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Helping students gain confidence for life by reading faster, understanding better and remembering more.
We are an online coaching program where Dr. McMurray meets with students through a simple online Zoom meeting. He observes the eye movement patterns, listens to your child read, and can diagnose most eye-tracking problems that your child might be experiencing. He can then answer any questions you have and offer help or information that you could use to help you or your child read better. Assessment takes 15-20 minutes, it works best if the computer camera is at eye level.
We are an online coaching program where Dr. McMurray meets with students through a simple online Zoom meeting. He observes the eye movement patterns, listens to your child read, and can diagnose most eye-tracking problems that your child might be experiencing. He can then answer any questions you have and offer help or information that you could use to help you or your child read better. Assessment takes 15-20 minutes, it works best if the computer camera is at eye level.
To schedule a free, online diagnostic assessment for your child contact:
To schedule a free, online diagnostic assessment for your child contact:
You don't need anything other than access to a computer and email address!
Dr. Eldon L. McMurray has taught reading on all levels from elementary to college. He is a university professor, a textbook, co-author, a scholar of brain active learning, a researcher of best practices for teaching and learning effectiveness, and an award-winning educator. He served on the Utah governor's Board for Academic Literacy. He has taught Reading and Critical Thinking, Power Reading and Learning Strategies, and Speed Reading at UVU and MT Hood Community College, Eastern Oregon University at La Grand and Brigham Young University.
Eldon has co-authored a number of textbooks: Accelerated Reading for Students and Professionals and The Peer Mentor Companion, Becoming a Master Student 11th and 12th edition.
More about Reading Eye Advantage.
More about Reading Eye Advantage.
· The Reading Eyes Advantage Brain-based Literacy Approach first integrates the emotional processor with the visual processor by engaging with a pointer tool or just the left index finger, and the 12 primary ocular-motor muscles that move the eyes together in binocular motion. This approach has helped improve readers’ ability to focus their eyes on the same gaze point, while also controlling their attention. As a result, reading becomes a multisensory effort, overcoming many eye-tracking issues, and provides exercises for improving attention and attention span. SO they become differences and no longer deficits.
· From the first line of the illustration, below, we can assume that the readers’ eyes are teaming and converging very well together, which is not “normal”. For most of us, our eyes focus independently; they don’t “converge” on the same focal points at the same time. The eyes of struggling readers (as illustrated by the second line, below) often make backward movements, “regressions”, with each regression indicating a loss of attention control, when the brain realizes that it did not understood a word. Very quickly the brain says “What was that?”, which directs the eyes to “regress” (to re-read a word, a phrase, or a whole line of text). By following the left index finger, the objective is to reduce unnecessary “regressions” to as few as possible.
Thus, the use of the pointer or finger enhances reading skills, rate, comprehension, and focused attention, while providing the eyes with a single, natural target (the tip of the left index finger) to focus on. This promotes proper eye convergence and eye teaming, and reduces regressions while minimizing the effects of convergence insufficiency, a condition commonly caused by various forms of strabismus, also known as lazy eye.
The approach also helps detect and enhance convergence, mitigate convergence insufficiency, and prevent excess convergence (cross-eyedness).
Engaging and Focusing the Eyes Using Multiple Cognitive Pathways
Just as light, passing through a lens, becomes focused and more powerful. Dr. McMurray’s approach focuses on and amplifies the emotional intelligence developed through the senses and concentration, enabling students to cultivate a greater attention span and feel more confident, emotionally powerful, and intelligent.
With their senses focused and engaged, students quickly begin learning to focus and control their attention while overcoming their attention deficits, which many people experience to some degree. Thus, students can read more rapidly and with greater comprehension. Even more valuable, they can control and transfer their attention to many other tasks and academic disciplines, enabling many more students to achieve their potential.
Are Average Reading Skill Levels Good Enough?
According to Dr. Sandra Jamieson of Drew University in New Jersey, college students should read at least 400 words per minute (wpm) if they expect to be effective college readers. She teaches that:
· 150 wpm… is Insufficient, for even a general reader
· 250 wpm… is Average, for general readers, but too slow for college readers
· 400 wpm… is Good for general readers, but only a minimum for college-level readers
· 600 wpm… is a Strong college reader
· 1,000 wpm… is an Excellent reader
https://www.nwmissouri.edu/trio/pdf/sss/study/Reading-for-college.pdf
If Dr. Jamieson is correct, then the average graduating high school student, who in 1960 could read 250 wpm with 70% comprehension, but may now read only 195 wpm or less, will struggle to succeed in college or vocational education programs and the job market. Many may also exhibit significant “mental, behavioral, and neurodevelopmental disorders”, as they attempt to succeed.
Lexile Levels (L) are the recognized means of measuring the reading difficulty of English language books and documents. The recognized “L” for 12th-grade-level textbooks is 1185L to 1385L, while most college-level textbooks are written at 1400L to 1800L, with a maximum of 2000L.
Ocular Motor System - Eye Muscle Development
Figure 1: Muscles that move the eye.
Six muscles move the eyeball in its socket. These muscles are in the picture above. Because one in four youth have delayed development in one or more of these muscles, which are responsive to treatment through exercise, faithfully doing a simple set of eye muscle exercises may be all that is needed to develop the coordination necessary for excellent reading rates. The following exercise is designed to train your eye muscles to move more quickly and accurately.
