Text may be comprehended without eye movement and with a sensation that one is being read to out loud. When this is done, the mind is able to concentrate on the content rather than the process of reading. Speed and comprehension for most people can instantly increase dramatically. Furthermore, many processing difficulties of learning disabled readers can be instantly functionally compensated. This two requirement presentation can occur in three separate ways:
The first way is through silent reading. When text is visually presented as a simulation of speech without any sound, the mind adjusts to this visual simulation of speech by supplying an internal sensation of the missing sound and, regardless of speed (up to 700 words per minute), the internal sensation is that of being read aloud to at normal speaking speed.
The visual presentation of text as a silent simulation of speech requires eleven elements which must be consistently present to in order to make this effect happen. The three most important of these requirements are:
The second way that this two requirement presentation can occur is through presentation of text one word at a time on the screen with the text pronounced as it is presented. In addition, pauses of no text presentation occur between sentences. The rate of presentation must be at least that of speaking slowly. Voice may be either real human voice (digitized) from a voice library or synthesized voice.
The third way that this two part requirement can occur is through presentation of text just one sentence at a time in a fixed window with the sentence pronounced as it is presented. The eye never changes focus from the same spot at the top-center of the window. The reader can only clearly see one or two words at the center of the top line and vertically just below. However, one is constantly aware of words seen peripherally, but not completely clearly, to both the left and the right of center.
As one hears the text read out loud, the reader ties in this speech to the peripheral perceptions he or she has and to the words that can be seen clearly, both at the center of the top line and vertically just below. There is no eye movement in this process. Furthermore, the eye does not move as subsequent sentences come on the screen. Each sentence is processed as a mental clarification of visual perception.
The few words that can be clearly seen vertically in each sentence are treated as if they were key words in an outline: each is understood in turn as it is presented and each is constantly related to other such words in the sentence. Text can easily be read and comprehended at 150-200 words per minute with this approach.
Many of the following discoveries are not only discoveries of cause but, simultaneously, also of solution. Others are just solutions to known problems.
Thirty-two basic discoveries of Proportional Reading are described below.
These results are clinically verifiable within minutes of working with a student.
This twenty-five year study has identified a specific cycle of failure and root causes leading to poor fluency and inability to grasp concept:
a) Errors are made in reading individual words due to simple processing difficulties. As a result, perhaps one or more out of every ten words will be misread by poor readers.
b) The number of errors builds during the reading of a paragraph and compounds upon itself, so that clear meaning becomes impossible by the end of the paragraph.
c) It takes so long to get to the end of a sentence that continuity is lost from the beginning of the sentence.
d) The process of idea gathering is so slow as to be extremely boring.
e) It is so painful to read a sentence that this causes frustration.
f) Because of the accumulation of errors and boredom and frustration, a sense of hopelessness and low self-esteem quickly builds and interferes with comprehension.
g) Many coping mechanisms are devised to compensate for the simple processing difficulties. Unfortunately, these "solutions" tend to become obsessive-compulsive behaviors or are at the very least as non-productive as they are brilliantly creative.
h) This downward spiral snowballs with poor performance subsequently on grades.
Proportional Reading solves these comprehension problems by providing a simple mechanical solution for processing difficulty and by grouping words into thought units and by providing a simulated speech, which by its very nature is not restricted by speed.
Many students immediately improve their comprehension, but more importantly, they loose their terror of the printed page, the gripping horror that faces them whenever they have to read something.
Student difficulty reformatting material is another major reason why review often does not take place. Reformatting material is often impossible for dyslexic and LD students. This reformatting problem occurs not only because of specific problems, like difficulty with handwriting, but also because the student is often burnt out by the time he or she has gotten through material for the first time. Also, available time has often disappeared and/or material has not been accurately understood by the student to begin with.
Proportional Reading handles these problems by providing an automatic review. Automatic review means that the student does not have to rephrase material into questions, outlines, written or retyped notes, noun phrases or shorthand in order to review it. Nor does the student have to underline text. All review material is automatically provided with, in, and by the initial format. The review process uses the subject-verb-predicate format which is basic to later communication with others.
Automatic review happens in several ways. The student rereads material at a faster speed. As the student reads he can anticipate the end of sentences, which then appear to reinforce or correct his own visualization and verbalization. This process allows the student to build knowledge with each successive time through the material. This process also effectively prepares the student for communication with others.
