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The Initial Proportional Reading Evaluation
and the Eight Steps of
Pragmatic Realization Therapy (PRT)

Here is an approach for helping others, especially students with learning disabilities, bad reading habits, ADD/ADHD or low motivation. It also works well for turning a good reader into an excellent reader. There are eight basic concepts to keep in mind. After some initial observations, these eight concepts will be presented in order of their actual presentation in a session.

This approach is based on belief in the ability of the subject, usually a student, to make pragmatic evaluation of what is in his or her best interest, having full control over all the variables in the environment. This approach is not at all authoritarian, or dictatorial. It is not based in orders and punishment, or simple behavioristic avoidance of pain. It does not require prescription drugs or any other chemicals. This approach celebrates the humanness and uniqueness of the individual and his or her right and need to have control over choices; it celebrates the ability of the individual to act responsibly and effectively, being respected as a free and equal member of society. This approach celebrates the ability of the individual to make comparisons, to make decisions and to grow.

While this approach has repeatedly changed peoples lives in as little as fifteen to twenty minutes, two hours is more the usual time frame for major change to take place. Furthermore, while the steps of this approach have many applications, improving a person's reading using technology is an ideal application for this therapy.

This is true for three main reasons. First, with the reading technology of the Proportional Reading (PR) program it is possible for the student to see his mind working thirty inches in front of his head. The ability of the student to understand concepts this way is unparalleled. Second, with the PR technology it is possible to try out many different "environments" within a few minutes, giving the student a chance for real input and immediate comparison. Third, the Proportional Reading program has an ideal combination of initial one-on-one evaluation, daily independent work on the computer and periodic one-on-one consultation. The computer is almost instantly tailored to the exact needs of each student in turn, and can ideally be used in a group setting of several computers equipped with earphones. This combination of approaches can provide immediate help for almost all reading problems.

Mix of Multiple Approaches and Differentiation

This approach is called Pragmatic Realization Therapy (PRT). It incorporates elements of classical psychodynamic theory and relationship therapy. It also uses concepts of cognitive psychology and concepts of behaviorism and reality therapy. However, you will see that these techniques are always kept in subservient balance to environmental alteration and subsequent fresh pragmatic evaluation by the client, this occurring in the company of an enlightened witness, namely the counselor. Guilt, shame and the need for control are beautifully dealt with in this approach in such a way that while these issues are faced, they never become the roadblock that occurs in classical psychoanalytic therapy.

It is the environmental alteration and subsequent fresh evaluation by the client, occurring in the company of an enlightened witness which is sorely lacking from the remediation of many a student in trouble. PRT is very different from older therapeutic approaches in that, while it incorporates many elements from these older techniques, PRT is based on the availability and added potential of modern, computer simulation technology.

In this approach the enlightened witness initially watches and listens silently to the student read out loud; the witness/counselor says nothing for the first few minutes, just observes silently. Then the enlightened witness makes comments and suggestions which are pragmatically evaluated by the client. Thus, the pedagogical predisposition of the attending professional is also very different from either classical psychoanalytic therapy or the traditional teacher-student relationship, where the practitioner primarily listens or primarily talks and directs.

Learning Ones Own Feelings

The troubled reader often can not verbalize his or her own feelings or attitudes. He or she must be helped to express and verbalize these affects so the student and counselor can deal with them. In a reading situation, students often lack a clear understanding of where they are at in their overall progress, or when they are ready to move up. It is essential to start off a session by listening to where the student is at and mirror the student's feelings. Find out from the student how the student feels when he or she reads and what the student wants to work on. No judgement is made or given at this time except to empathize with where the student is at. This is almost always very easy to do if you realize that "there but for the grace of God go I".

The student makes any corrections that are necessary in what he or she has said or in the counselor's mirroring and empathizing. The student immediately realizes that the counselor is a person who really wants to understand "me" from "who I am and where I have been and how I feel". Often, this has never happened before. The student also feels very much a participant in getting the correct message across. Mirroring and correction and empathy occur repeatedly as more history is obtained.

It doesn't matter at this point whether or not the student is completely accurate or correct. What is important here is for the student to realize that his or her input matters. Furthermore, this process will tell the counselor a great deal about the student, no matter what the student says. Pretty soon the counselor has a good idea of the student's history and both the student and counselor have a good idea of the student's accompanying feelings and attitudes. Most important, the student feels involved and cared about (not cared for).

Definition of Problem(s)

The student usually can not see on his or her own what the specific problem is. The student must have it pointed out. In other words the student must be presented with pattern recognition as to what is happening that should not be happening. This need for explanation is what Alice Miller refers to as the need for abused children to have an Enlightened Witness.

