Proportional Reading is a set of three coordinated computer programs for easily reading any text on an ongoing basis and for developing transferrable reading skills. The three program parts are 1) Reading Out Loud, 2) looking up and pronouncing individual words while you read, without retyping words and 3) Reading Silently without eye movement. At any point you can switch back and forth between these three functions.
Tool One: Text is read out loud in either real human voice or in synthesized voice, at slow speaking speed with each word shown on the screen, one word at a time, as it is read out loud. No eye movement is required. As you read silently, a voice reads the same words out loud to you. There is a pause between sentences and paragraphs. Correlation of voice and text is phenomenal.
Tool Two: Only words longer than a certain number of letters are read out loud, while all words are displayed. You set the character length to whatever you want for a session. This tool greatly speeds up presentation over tool one and can be set to match a student's improvement.
Tool Three: As you read a paragraph any word you click on is read out loud in either real human voice or in synthesized voice.
Tool Four: Any word can be individually selected and pronounced in either real human voice or in synthesized voice.
Tool Five: Any text can be selected and instantly read out loud. You can switch betwen pictures as you hear the text. This tool is good for just listening and for pacing your silent reading.
Tool Six: Text is presented on the screen and read out loud one sentence at a time. Reading speed may be adjusted but is at least 150 words per minute. This tool is excellent for enabling any student to keep up with classwork. No buildup of decoding errors is possible.
Tool Seven: Creates an interactive tutorial out of any e-text you have marked with pause codes. Presentation of text pauses at coded points for the reader to finish the thought. Marking of text can be done on any e-text while you hear it read out loud or read it silently. No retyping or underlining of text is required. Very simple and very complicated concepts can be treated in this manner.
With all seven of these tools, reading out loud can start anywhere in an article, or begin again from pause.
Your Macintosh computer comes with a built in voice synthesizer. You do not have to buy any additional hardware to use synthesized voice. Proportional Reading programs make use of the built-in synthesizer.
If you wish to use real human voice, you must first download a digitized voice library. Proportional Reading software ties into a CD ROM which contains a library of over 100,000 spoken words in human voice (digitized) which are accessed as needed. The contents of the CD ROM are transferred to an internal or external hard drive to increase access time by a factor of 10-15.
The PR (Proportional Reading) reading out loud program provides instant help for any child learning to read and for any dyslexic student having trouble keeping up with classmates. It is ideal for inclusion programs and home use. All ESL students and all adult beginners can benefit greatly as well.
You can also type notes on the same computer screen while text is being read out loud. This process enables you to create a true lecture out of any existing e-text. In addition, you can tell the "lecturer" to repeat as much as you wish and as often as you like, and whenever you want. You can also pause the presentation whenever you wish. You can heirarchize your notes with the tab key and make typing and/or other enhancements to your notes while the presentation continues. If pictures and graphics are included in the text, you can switch back and forth between these while the presentation is in progress. This "lecture" feature can be used by all students, with many advantages. It is especially helpful to dyslexic and other LD students in high school, college and graduate school.
Not only can this type of reading be done on any Macintosh Power PC computer, but the output can be easily recorded onto video tape for students to play on just a VCR in class (with or without earphones) or at home. With just one scanner per school, any text book can be easily prepared for reading out loud. Any downloaded text can also be used. Any text from the internet or on-line service can be read this way. You can also use material you have typed out yourself.
You can instantly switch from reading out loud to silent reading or to the talking dictionary and then back.
With these three coordinated approaches students are immediately able to functionally compensate for a large number of processing difficulties which have before now seriously impeded comprehension, reading speed, enjoyment and self-esteem. With the use of a scanner or downloaded text, any book can be read this way without retyping. Complicated math symbols and equations can be presented as graphics.
PR silent reading is ideal for any serious student with a lot of reading to do. It is also ideal for dyslexic, at risk, gifted, ADD, ADHD, ESL, deaf, vision impaired, brain trauma, MR, and physically disabled students. Students are immediately able to concentrate on the meaning of reading, rather than the process of reading. Many students instantly improve their reading and self-esteem. All students can benefit from the automatic note taking, automatic dictionary look-up and pronunciation, numerous review features, and transferrable skills.
Proportional Reading can immediately compensate for the following specific problems: eye tracking problems, problems differentiating a single word form a group of words, sub-vocalization, regression, decoding errors, cognitive intervalling (fluency) difficulty, comprehension difficulty, slow reading speed, distraction and poor concentration, visualization difficulty, sequencing problems, poor memorization ability, poor vocabulary, poor handwriting, outlining and note taking difficulty, and poor review skills. Note: A reader does need to have the basic phonetic decoding skills of a first grader to do silent reading.