As additional tools, students can choose to have the computer display only the first sentence of each paragraph; or only specially marked sentences which students or teachers have marked earlier. Students can also optionally choose to have the text transformed into interactive questions and answers, if additional pauses have been added earlier. These techniques turn out to be effective and quick tools for additional review.
Students use their visual imagination and memory to fill in the blanks. This active use of the imagination and organization skill also helps to give the student command over material that has just been learned.
Reading speed for review can be greatly increased both because Proportional Reading technology makes this possible and because the student has presumably understood each single sentence earlier. In review, a different reading experience takes place. Individual sentences are seen as idea blocks and the student experiences the process as a building of blocks. The student is now able to do maximum thinking and understanding.
Many students will not believe that they can read a word if they can not see the word in its entirety. They think that if they miss seeing every part of every word they will miss some of the meaning of the word. This feeling compliments the thought that if they do not sub-vocalize each and every word and every part of every word, they will miss essential elements of meaning and thereby also loose comprehension. They end up re-reading the same word over and over (regression).
The compulsion to see every word and to subvocalize every word is so strong in weak readers that the individual is often unable to voluntarily break these habits without assistance.
Proportional Reading immediately shows the individual that these beliefs are not valid or necessary. Proportional Reading presents material faster than the subvocalization rate. It was discovered that by forcing students to read substantially faster than their barrier speed, they could instantly see what was possible. It has been repeatedly observed that without the tools to do this, students stay "Frozen" in fear at their current level.
Using Proportional Reading students jump over the "Marginot Line". The student can see that subvocalization and total visual integration of each word is not necessary. The student quickly gains confidence and empowerment in avoiding these earlier restraining approaches.
In normal reading aloud the child or beginning adult student or ESL student often can not tell what word or word phrase the accompanying sound belongs to. Especially if a beginner is looking at a long paragraph, he or she often has no idea which words the voice refers to as heard. Proportional Reading changes all this. The person can now know immediately what word the sound relates to as each word is spoken. Students can now easily associate phraseology and cognitive patterns of voice with the related text.
For example, we have already seen how the review process builds on earlier work: the student can reread text at a much faster speed the second time through, or the student can review just certain sentences.
Writing papers and authenticating arguments can be greatly facilitated by the same process. One can have just the specially marked sentences typed out automatically with their associated page numbers and sub-title headings. This process can greatly facilitate paper writing and note taking by saving rereading, underlining, and retyping time. Each selection can in turn be marked for further selection of key ideas. In this way one can quickly get to the essence of a long work in a couple of "passes".
In a similar fashion, if the student stops to look up a words or mark a new key dates or names as he or she reads the text the first time, the student can at any time produce a cumulative list of vocabulary words or key marked words (in order of presentation) for further review. No rereading or retyping is required.
All of these steps can be done much faster and more accurately than otherwise because the basic program automatically builds on work done the first time through the material. This principle has not been used affected ever before in reading, although word processors do something analogous in writing.
This effect is very similar to the situation where a child is being pulled in two different directions by divorced parents. The child will often just shut down, go into a depression and/or suggest that there is little reason to live. Reducing parental contrast may work wonders here also. This is a very different suggestion from just cutting out one parent.
(It remains to be tested as to how helpful the metaphor of visually induced depression can be in helping a young child understand the cause of his or her psychological depression and what the solution could be. This metaphor from reading may be extremely helpful as it clearly and immediately shows how the body reacts to certain types of stress.)
This state is entirely different than that of chronic stress where the body has subconsciously turned emotional signals into long term muscle tension in preparation for fight or flight.
Proportional Reading acts as a momentary escape from this alternative state of FIXED decision, fear and anger.
Proportional Reading can further act as a state which one can learn to enter.
Motion is the basis of TV mesmerism. The TV screen is almost constantly in motion with an internal visual logic and changing visual rhythm. This visual motion relentlessly draws the mind's attention, often away from a good book.
This attractive quality of TV can be broken down into at least two main visual factors. First, the eye does not have to go and search out what is the next object of focus. The TV screen automatically presents this for us. This passive input, if you will, is very attractive.
Secondly, our eye is drawn to each new image as it settles down on the screen, much as a frog notes the movement of a fly which it would like to have for supper, or as a dear looks for motion in the woods to indicate an enemy, whether it be a wolf, lion or man.
