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ARE YOU A RIGHT TO LEFT SCANNER?
As a sufferer of dyslexia who has struggled all my life with reading and writing, I had always considered my dyslexia to be a visual problem.
I was quick to recognise that my daughter suffered with the same problems as I did but then noticed that she was scanning text from right to left.
I asked myself a simple question
"If there was nothing wrong with me or my daughter could ther be something wrong with the text?"
and so I started to investigate.....

This page is the result of the work I have researched into The Primary Cause of Dyslexia and provides a summary of how to replicte my findings, along with sample tests to identify if you are a right to left scanner.



A BRIEF OUTLINE TO HELP YOU REPLICATE MY FINDINGS

I have tried to be as precise as I can in my paper The primary cause of dyslexia, which has identified one specific condition a visual preference to scan text from right to left. These scanners will be the second largest group per population - a conservative estimate would be 5%, but there will need to be further investigation to ascertain the true figures. These people will be of medium to high IQ and be labeled dyslexic under current testing. As my paper states this can be corrected if they were provided with text in the correct orientation. My assessment of the overall picture, taking my findings into account, is there are three main scanning groups with three sub groups that would be affected by the direction of text and their preferred direction of word scanning left or right.
Main group Sub group

1.Left to right scanners hihg IQ (not blue)
Left to right scanners low IQ (blue)

2. Right to left scanners high IQ (blue)
Right to left scanners low IQ (blue)

3. Ambidextrous scanners high IQ (not blue)
Ambidextrous scanners low IQ (Blue)

All the groups highlighted in blue if tested and found to have a problem would currently come under the umbrella of being dyslexic, but would have different reasons as to why they were unable to read, and therefore different definitions should apply for each group. It may be that the existing definitions are appropriate for specific groups but they will need to be clearly identified. There may be a group that has no scanning related problems but have phonological problems, this to will need to be established.
There are currently 6 million sufferers of dyslexia in the United Kingdom. There are approximately 30 million in the European Union and approximately 40 million across the USA, Canada and Australia. The symptoms they present may vary due to social or economic background, or the ability of the individual learning to accommodate their dyslexia to some degree. However the underlying cause remains the invisible thread that links them all together. The invisible thread is the primary cause that I have identified.
Around 1100 BC the Phoenicians began to develop their own alphabet moving away from the long established Egyptian hieroglyphics. They formed the basis of written text as we know it, as words were formed from a series of letters and were written from the right to the left hand side of the page. I believe that the Phoenicians natural visual scanning inclination was right to left and consequently text was written in this format (see diagram 12 pg 22). Arabic Hebrew and certainly ancient Greek writing evolved from the Phoenician letters and were all written from right to left. Today Arabic and Hebrew are still presented in this right to left format.
The key to the dyslexic mystery is the Greeks. Around 800 BC the Greek alphabet evolved from the Phoenician alphabet to accommodate the Greek language and was written in a right to left orientation. It progressed in this format for 300 years up until 500 BC. During this period of educating the Greek population it was discovered the majority were having difficulty reading text in the right to left direction (see pg 19-24). To move forward and combat this problem the Greeks designed their letters to be reversible and concluded by around 500 BC in a change of direction for reading text. This left to right format continues through to the present day. This is a clear indication that the Greeks had identified a majority with a left to right visual directional orientation trait, and of such importance to the educated world that they went to the unprecedented lengths of reversing the direction of reading. However it cannot be ignored that there remained a minority group of people who had been reading text as right to left scanners without problems during the intervening 300 years, clearly identifying the two different groups of scanners. These two groups of scanners still exist.
The later development of the roman alphabet (see pages 19 – 24), has made it impossible to detect right to left scanning using conventional teaching methods and as a result these scanners are now diagnosed as dyslexic. If text were presented to these people, taking account of their orientation preference, they would learn to read at the same speed if not faster than a left to right reader. After years of frustration of being unable to read, write and spell the dyslexic sufferer develops symptoms that are attributed to dyslexia instead of the consequences of suffering dyslexia.
Providing a person has had access to education and in the absence of an adverse medical condition, any person whose first language is English and cannot read left to right text should be considered, as part of the process of elimination, to be a right to left scanner.
In carrying out initial trials to replicate my findings a child should speak English as their first language, have been diagnosed with dyslexia, and have profound difficulty reading form left to right but can identify letters and read individual words. The child should not have taken part in an extensive correctional program. The trials should not be carried out on anyone that has a degree of competence in left to right reading as this will cause confusion and distort the results.
In adults the person must be able to read individual words but have difficulty reading text and with spelling. There are two formats for text on pages 25 – 26.
There may need to be a transitional period for the subject to adapt to the orientation. To gauge reading speed the right to left, bottom to top text (page 25) is more suitable. Whilst observing and recording eye movement it will be noted that the reading speed doubles or triples and becomes more fluent indicating that the reader is a right to left scanner. If you accept the right to left scanning trait as correct it then follows that the subject is in fact scanning the text backwards as shown in my paper.
The next step is to establish that dyslexics do not have a short term memory problem in retaining spelling to memory. I have used two different methods to commit spellings to memory. Which ever method you use do not present spellings in lower case lettering, use only capitals. The reasons for this are fully explained in the paper. For a normal reader a word like apple would be broken down as ap- the prefix and –ple the suffix. For a right to left scanner-ple or –elp becomes the prefix and ap- or pa- is the suffix.
APPLE – firstly break the word into syllables AP - PLE. As the dyslexic person sees the end of the word first they should say out loud ELP and then PLE, and then write down PLE. Next they say PA, then AP and then write down AP in front of the PLE to make the complete word. They should then write the complete word in full APPLE. They should repeat this two or three times. If the word has been retained in permanent memory they should be able to recall the correct spelling there after. To reinforce this and build on it words ending with the same suffixes can be used e.g. simple, sample and pimple. Once the subject learns to commit words to memory in this way, They will have the confidence to believe they can spell and remember words. Remember this may be the first time the subject has done this so be patient. Once the subject understands what is being asked of them and that it produces results, they themselves will find faster ways to suit them. For the first time the subject will be able to build up a reservoir of correct spellings in memory.
The second method as described in diagram 7 page 16 – 17, is to write the word as a mirror image from right left, for example APPLE would become ELPPA
E I q - q A. The word should be written in this way two or three times alongside verbal pronunciation to commit the word to memory. This method is presenting a correct visual image for a right to left scanner. Once the spelling is committed to memory they should be able to spell the word in the correct orientation (left to right). Two or three other words ending in –PLE should be introduced to instill confidence in the subject. After conducting these experiments you will have a better understanding of the nature of the problem that you are dealing with. The problem for a right to left scanner is Anglo Roman text cannot be reversed for reading purposes. The only European language that will reverse to suit a right to left scanner is Greek, in reverse Greek text as it was originally designed to be read from right to left.
The best summary of a deficit model I have found is Wilsher (1981)
“The massive weight of evidence points to a very simple explanation. The reason dyslexics have difficulty with “left-hemisphere tasks” (Naming, coding and sequencing) is not because they are localized ABNORMALLY, but because they are localized NORMALLY and are DYSFUNCTIONING”.
Wilshaw would have discovered the primary cause of dyslexia in1989 had he known
you can only sequence data in the same sequence it is scanned or encoded (see pages 7-13-16 )
Background information
I am bilingual due to my family background, my first language is Greek and my second is English. I have a keen interest in ancient and modern Greek history. It is through my roots and my own dyslexia that I have investigated and compiled this book in an effort to improve and help myself, my daughter and in the process help others. I am a retired electrical technician and have worked on computer controlled automated machinery where most of the problems when commissioning plant on site are sequencing signaling issues. Through my field of work I made the breakthrough and realised that visual dyslexia presented the same type of problems when sequencing text to memory. It is not the eyes that do the reading they are purely a camera picking up the image, it is the brain which interprets this image and therefore reading text is a function of the brain. This gives a clear indication that if the image is scanned in incorrectly the brain can only interpret the information offered. This is a crucial indicator that has been missed or misunderstood.
(The page references refer to the complete book which I am trying to get published)
For further information or details please contact me at
abcstan@aol.com

