I was delighted to receive a reply this week from Professor John Stein of Oxford University. He is, of course, well known for his Magnocellular Theory of dyslexia, which argues that the visual magnocellular timing system is ‘mildly deficit’ for most dyslexics.
He pointed me in the direction of Dr Teri Lawton, who has developed a progressively dimmer grey grating that stimulates visual magnocellular sensitivity.
He suggested that our Structured Saccade Overlays may be doing something similar. He may well be right. I am also sure that dyslexics and neurodivergent people generally tend to use what has become known as ‘dyslexic thinking’, which focuses on the big picture and attempting to identify the patterns and connections that give details meaning.
This, by its very nature, requires large random saccades (to avoid getting bogged down in details). So large ‘chaotic’ saccades are extremely useful for us, until it comes to reading, when they are pretty disastrous.
The fact that dyslexics can gain excellent control over saccades within minutes rather than hours does lead me to think that this is not so much of a deficit as a difference in approach. I argue that using the Structured Saccade Overlays provides a structured pathway to applying more efficient reading methods when required. If this also impacts positively on the visual magnocellular system, so much the better, and only further research will reveal.