Instead of damning TV, as educators usually do, Proportional Reading goes back to the root causes of its success over the printed page and uses these two principles to read text. First, in Proportional Reading the student never has to move his eye; objects (words) move for the student. Thus, image input can be just as passive and easy as watching TV.
Secondly, Proportional Reading gets the eye to focus the student's mind on just one word at a time, a word that was in motion a split second ago, and which has just stopped. Our mind instinctively focuses on this object which was recently in motion as if it were an intruder into our space. Our mind quickly wants to interpret and make sense of this intrusion (is the object friend, or foe, or dinner).
If the word has been learned earlier it is quickly recognized. If the word can be spoken, it is immediately recognized through kinesthetic memory as well as visual memory. The word is then immediately turned into a mind picture. Proportional Reading uses this principle to quickly get through a sentence. One word after another "hops" onto the screen. The mind instinctively wants to interpret what has just happened and does so.
This visual music is in one hundred percent correlation and resonance with the cognitive grouping of thoughts.
It is a well known principle that flashing light entrains the brain at the frequency level of the flashing. By presenting words as flashes at a Theta rate, the mind is entrained to receive them in the most receptive of all states. This is also the state of maximum visualization.
It has been realized that the Theta rate of presentation combined with the presentation of text in a visual simulation of speech does wonders for reading.
However, there is no way the mind can continue to turn concept words into a flowing scene of a mental movie. Individual concept words just can not make up the elements of a moving picture, as, for example, do successive words describing a man's costume. For this reason the mind processes concept words as individual slides or pictures.
These word pictures, however, are associated together visually and cognitively in ways that are much more impressive and memorable than in normal reading. This enhanced pattern recognition and retention is due to proportional presentation.
Tachistoscopic, presentation of individual words for varied periods of time depending on word length and context (proportional presentation), enhances memory of individual word patterns, just as tachistoscopic training alone helped soldiers identify enemy aircraft in World War II. The combination of techniques just described when applied to words is unique to Proportional Reading. When this combination of techniques is applied to abstract words, as well as picture words, it will instantly assist students who have had trouble reading by the sight reading approach.
Proportional Reading naturally trains students in the changing visual pattern of words at shorter and shorter exposure. As students read at higher speeds they are automatically trained in seeing and recognizing all types of words at shorter and shorter time intervals.
Two sequential steps are clearly mandated. First, the student must know how to sound out an individual word and be familiar with every detail of its basic form as well as its definition. The reader needs first to have a full kinesthetic familiarity with each word. Second, and only after step one is realized, the reader needs to become familiar with the look of that word at shorter and shorter periods of exposure. This process is very easy to do if step one occurs before step two. This process is impossible if step one is absent, or if the student tries to do step two before step one.
This is a very different approach from other entrainment devises which simply provide a flashing light and then add a second medium for suggestion, namely spoken accompaniment.
The effectiveness of Proportional Reading is based in part on this discovery that cognitive thoughts themselves can act as the entrainment vehicle when presented in a visual simulation of speech and that secondly, this technique results in an extremely high level of focus and concentration by the student on the reading material.
The presence of and the moderate variation of individual words and thoughts in proportionalized presentation provides the objects of interest which the mind is searching for. The repetitive flashing by itself has created a blank field in the mind, yet one open to suggestion because it is in Theta state.
The basic flashes of the words, even with slight differences due to proportionality, constantly resonates with the beats of the classical music. The classical rhythms tend therefore to become "harmonics" of the basic text flow rate which is set by the speed setting.
The logic and rhythm of the classical music with its build up of stress and then its resolution of stress, acts as a lure for the student to progress through the cognitive messages of the text. As the student goes through the text, the student feels that he or she will resolve the music story. In fact this occurs, which in turn enhances the belief.
This phenomenon is possible because both music and text naturally tend towards resolution (understanding, empathy, conclusion) given time.
However, because the text is so dominant in the mind, for reasons stated above, the audio music never acts as more than a minor harmonic to the clearly dominant theme of the cognitive direction of the text.
Classical music can also help out in Proportional Reading in a second way. Ironically, the faster one reads, the slower it sometimes feels one is reading. Once one starts to read at the higher speeds, ideas occur as blocks, almost instantaneously, especially in review. At this point the mind starts to relate one idea block to the next idea block.