The student reads paragraphs of text out loud. The changing text and sound of the student's spoken voice are recorded on video. After a few minutes, the counselor explains what the student is doing wrong. Sometimes a range of problems will be discussed as existing. At this point it is usually possible to point out to the student just where in his history the student came up against a roadblock. Again, empathy should accompany honest pattern recognition and analysis. This explanation has always soothed the student. At last here is an explanation. Maybe it's not "all my fault" for being a "bad" person.

Inappropriate Coping Mechanisms

Invariably the disabled student has developed coping mechanisms which do not succeed in compensating for the problems. The counselor explains to the student that because of the enumerated problems, the student has developed techniques for dealing with the problem(s). For example, if a student has trouble distinguishing an individual word from a group of words, the student might mark each sentence or paragraph with a different color.

Every effort is made to recognize the resourcefulness and creativity of the student's coping approach, which is often truly a magnificent work of art and courage.

Building on Realized Prediction

Because these students know no other way, they rigidly hold to their coping techniques. The counselor makes this point by pointing out the technical error(s) in the methods which the student is using to cope. Invariably, the student will continue to read and witness himself doing just what was just predicted.

The fact that the student can hear a prediction and then see herself do just what was predicted a moment before is mind boggling to the student. The student recognizes the pattern in her own reading from evidence that she herself just created.
The actual video set up is very important. The student can see that he or she just made the type of mistake being identified. Denial is impossible. Parents and teachers can also see the student's starting point.

Inability to Extricate Himself

The student is almost always completely unable to see how to extricate himself from his problem, even after hearing it explained. The cognitive evaluation is very important, but can not cause change by itself. The student senses a need for some help to overcome his behavior.

Here is a slightly generalized example. A man in his 30's came to me having trouble reading. He is from an Italian background. He could not get any meaning from what he read. However, his test results were very odd. He could read almost every word correctly. He also read out loud beautifully. What could his problem be?

In working with him it took only a few minutes to realize that he was spending so much energy subvocalizing while he read that he had no concentration left to spend on the meaning of what he was reading.

He saw what I was saying, but it was literally impossible for him to stop subvocalizing on his own. He just could not see how to do it. He stated that it was impossible not to subvocalize.

Presentation of Techniques that Work Better Immediately

The counselor must provide an environment in which the student is induced to participate on a test basis.

The altered environment must provide solutions to the inherent problems and it must do so immediately. In certain cases this occurs by providing new ways of doing things. In other cases this immediate solution can come by showing the student techniques which he or she was simply never aware of earlier, but were available.

The student must have immediate verification that the altered environment provides the promised results. This must come from the student's own experimentation and verification.

The experimentation must continue in such a way as to show the student that there are means by which the student can operate with this improved technique on an ongoing daily basis. This is done by experiencing technology that can be used daily, or by developing transferrable skill.

Students realize that there is nothing wrong with their minds or motivation. All they need to do is to use available technology to help them compensate for certain deficiencies or correct certain habits. Then they can read and think just like others.

The student's self-esteem increases immediately.

Here is an example. The young Italian man I spoke about earlier was convinced that he could not read without subvocalizing. He stated that this was impossible. What I did was to present the same text he was reading at a rate just faster than the subvocalization rate. At this speed it was impossible for him to subvocalize. All of a sudden he saw that he could read words without subvocalizing. Furthermore, he saw immediately that when he read without subvocalizing he could get a tremendous amount out of what he read. Within five minutes this man had an entire change in his attitude about his ability to read and learn.

What was the key here? Very simply it was the construction of an altered environment and then experimentation by the student. Care about the Student's feelings and opinions was combined with the ability to help in a way that could be pragmatically evaluated by the student.

Letting Go

While praising and applauding the student's resourcefulness and creativity and perseverance in developing earlier coping strategies, the counselor also points out that this was necessary because nobody gave the student better advise. The student is told that under the circumstances, the student did a phenomenal job of coping, but that better approaches exist now, which the student can start to use. The student realizes that he or she can now let go of outworn, old habits from the past in favor of embracing better, more productive approaches available now.

Projection

Poor and disabled readers often expand their way of dealing with learning to other areas of life. In many instances the LD student expands the same inappropriate coping mechanism of reading to become the world outlook of that person's overall psychological outlook towards others.

In a very major way the cognitive approach of the individual is just as determinative of that person's personality as the early childhood intrapsychic exchanges with parents, or one's history of medical and physical trauma.