Copyright: S Sutton 2006

The Leonardo Da Vinci sight test is suitable for you if you comply with the majority of the following

1. DIFFICULTY READING CONVENTIONAL TEXT

2. SLOW READING SPEED

3. MIS-READING WORDS

4. ARE ABLE TO READ INDIVIDUAL WORDS

1. DIFFICULTY REMEMBERING SPELLINGS

2. REVERSING LETTERS e.g - b/d,  u/n,  etc.

3. PRIMARILY A PHONETIC SPELLER

4. YOUR CURRENT SPELLING ABILITY IS POOR

5. MIRROR IMAGING WORDS

6. ABLE TO WRITE THE LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET

1. REVERSE NUMBERS

2. MIS-READ DIGITS e.g 674 BECOMES 764

 

If you or your child have been tested for dyslexia and you were believed to be dylexic with an above average IQ, the other group would be sever dyslexics (have extreme difficulty reading anything) you would be suitable for the Leonardo Eye Test

LINKS TO USEFUL WEBSITES

 

 

Reverse writing http://parents.berkeley.edu/advice/preschoolaged/reversewriting.html

 

THE PRIMARY CAUSE OF DYSLEXIA
FIRST DISCOVERED BY THE GREEKS IN 550BC AND
REDISCOVERED BY LEONARDO DA VINCI IN THE
15TH CENTURY
 NOW CONFIRMED BY MY RESEARCH

 

this contains 26 pages including diagrams to offer a   visual explanation and is written in plain English. This cause can be corrected

plus

THE LEONARDO DA VINCI SIGHT TEST
TO IDENTIFY VISUAL DYSLEXIA SCANNING ORIENTATION

This test is suitable is for teenage and adults who are experiencing a visual barrier when reading text, sometimes known as word blindness.

 

 If you require a test for a child please look out for 
            WAS IT A CAT I SAW
and the Leonardo Da Vinci Sight test pack

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION OR TO CONTACT US PLEASE SEND YOUR EMAIL TO