Each of the three main approaches will now be examined in greater detail.
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Proportional Reading combines three different sound systems that work together. The contents of a Voice Library are transferred to an internal or external hard drive to obtain access speeds 10-15 times as fast as on a CD drive. These words are all digitized real human voice. In addition, the most frequently used words in the English language have their pronunciation (in digitized real human voice) loaded into ram for even faster retrieval. Finally, if a word can not be located on either of these first two sources, it is synthesized using the Macintosh voice synthesizer. This way every word gets pronounced.
2) SPECIFIC ADVANTAGES OF READING OUT LOUD FOR STUDENTS
a) Any young child can quickly learn to read this way as there is voice and text correlation. Traditional learning time can be greatly reduced. This is also true for adult new readers.
b) Dyslexic students can read any text in class or at home at the same speed as their peers and keep up.
c) ESL students can learn to pronounce English almost effortlessly as they read without one-on-one assistance. They don't need to become a victim of over crowded programs.
d) Clients of Speech and Hearing therapists now can now have many hours of accurate voice and text practice in the clinic and at home.
e) Any student can have a difficult passage of text read out loud to help comprehension.
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f) All students can use this program to edit text they have written by
hearing it read out loud.
g) Students in inclusion programs can receive vastly better instruction at tremendous savings in cost.
h) LD Students do not have to arrange for readers at colleges.
i) LD Students can make their own spoken books via computer or on tape immediately and at tremendous savings of time and money.
j) MR students can understand reading material.
k) Visually and auditorially impaired students can get major help.
l) All students can use this approach to practice pronunciation of a list of new words.
m) All students can use this tool to create a true spoken lecture out of any e-text, with pause and repeat capability, while they simultaneously type notes and see the text displayed as it is spoken. In addition to all regular school students, this feature can be very helpful for home school and distance learning students.
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a) In many of the reading out loud tools only one word comes on the screen at a time with sound, so there is no question as to which word the sound refers to. This is in contrast to normal reading out loud, where the listener often has no idea which word is being spoken. This exact word and sound association facilitates learning.
b) There is no frustration at not being able to understand what word is being presented, as words are immediately pronounced shortly after visual presentation.
c) There is no buildup of decoding mistakes in reading a sentence or paragraph as decoding errors are immediately corrected.
d) There is no loss of train of thought by the time one gets to the end of a sentence, as one quickly and easily processes words.
e) The flashing of words and sounds and the pacing of the program greatly increase attention.
f) There is a multi-channel (voice and text) approach for fluency. If the reader is not good in on approach, the other channel is there to help out.
g) The mind can also switch its channel mix of input, allowing for the eye or ear to wander without loosing meaning. At least one channel will always be active. The large text font of many of the tools enables peripheral vision.
h) There is a natural reinforcement of words and their pronunciation, automatically, many times per hour in order of frequency of use.
i) Words are professionally pronounced, clearly and accurately when using real human voice. The syhthesizer also does a very creditable job of general pronunciation. It has been greatly improved recently. Neither approch does well, however, at picking the right pronunciation when there are several choices, as for example is the case with the word "read".
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j) Many times a student is just too lazy or too depressed to look up the
pronunciation for a new word. Here pronunciation is given automatically
as the sentence is read out loud. In addition, students can read along out
loud or repeat pronunciation of individual words over and over while
hearing the voice. Most people don't communicate what they can not
pronounce. Here you both hear each word and are able to develop your own
correct pronunciation of each word.
k) There is a discrete pause between words after they are pronounced in the lower level reading out loud tools. This greatly improves sound comprehension. There is no slurring between words to confuse comprehension. This short pause between words also allows for anticipation of what is to follow, which in turn aides learning.
l) The pace of the presentation encourages visualization of what is being discussed, as it is read. This feature greatly increases comprehension of serious reading.
m) Hearing the sentence read out loud while reading it provides an auditory memory of how one could sound in ones own communication of the thought. This type of presentation also ties the visual memory of the written word to this auditory memory.
n) Because individual words are pronounced with proper syllabification and accent, there is a real music quality to each sentence which greatly increases interest.
o) Each word is presented on the screen with its associated punctuation. This greatly helps one understand the spoken sound. Many punctuation marks like the "?" and "!" serve additionally as keys to inflection.
p) In the word by word tools, no eye movement is required. This helps students focus on content rather than on mechanical process.
q) Discrete pauses between sentences and after paragraphs greatly improves comprehension of the visual and spoken presentation and substantially enhances fluency.