As the student proceeds to understand relationships, there is often a pyramid effect wherein the base is wide, but the amount of material involved shrinks as you go higher up the conceptual ladder.
Classical music can often take the edge off the desire to have ideas come faster and faster. This effect is not dissimilar to the boredom edge that is removed in manufacturing by playing music in the workplace.
Specifically this occurs when proportionalized text (visually simulated audio) is presented at a rate just faster than subvocalization rate (which is simultaneously) the Theta Hz. range of brain wave frequency, and when the vehicle for doing the flashing is also the ongoing presentation of the text itself.
Many of his subjects suffered from ostracism and low self-esteem because of physical problems which were considered to be signs of disapproval from God. Christ immediately lifted this self-curse by use of his authority. He told these people (believers) that they were loved. Among many other factors, this change in the way these individuals were then able to see themselves was at least one key factor in immediate change in their lives.
What I am saying is that it is clear through repeated demonstrations that technology can also often immediately lift a person's negative view of himself as he or she experiences change. The immediate downstream results for such a person can also be miraculous; and this is something we can all do for each other.
Proportional Reading discovered a solution, namely a different approach. Proportional Reading improves speed by teaching people to read by simulated (or visual) listening rather than by complicated fixation algorithms. Many people are immediately able to concentrate on the content rather than the process of reading.
Even at very fast speeds readers using Proportional Reading can sense an internal voice. When it stops there is evidence of missed information. This internal voice acts as a metacognition tool, something not possible in phrase reading.
a) The first time through a sentence individual words must be recognized and the relationship between these words understood. If a particular word is unfamiliar or new, it must be kinesthetically resonated with. That is, it must be visually recognized and spoken aloud until it can be properly spoken. The definition must also be learned.
b) Words in a sentences can be quickly read by focusing on the longer words and by pausing at the ends of sentences.
c) It is not necessary to feel that you have seen every element of a longer, familiar word to know what that word is and to put that word into context with other words. As a longer word is seen at shorter and shorter intervals, it will have a different pattern. All you need to do is recognize the pattern of that word to know and use it. Gaining confidence in recognizing known words by pattern, can be quickly achieved.
d) Reading proportionalized text at faster and faster speeds automatically trains one in recognizing words at shorter and shorter intervals.
e) It is important and necessary to view words as thought groups, or cognitive intervals. With a little practice, this skill can be easily learned.
f) The second time the sentence is read it will be recognized as a familiar thought. At this point the sentence thought will be addressed as an idea block. This idea block will then be juxtaposed to the next idea block and these idea blocks can be built up as indicated by the relationships presented for the sentences.
g) Pauses added internally to a sentence can act to help understand that sentence. The first time through the sentence a pause acts to organize the first part of the sentence and direct anticipation for what is to follow. The second and following times through the sentence, the same pause acts as a way to change linear text into interactive questions and answers. This is something the student can easily see how to do on his own while reading any text. This type of pausing does not require reformatting the text into formal questions, outlines, noun phrases or shorthand or any other time consuming alteration of normal subject-verb-predicate text in preparation for review.
h) Reading regular text in a linear fashion with brief pausing on the longer words and at cognitive intervals creates a visual simulation of being read aloud to. This is extremely helpful for understanding.
i) Reading text at a rate faster than the subvocalization rate can easily be learned.
j) When words are read faster than this rate, they turn into pictures and movies in the reader's mind.
k) At such times the active imagination is used and this is very enjoyable and far superior to the passive imagination of TV, where images are presented to you.
I) During review it is very helpful and easy to anticipate the end of a sentence once you recognize the idea block. You think out the rest of the sentence or thought before you get to it. Then you check yourself as you actually read the final part of the sentence. This is excellent review as it forces one to communicate (with oneself) in the subject-verb-predicate format, which is what is required for communication between humans.
m) The second or third time through a sentence you can read it much faster, because you are essentially recognizing familiar territory. Hence, review can be done at much faster speed than initial reading.
n) The ability to see words presented on the screen one word at a time and simultaneously hear them pronounced, as text is read aloud at normal speaking speed, greatly reduces learning time.
See also section on Transferrable Skills in the Introduction.
