Eye Level Reading Rulers

Crossbow Education, an innovator in teaching aids for children with dyslexia and visual stress issues, is at the top of my favorites list right now.  We were sent a package of ten assorted Eye Level Reading Rulers to use in our household.  A couple of my kids have dyslexia / dysgraphia issues and one has severe vision issues.  These overlays can be used with children of any age, but are especially effective with beginning or struggling readers.  I anticipated being able to try the Reading Rulers with my children and I was anxious to see if they provided any relief for them. I never anticipated my husband having an accident which resulted in damage to 2 nerves that control his eyes.  With this injury, he has had multiple vision issues. Among these issues are double vision, blurry vision, trouble focusing, tracking issues, and comprehension issues.  Part of the problem is that page glare interferes with the signals that his eyes are sending to his brain.  Enter Eye Level Reading Rulers. 
     Eye Level Reading Rulers are colored overlay hard acrylic ruler-like devices.  They are about the size of a 6-inch ruler.  The come in the following colors:   yellow, celery, grass, jade, aqua, sky, purple, magenta, pink, and orange.They are made of a combination of transparent and opaque areas to allow users to isolate a line or lines of text.  Interestingly, they are shiny on one side and matte finish on the other.  Some users find the shiny side easier to read through, while others prefer the matte.  These are not magnifying rulers, they are simply colored overlays.  These overlays: “reduce page glare, "dancing" and blurring text and other symptoms, while also providing valuable tracking support for reading.” The 10-pack sells for $16.95 for 10 different color reading rulers.
     As I was letting the kids try the different rulers to see which color was the most effective for each of them, my husband decided he wanted to try them out.  He tried every color in the set, multiple times, and discovered that the orange and yellow are the most effective for him.  He said that when he uses one of these, either on a print page or overlaying on his IPad, the words don’t blur and jump around, the glare (which gives him more of a headache) is eliminated, and he is able to track the text he is reading more effectively.  These have been a literal God-send for him.  He has gone from being able to only read a word or two in a few minute time period to being able to read entire paragraphs.  His comprehension is still not where it needs to be, but that is due to cognitive deficits from his accident.  He has been begging me to purchase the A4 size overlays so that he can cover an entire page at once.  When he isn’t using his ruler, he simply places it in his book or IPad as a marker so it is always ready for him.
     For my children, Josh (21) found that the darker green color (jade)was the most helpful for him.  He has a severe astigmatism due to a muscle imbalance.  This often gives him issues with words jumping around on a page.  The green color reduced glare and helped him focus on whatever he was reading.  Caitlyn (12) ‘likes’ the cherry (pink) colored ruler (because she likes the color), but the blue (sky) is the ruler that has helped her.  Her issue is more dyslexia and because of that, she frequently loses her place on a page when reading.  Most commonly, she will begin reading on one line and pick up on another line in the middle of a sentence.  The Eye Level Reading Rulers give her a way to keep focused one line at a time so she can read in the correct sequence.  With this correction, I have seen her comprehension and reading speed increasing.  I have also seen her develop more confidence in reading aloud.  Like my husband, my kids keep their reading rulers as bookmarks so they are always handy. 
     I said at the beginning of this post that these are at the top of my favorites list right now.  Any product that I can’t get back from my family after they have tried it is definitely a keeper.  I am going to be purchasing some of the larger overlays for my husband.  He has a few coordination issues to deal with, so the larger overlays will allow him to not have to move the overlay as much.  He is excited to try the larger overlay out, but is very attached to his reading rulers.  As a matter of fact, we have an ophthalmologist visit in a few weeks, and the reading rulers are going with us.  I want him to see the difference that they make in Andre’s eye movement.  It is amazing.
     Many of my friends on the Schoolhouse Review Crew have been using the reading rulers, too.  They have their reviews posted through the main crew blog page.  Click here to access and read their reviews.
**Disclaimer:  As a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, I received a 10-pack of Eye Level Reading Rulers at no cost to me for purpose of review.  No compensation was received.  The honest opinion expressed are my own or those of my family.**