In the tool for reading out loud by sentence, PR software adds pauses after title lines and increases pause time between sentences. These pauses greatly improve comprehension over just listening to synthesized speech.
r) Taking notes from a spoken lecture is much easier when the text is displayed as it is spoken (rather than just spoken) and when you can pause and repeat as much of the presentation as you wish and at any point.
s) Fully understood text, both in terms of concept and pronunciation of words contained, can be immediately reviewed at much higher speed in the silent reading mode, providing instant review and repetition.
t) The ability to change the setting of the length of words to be read out loud enables students to read increasing amounts of text silently and faster as they progress in their reading skill. Hearing just the longer words read out loud also acts to focus attention on key words and provides an excellent transferrable skill to reading regular text without assistance.
u) The ability to click on just unknown words in a paragraph and hear just these words read out loud, and then the ability to look up an individual word and hear it pronounced, provides successively higher levels of help as students become more independent. Not only can the adjustable tooling match a reader's level and needs, but it can immediately adjust for a difficult piece of text.
v) The ability to hear a regular section of text immediately read out loud at about 200 words per minute, in synthesizer mode, acts as a good preview or review of the text. The sound also serves as a pacer to help a reader learn how he or she has to move ones eyes over regular text in order to read at this speed.
Also silent reading (see below) can be video taped and voice dubbed in. Any mother can dub in her own voice on a video and have her child hear her voice at day care while she, the mother, is at work. This process is similar to using a breast pump.
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The ability to resonate with the proper sound of a word over and over, until there is a match provides an excellent tool for kinesthetic confidence in pronunciation. This "singing" approach uses a different part of the brain than decoding (which can also be done before hearing the sound). A reader must be able to learn (differentiate) a word by its look, sound and pronunciation (or sign language), and meaning before one can start to recognize that word at shorter and shorter periods of exposure.
Students can also use this look-up and pronounce tool to step through a list of words, hearing pronounced every word they can't pronounce. Then they can repeat the sentence or paragraph at regular speed. This tool provides very effective help for all students but especially those with sequencing (alphabetizing) and auditory processing problems.
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It turns our that if you present text on the screen following these three principles, you will create a visual simulation of speech. Sound will not be present, but you will feel that sound is present because you are seeing a close simulation of speech. This is what Proportional Reading does.
In Proportional Reading, as in listening, only one word comes on the screen at a time. The longer the word is, the longer it stays on the screen; and there is a pause between sentences and a longer pause between paragraphs. Both presentation time for individual words and pausing are proportional to the text (hence the name Proportional Reading).
Readers can also instantly repeat a complete thought (sentence) or look up a word. This too, is similar to listening, when you ask the speaker to repeat a thought or explain what a word means. However, students don't have to actually sound out words or hear real voice. Consequently, students can easily input thoughts at much higher speeds than with speech.
Please note that all basic reading is based on processing writing and printing, which in turn was designed as a means to emulate speech in a manner which could be transferred over time and distance. Decoding and reading out loud is not the actual goal, but rather a strategy for achieving the goal. The actual goal is to feel like you are being spoken to. Earlier reading paradigms have required either actual sequential decoding or complicated fixation rituals. These approaches are either very slow and limit input speed, or they penalize students with processing difficulties. Proportional Reading is a new reading paradigm which overcomes these problems. In Proportional Reading you actually read by visual listening.
In addition to helping the individual reader, Proportional Reading can be used in the classroom to create and record interactive whole language and language experience class events in real time. One computer can serve an entire class. Recordings can be later reviewed individually and interactively by students. Actual classroom uses of Proportional Reading are very dramatic. Almost every facet of regular classroom teaching can incorporate this technique. Proportional Reading can also be used to teach many transferrable reading techniques. Teachers can also use Proportional Reading for mainstreaming and inclusion of students who know their phonics, but still have trouble reading, thereby freeing up valuable specialist time for one-on-one help.
THREE STEPS TO PROPORTIONAL READING
1) TEXT IS ENTERED INTO A COMPUTER. Text can be scanned in, downloaded
from CD ROM, modem, the internet, diskette, or hard disk drive, or typed
in.
2) TEXT IS PREPARED FOR READING. After text is entered, a program is activated which automatically Proportionalizes, or prepares the text for reading.
3) TEXT IS READ. The student chooses one of fourteen different speeds to read the material. The student can change speeds instantly, reread the current sentence, or paragraph, or pause. While the program is paused the student can think, take voice activated audio notes, type written notes, look up a word and hear it pronounced and get its definition, or move to another part of the text. The student can continue reading as soon as he or she wishes.