What has not been realized is that the eyes often reproduce this situation in reading a page of print. The print is very close to the eyes. A relaxed focus tends to make a hot dog out of adjacent words. The result is a restructuring of letters that are beheld by the mind in their new order. Letters will be inverted on the same line of print. If the head is slanted to one side, letters from above or below will also be inserted.
Three additional factors have also not been recognized and/or incorporated into a successful solution for this problem. First, the eye's tendency to create backwards images for the reason listed above, diminishes rapidly as the distance of the object moves away from the eyes. At about arm's length objects are much less likely to "invert". Coincidentally this is the distance human beings have developed their arms to provide. (I submit that this may be one factor for the rise of achievement of humans over other animals, namely they could easily and sharply see what was "at hand".)
Second, normally printed text is often too small to comfortably see at this distance, which is about twice the normal reading distance.
Third, when you enlarge text so that it can be easily seen, the new size prohibits meaningful and easy eye movement over large amounts of text within short periods of time.
Proportional Reading offers a solution to this dilemma. The reader can sit back many feet, if necessary, from the screen. Letters are large and words come on the screen at a rapid rate, requiring no eye movement. Thus the focussing problem is largely solved. Secondly, because no words are shown either to the left or right or above or below the word presented on the screen, it is essentially impossible to introduce letters from other words. The combined result is immediate functional compensation for this reading problem.
This phenomenon occurs for the following reason. The area of sharp visual focus, or macula vision, allows for sharp focus of perhaps an inch horizontally and vertically. Apart from this, words start to loose clarity. However, even at the ends of the line, the rough shape of words is often comprehended as well as the relative spacing of words. Presentation of one sentence at a time in a separate window does not require vertical eye movement or visual differentiation from other sentences. It is as if 60% of the recognition was present, but not the last 40%. With the presence of sound these week perceptions can be clarified without eye movement and at a rapid speed. This type of reading allows for in depth concentration on content.
Namely, a person's personality is often largely molded by how he or she inputs and processes information. The human personality will show incredible creativity in figuring out creative solutions to impasses, which as noted earlier in this paper, are often counter productive and become obsessive-compulsive in nature. They are also usually brilliantly creative when understood as the solo feats they usually are.
Once this underlying point was understood and combined with the ability to provide technical tools for immediately compensating for processing difficulties, it became apparent that as one instantly freed an individual from a dependency on a relatively poor approach to life, one could simultaneously explain and enlighten that same individual to the accompanying psychological chains that had bound him or her, and in so doing break these chains for ever.
My point here is that when a mechanical understanding was combined with a "creative response" explanation and understanding, a much more powerful result occurred than when just one or the other element was present.
The incredibly quick and lasting change in personality that can be rapidly achieved with this technique is at a far cry from the dismal record of current approaches for dealing with family violence and learning disabilities.
What we are talking about here is the complete opposite of what modern therapy tries to do. The basic approach of the courts and the therapists is to make a person whole, to make a person well, to get him back to where he can start to be a real person. What I am saying, is that the real solution for instant help and change of personality comes in empowering that person as a real person. That is self-actualization, empowerment, and realization, not just putting him "back on the street".
I submit that this goal is achieved by the application of the laws of professional creativity. By this I mean the laws and principles that enable a person to repeatedly create solutions and breakthroughs (as opposed to a bunch of monkeys randomly typing away in cages - one of whom will eventually create a masterpiece.)
It is as if when you asked for help you were given a coin. On one side were a whole bunch of well meaning people who had fancy degrees and who offered to bring you back from below neutral to neutral - from minus to zero. On the other side of the coin was an approach to help you realize your innermost dreams, to become alive and to want to live. One approach stems from the medical and legal traditions, the other from the world's inventors and theologians and artists.
Both traditions have their place. What I am saying is that currently there is a professional absence of one-half of the options. For simplification, I call the approach of self-realization of dreams based on the principles of professional creativity Pragmatic Realization Therapy (PRT). In the section of this web site called "An Approach For Helping Others", the eight principles of PRT and their proper order of presentation are spelled out in detail.
This particular combination of simultaneously resonating systems provides a positive momentum which makes possible solutions to a number of age old problems.
Proportional Reading is not magic. It is a tool which does for the eyes what the automobile does for the feet. It provides a machine which takes over and speeds up specific mechanical operations, thereby allowing much higher performance in certain situations.
© John F. Adams, 1996