Why Does Eye Muscle Coordination Matter?
As you mature, you face increasing demands on your visual abilities. The size of print in textbooks is decreasing, and the amount of time needed for reading and studying is growing significantly. There are ever more challenging demands placed on your vision by class work, homework, and the workplace. Unfortunately, sometimes your visual abilities may not yet be equal to these demands. When the visual system is not functioning correctly, reading and learning can be difficult, even stressful. If you have eye or attention issues, it can be challenging to develop the eye muscle speed you need.
Hello there,
Reading Eye Advantage is a small, family-owned business founded on Dr. McMurray's ocular-motor research, as it relates to learning. We are excited to share this vision treatment with anyone who would like to improve their reading. Six years ago, we decided to start small and develop our content. This means that we were determined to DIY this idea to help parents and children who need help with their reading. Doing it ourselves means we can keep costs down and reach more parents and children interested in receiving help from Dr. Eldon McMurray, who has dedicated his life to education and service. (learn more about this in the bio above.)
Eldon was forced to take an early retirement from his teaching profession after he was diagnosed with several health issues. During his recovery, we began exploring new ways to continue contributing to those who might need his reading expertise. We discovered the best way to do this was to start an online service to help children and adults with learning disabilities, such as dyslexia or ADHD, who would like to improve their reading skills. This includes students who are struggling readers and may be falling behind in their studies, adults who wish to improve their reading skills or feel they are not good readers, and parents who want to help their children read more effectively. This includes homeschool parents who feel that they lack the expertise to teach their children to become excellent readers. Dr McMurray has the training and experience to diagnose eye-tracking problems or other issues that may be keeping children or adults from excelling in reading. This includes eye exercises and the development of coordination. As well as several reading drills.
We are dedicated to helping as many people as we can, so when we do need to charge for something, we will keep the prices as low as possible. We are well aware that those who need our help the most are not always able to afford it. Our genuine desire is to help others, and we feel very blessed by the support of those who are already part of our journey.
Eldon is responsible for diagnosing developmental reading problems and providing online coaching, as well as any other resources you may need to support this effort. Diane is responsible for the technical aspects of our business, including this website, and manages our operations. We are learning as we go, so please be patient with our hiccups. Please don't hesitate to comment and ask questions.
We are excited to start you or your child on a journey to reading better and learning to enjoy what you read.
Best wishes,
Eldon and Diane McMurray
Coming Soon!
Coming Soon!
Intro to "Reading with Speed and Power!"
Intro to "Reading with Speed and Power!"
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do some readers struggle?
The truth is, that those who don’t read fast enough are not much better off than those who can’t read. Many people who learn to read don’t read as fast or as well as they could for the following reasons:
They have undetected eye-tracking problems which can cause headaches and visual distortions while reading.
They have attention challenges that make it uncomfortable to sit still long enough to read or learn to enjoy reading.
They don’t know or understand many of the words they encounter, because they haven't been given the right tools to do so.
What is reading?
Language begins as a child experiments by making sounds and imitating the sounds of the words of their parent or family. Usually the first words the child learns are mama and papa. Next, they learn their name then the labels for things in their home environment. For instance, bottle, crib, floor, window, brother, sister, car, etc.
Reading begins when the sounds of the oral language are written in print. English is an alphabetic language where letters represent the sounds that create words. These words then shape the meaning and describe the thoughts and images that we use to communicate.
As we became a literate society, we began to build and store more and more ideas in writing and some authors are able to communicate their ideas better than others. There are several levels of meaning that are communicated when the author begins to record their thoughts and ideas on paper. Authors then express their ideas with intention and emotional words to capture the reader's attention and imagination. For instance, in a love letter, the author writes with love in their heart and the words they choose reflect the emotions they are writing. When the reader reads the letter they should be able to feel the love from the words that the author use to express their feelings.
An important part of reading comprehension is understanding the emotion of the author's words as well as the definition of the words.
How do we read?
Each sound is a level of meaning called a phoneme. Each letter is a parallel level of meaning known as a grapheme. The most fundamental skill for a developing reader is to understand this relationship. These graphemes are combined to form parts of words, simple at first, then more than one syllable, then words. Next the words are combined into another even higher level of meaning called phrases. Then these phrases are punctuated into sentences and sentences combined into larger units of meaning called paragraphs. Understanding paragraphs is called comprehension of the main idea, who or what is the paragraph about and what are the major supporting concepts in the paragraph.
Is Slow Reading a Disability?
If you find that you become anxious or start to procrastinate, when given a reading assignment you might start to think you can’t read. This is not true! You may read well but are a slow reader that hasn’t yet developed the necessary skills to read with speed or ease. This may cause you to avoid reading at all costs because of the fear of failure.
Reading slow is not considered a learning disability, but it can cause as much frustration or anxiety as a learning disability, such as dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactive (ADHD) readers might feel. While some readers may have dyslexia or other learning challenges, most students who are simply struggling readers have not yet mastered the mechanics of reading well and the ability to remember what they read.
How do we become better readers?
Becoming a better reader starts with the intention of understanding the reasoning of the author. Who or what is the passage about and why does the reader think the author cares when we read what they have written. In fact, that is the first guiding rule of reading. The second and third rules of intention extend or play along with the first.
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