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SPECIFIC ADVANTAGES:
1) OVERCOMING EYE TRACKING PROBLEMS
Many learning disabled students, especially dyslexics, have problems with eye movement and/or confusion of a single word with a group of words, especially when the eye has been moving. Eliminating eye movement and seeing only one word at a time on the screen immediately solves these processing problems. No words are skipped. Reversals between the word one is reading and the word above, below, or on either side become mathamatically and physically impossible as only one word is shown on the screen at a time. Anticipatory guessing at what words are going to be instead of reading the actual words is largely eliminated, as students see themselves speaking out words that have not even appeared yet.
Also, type is in 70 point font, which is especially helpful to the vision impaired. Reading this way is a lot less work. Students just sit back and relax. Eye fatigue is greatly reduced, especially when tired. Macular degeneration patients can read peripherally without eye movement.
Many students can not read text at even an average speed because they sound out each word completely. Proportional Reading is very effective for overcoming vocalization and subvocalization within a matter of minutes, enabling all students to concentrate on the meaning of what they are reading. This approach can be especially helpful for LD and ESL students, as well as for Americans trying to learn a foreign language.
The visual simulation of voice in Proportional Reading automatically provides a cognitive intervalling of text, which greatly improves student comprehension at all speeds. While this technique helps all students, it is especially helpful for deaf students who have never heard human voice or learned the normal cognitive interval patterns of speech. Visual simulation of speech is also helpful for students with delayed auditory processing and organizational difficulties, and as a metacognition tool for all students.
Proportional Reading uses tachistoscopic presentation of text. This technique has proved in the past to be an extremely effective tool for pattern recognition and memorization.
Proportional Reading creates a vivid visualization of text via presentation of material in the 4-7 hz rate (Theta). This type of presentation entrains the brain in the most creative and receptive and most visualizing of all states known. This technique is especially helpful for students with poor visualization skills.
Proportional Reading simultaneously engages the visual learner (no eye movement; increased visualization) and the auditory learner (visual simulation of speech at high speeds; presentation rhythm) and the kinesthetic learner (interactive reading; motion), and simultaneously, all three channels in each individual. This approach is very helpful for dyslexics and brain trauma patients where one of the channels may have been damaged. In all three channels for learning, thought input is allowed to reach speeds much nearer that at which the brain works, so boredom is greatly reduced. This increased rate of idea input together with multiple channel input is extremely helpful for ADD and ADHD students.
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7) SLOW MOTION READING TOOL
Proportional Reading momentarily turns the brain into a slow motion machine so that one may read at very fast speed, while simultaneously experiencing the words viewed as being internally spoken at normal speaking speed.
This is accomplished by applying a unique set of tools to format and playback text on a computer monitor so that a visual simulation of speech consistently occurs without any presence of sound. This visual simulation of speech is so consistent and so faithful to actual speech, except for the absence of sound, that the mind adjusts to the speeding visual images of words by speeding up as much as necessary so that the internal experience is as if one was listening to someone else read aloud at normal speaking speed, even though one is actually reading up to 700 words per minute. The effect is similar to slow motion photography where incredibly fast events are recorded at high speed and reproduced in full detail in playback at much slower speed.
The result is the ability for almost all readers to input reading material at high speed instantly.
Proportional Reading enables a MULTIPLE PASS approach for reading silently with context clues. At any time the student can instantly repeat the current sentence or previous sentence or paragraph. This Multiple-pass approach enables the student to build upon the context clues already acquired. It is actually almost as fast as moving the eyes back and forth. However, many readers can not read effectively by moving their eyes, or they are overwhelmed by a full page of text.
Many students at all levels are also severely distracted by having to read by short prepositional and other phrases, one at a time, which do not seem connected. To solve this problem Proportional Reading also uses the context clues of visually SIMULATED SPOKEN SPEECH which you "hear", as opposed to speech which you speak yourself. The context clues include the sentence rhythm and the cognitive intervalling of text provided by the pauses at the end of sentences and other complete thoughts. These approaches greatly increase comprehension.
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Many internet and on-line projects are possible. Any article on the internet or on-line service can be downloaded and read with this program either silently (or out loud). For example, adult beginning readers can download the daily news and read it, becoming empowered with immediately useful knowledge at the same time. Distance learners, home students and regular high school students can download and read any encyclopedia article. Thousands of classics in e-text are available for free downloading on the internet. All of these can be read with Proportional Reading.
As one reads Proportionally, one hears an inner voice talking (the visual simulation of voice). Because of the stimulation of this voice and because one is in the theta state, one's own inner self (real self) speaks up with its own voice with pure insight, to provide solutions to assignments or personal searching. Using additional Proportional Reading techniques, one can immediately trap these fleeting insights for reflection and expansion. The internal peace, deep relaxation and insight enabled by Proportional Reading provides substantial help for all readers, but especially for those under emotional stress.
