed, but I have found just the opposite. MOST PI readers are left handed - maybe not 90%, but close......

Thanks for your comments....

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Comment: Thank you for your work and for this website! I found you by looking up "reading upside down" and "dyslexia", because my two year old always holds his books upside down and I was wondering if he might have dyslexia. I have always thought it was a neat trick that I could read upside-down, but never connected it to my extremely slow reading. My brother had this issue, too. Thanks to you, I will just let my son read upside-down. as he likes. Maybe he won't have a problem after all!

Comment: Hello, I found your page only yesterday after working with a struggling student who kept turning his book over when attempting to read. The student is 9 years old and in 3rd grade, but struggles to read even at a Kindergarten level. After observing him I think PI may be present... I'm curious though because the student is also an English language learner, though he has been in the US for 2 years with little to no growth. Wondering if you have experience with ESOL students and PI? Thank you!

Hi Mrs. Le,

I am an experienced and certified teacher in Reading, TESOL, and Elementary Education.  Most of my 28 years of experience has been with English Language Learners.  As you know, every child is different and develops differently (although on the same continuum of Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing).  Without knowing this particular child, I will offer you my own experiences in working with ELL students who range in Levels 1-3 in listening and speaking on the LAS Links Test.


Just as with your student, some of the ELL students I have worked with use print inversion to better their reading accuracy and fluency.  Their ELL status does not have anything to do with their different visual processing of print.  I also have students who hold the book to a 90 degree angle (either right or left depending upon their own preference).

Therefore, I would not hesitate in using print inversion with your student, if, in fact, it is helping him.

I hope I have answered your question sufficiently.  If there is anything else you need, don't hesitate to ask.

Sincerely,
Susan Round

 

Comment: I am a homeschooler of 2 daughters. Both girls absolutely hate to read. My youngest daughter used to write from right to left and would start from the bottom of the letter. I have asked a lot of people about this and the response was "She is just bored." Really? She mentioned yesterday that she finds reading upside down and/or backwards better. I went searching and found your site. I am in hopes that what I found will help her. I told her to just read upside down. She said ok. She is very bright otherwise. She watches a lot of YouTube videos to figure things out on her own. Hopefully, reading will come easier for her now.

Comment: Yes I find out after going through special ed that I am a pi reader and was pi writer!! Fist was told maybe dislexia but then no so they stuck me in a class and now I can still read upside down sideways so I'm so thankful for u and the hard work u do! Thank you!

Comment: I have an upside down reader this year! I'm a second grade teacher and I got a new student this year who was basically a non reader. Her DRA level was an instructional 3. He father told me that he noticed that she was able to read words upside down when he was reading to her and she was looking over the top of the book. I was very skeptical and so tested it out. I timed her rate of reading on a few occasions, both reading right-side up and upside down and each time, her reading rate was more than twice as fast when she read upside down. She also made half the errors. So now I have her read the book the first time around upside down and then she works on reading it both ways during the rest of the week. I hadn't thought of seeing if she could write upside-down. I'm so glad I came across your article. Thanks for sharing!

*Originally published on Experience Project in 2015

Comment: I am a resource teacher and just found a 3rd grade student who needs to read inverted text. Our school year ends next week, so I am hoping to tutor this student over the summer to help her. Her teacher commented for her annual IEP meeting that she didn't know what to say about the student's reading strengths since she is a non-reader. I had the student read a decodable book upside-down at her IEP meeting. Mom and student both cried. Happy to finally know what's "wrong".

Comment: I came across your website when my second grade daughter told me that she has found that turning her book upside down helps her read easier.  I had found it interesting that she read more fluently through a glass window backward last year than when she was reading something in front of her.

I am a teacher at Veterans Elementary School in Howard County, Maryland.  I have been teaching for 19 years and have taught kindergarten, first grade, fourth grade and fifth grade and have never come across this before.  My daughter goes to school in Baltimore County and unfortunately they are not known for innovation.  They have only this year begun using Fountas and Pinnell Benchmarking System and few teachers have ever heard of Jan Richardson's Guided Reading, both used in HCPSS where I teach. 

On your website, I saw that you are conducting research studies on PI Reading.  I would love to have more strategies to help my daughter through this.  She has incredible comprehension and an extensive vocabulary.  I would love to avoid her reaching further frustration.

Comment: I have a daughter that is 7 and I have just discovered that my daughter reads better upside down. I reached out to her school today, so I am hopeful that they will look into this and give us guidance. She struggles and is frustrated with letters, numbers, reading and writing. When I read Mabel Farnswarth post I thought I could have written it. I am open to anyone contacting me with guidance. I had her do the simple PI test this morning and upside down was far easier, faster and less errors. TIA!

Comment: Noticed my grandson writing his name upside down. It came out very well. He is in a very small school in the sticks of Miss. He is left handed. He seems to read conventionally just fine for a first grader. Should his parents inform his teacher in case he turns his paper upside down during his first spelling test?

Comment: I conceive other website proprietors should take this site as an example, very clean and wonderful user genial design and style.

Comment: About four years ago, my great nephew was reading well below his grade level and really struggling in school. He was in second grade and could not keep up. I had heard that some students who had trouble with reading dyslexia were able to read upside down. My nephew met with Mr. Round approximately three times, he could read upside down fine. After only a few meetings he said that it was easier to read right side up. From that point on he started to read much better and caught up to his grade level in the third or fourth grade. As he got older I noticed that he was getting 100’s on his spelling test. I asked him how he could do that when he hardly studies his spelling words. He responded that when he learned to read upside down, it really helped him with his spelling and that ever since then he found that his spelling was better.

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Comment: I wish to thank you and your wife for making this phenomenon know to the world. I look forward to further investigations and pray for the strengthening our abilities as scientists, educators, advocates, etc., to nurture the next generations into well-rounded and well respected individuals, no matter the differences.

Comment:  I am a parent of a child that has a sever learning disability and struggles daily to be successful in school. On my own ended up turning my child's book upside down to help her with reading before I even understood that this was a thing. I have reached out to my child's special education teacher with the wonderful find that I believed would be looked at as success, however I only received backlash and was told that this type of reading is very damaging to my child's ability to read. I truly believe that this is just a teacher and school that does not want to change the way they are doing things even if it is something that will help a child. I have been doing research on my own to send back to the school to contradict what they informed me and discovered your page and the research that MIT was working on, however, I cannot find any publications further on this wonderful upside-down reading style.

Comment: I find reading this way easy.

When they found out I was dyslexic, within days they were told my brother was “gifted”. My dad, at a dinner party, makes a comment how the two of us are now reading at the same level, 1/2 grade. My brother was 4, I was 16.

I have since found that my IQ is actually several points above my brother, but have never said a word.

I currently have no contact with them, and with the encouragement of that same teacher, 30 years later I’m still going. I recently published a poetry book “A Light From Within” inspirational poems of childhood traumas which has a section on school.