Most people have no idea how much a person's overall outlook is determined by the way he or she copes with information processing.

I approach the issue of wider cognitive projection by going for a walk by the ocean with the student and talking with the person some more about their life. I gradually point out to them, strictly from what they themselves say, that they are using in their interpersonal relations many of the same attitudes that they use in personal reading. It does not take long for the student to see this. Usually they are just spellbound as they finally see a meaning unfolding in their life.

Here is an example, slightly summarized. A 40-ish man came to me for help. His fiance lead him to me - not quite by the collar, but almost - to improve his conversation ability.

In working with this man, it came out that he could not get any meaning out of reading sentences. He could in fact read many words, but the actual decoding took so much energy and concentration that he had no concentration left for the actual meaning of the sentences. He compensated by reading the sentences through just as fast as he could, just to get through the "damn" task. There was no meaning in his pronunciation, nor was there any cognitive grouping of words when reading, as is normally done with what is called fluency.

What this man did not realize was that he was talking to others the same way he was reading. His communication skills were just an extension of his information input processing techniques.

When I explained to the boyfriend why he was talking the way he was, he was very interested. Then we went into my computer room and he sat down at the computer and started to read. I had turned the speed down so that he could only see one word at a time. He caught himself guessing at words rather than reading the words that were there and making sense out of those words. He was amazed that he was doing just what we had predicted. Before I did this he was unable to change his behavior. In other words, first I constructed an environment in which he could see himself doing just what I had predicted.

Next, I had him read words slowly with meaning. I constructed an environment for him where the words were presented with cognitive intervals. All of a sudden he started to read words with some meaning. As soon as he saw himself doing this he became a happy camper. Here again this occurred because I changed his environment. From his participation in the changed environment, he could see that improvement was easily possible.

All this occurred to this man in a way that emerged out of his own words and statements, my expertise as an enlightened witness and my creation of an altered environment. The entire process took about two hours and he and I were immediately able to work out a longer term program. He and his fiance left quite encouraged. His speech was much improved by his wedding day later that fall.

The Eight Steps

1. Empathize with Student and Promise Probability of Immediate Help.

Identify as a fellow traveler. Quickly summarize your experience basis and imply an ability to help. Care about listening to input from the student about his or her goals. Overview the seven basic steps to excellent reading and the need for initial evaluation and periodic consultation. Explain the need for the student to make mistakes in order for you to be able to help, so "don't get worried if you make mistakes".

2. Listen and Watch the Student Read, without Comment.

Do not say anything, just pay attention to where student is at. Allow the student to make the same mistakes over and over, so as to get clear picture of what are the most pressing problems. Allow the student to read this way for about three minutes. Then possibly ask a few comprehension questions about what was just read.

3. Explain Patterns of Behavior in the Student's Reading to the Student.

4. Allow and Have the Student Confirm Your Predictions.

Have the student continue to read, pointing out how the student is doing just what had been predicted. Student sees his mind at work 30 inches in front of him and can not deny the accuracy of prediction.

5. Show the Student a Different Set of Approaches and Techniques which Work Better.

Have the student experience improved reading with the new techniques.
Explain to the student what is happening: that certain bad habits are compounding the situation, and that these bad habits need to be changed. Explain that certain instruction was never presented or missed and needs to be presented now, ie, structured phonetics, vocabulary building from reading.

6. Provide the Student with the Right Computer Software Tool for independent Practice. Fine Tune the Technique to Use, Basing Changes on Input from the Student.

The student realizes the importance of his input in his destiny, that he or she has real control over what happens, and that his decisions control the outcome.

7. Jointly Celebrate the Student's Improved Self-Esteem.

Talk about the end of frustration and the increase in joy and the increase in comprehension. Celebrate the fact that the student now knows that he or she has a good mind, that he or she can now process print just as well as the next person and that he or she has just experienced doing this.

8. Discuss Letting Go.

Explain to the student that now, outworn bad habits can be dropped in favor of new, more effective habits, which the student is willing to and Wants to Practice.

Review the causal factors in the initially poor reading. Explain how there was great creativity and courage involved in developing coping strategies in the face of lack of better alternatives. Review how now the student has better choices and options.

Explain any social projection that may be occurring from the bad habits, which the student can now also let go.

Also, briefly mention steps in the future that will be taken together as soon as student is ready to move up to the next stage in reading.

Make sure the student is empowered and trained for independent practice. Explain the daily program of independent work with technology and the periodic consultation. Get a statement of compliance with and ownership of the proposed program.