Some people would call this type of activity prayer; others would call it meditation or connecting with a higher power, or spirituality. Many would use the anthropomorphic framework of a classical religion or tribal myth. Regardless of the reference, there is a near universal belief that it is possible for individuals to gain deep peace and insight. Proportional Reading is one approach for doing this almost instantly and independently.
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In particular, students quickly learn the continuity between flowing text and text heard read aloud. Then they feel how to read without vocalizing or subvocalizing or regressing. They also quickly develop skill at recognizing words at shorter and shorter periods of exposure. They feel an inner voice reading "out loud" to them at speeds up to 700 words per minute, and they feel and see words turning into pictures and movies.
They see how to transfer this to regular reading by pausing briefly only on longer words and at major punctuation marks. They can also see how much their comprehension improves the second time through material and how much faster they can read the same material in review. Perhaps most importantly, they learn how to concentrate and how to be open minded and how to realize internal peace and insight.
For a more in deapth discussion of transferrable skills see Section 29 in the Theory of Proportional Reading.
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Furthermore, an external tool can greatly help all people read better, just like a calculator helps people do math and a word processor helps people write.
Proportional Reading is not magic. It is a mechanical-electrical-optical invention which does for the eyes what the automobile does for the feet. In both cases performance in selected areas can be greatly improved by utilizing an external tool.
Proportional Reading software operates on Macintosh Power PC Computers installed with System 7.1 or later, at least a 14" color monitor, and at least 8 megabytes of RAM (16-24 megabytes strongly preferred). Scanning can be done on existing IBM computers or on Mac's.
Earlier Macintosh models don't have the necessary speed for reading out loud with synthesized voice at normal speaking speed as text is displayed one word at a time. Also, you have to have a Power PC model to do reading out loud with real human voice. Earlier models will allow you to read silently at the lower and middle range of silent reading speeds, but you need the speed of the Power PC to quickly scan text and to quickly Proportionalize text and to read text silently at the fastest speeds.
In addition to the Proportional Reading software, you also need Word Perfect 3.5. For reading out loud with real human voice you also need the Voice Library software (see below). For looking up words you need a hard drive dictionary (often supplied free with the computer). We recommend the Miriam Webster Dictionary CD ($49) and transferring the contents to your hard drive. Doing this greatly speeds looking up words and leaves your CD drive free for something else. For scanning you need either the IBM or Mac version of the Hewett Packard 4C flatbed color scanner ($949.00) and Omnipage Professional OCR program, Version 6, by Caere Corp (500.00). Note: when you buy the scanner, you often get a coupon for a 75% reduction on the Omnipage Professional software. Check this out.
Your Proportional Reading software enables you to display text one word at a time and have this text read out loud in two ways. The first is with a synthesizer. The second is with real human voice. The latter approach is much faster as well as being far more accurate and more enjoyable than using just a synthesizer. Our program for using synthesized speech comes with the PR software and does not require any additional hardware.
If you want to have text read out loud in real human voice, you need to load the Voice Library onto a hard Drive. The Voice Library contains the 1,000 most frequently used words in digitized human voice. Other words are automatically synthesized. This product only requires approximately 8 megabytes of hard disk space. As much as 90% of all elementary and secondary school written material can be read out loud in real human voice with this tool in combination with Proportional Reading software. No additional hard drive is required. The cost of the Voice Library is $45.00.
The optional tiny box that connects between your Macintosh computer and monitor and allows you to make VCRs of anything that comes on the screen is called an LTV Portable Pro and is made by Focus. It costs $300.00.
The Proportional Reading software program for Macintosh is sold by us as a single computer license for $250.00. You can also buy the Voice Library from us for $45.00. WordPerfect for Macintosh costs $120.00 from almost any computer retailer.
Many technical problems in the IBM platform prevent an IBM version of Proportional Reading. One major problem is that the platform itself does not support line character count on a continuous basis. This makes many features of silent reading impossible. In addition, major compatibility problems between IBM hardware components makes instantly reading any text out loud on this platform unfeasible at this time. The hardware crashes too often, regardless of software. Unfortunately, there are still some very real differences between platforms.
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ON-SITE DEMONSTRATIONS/TRAINING
On-site demonstrations, installation and training may also be arranged. Call to discuss charges.
Contact Person: John F. Adams
PROPORTIONAL READING
P.O. Box 335, Beverly, MA 01915
Phone (978) 927-9234
Internet e-mail: proread@tiac.net