Electric Bookrest™

The electric bookrest® (EL) is a new technology for the human brain used for the administration of IOT (integrated ocular treatment) that allows dyslexic people, with decoding deficiencies on a visual basis, to improve reading performance. The functions of the instrument improve visual-attentive efficiency, the speed and the rhythm of reading, with positive effects on learning and memory. The Carrella visual principle (CVP) is associated with IOT, composed of four customised visualisation elements: the high ocular position (HOP), the constant reading speed (CRS), the visual centre-page direction (VC-PD) and the distance of maximum reading (DMR), thanks to which it is possible to improve the visual accessibility and readability of text, both paper and digital, for both dyslexic and ordinary readers. Also for the application of CVP, the electric bookrest® plays an essential role as it allows to use and maintain in a stable way on the text the four elements mentioned above, in particular the HOP and the CRS that without the use of the instrument could not be applied by the reader correctly, reducing their functional effectiveness. The electric bookrest®, during the application of the integrated ocular treatment (IOT) of superficial dyslexia also plays a crucial role in the recovery of the neurovisual and lexical functions, compromised during the reading process. In superficial dyslexia, due to the deficiency of decoding on a visual basis, reading is slow, inaccurate and difficult, as the lexical path, being inefficient, (on either a congenital or acquired basis) does not allow correct access to the mental dictionary of visual memory where the meaning of the words is deposited, therefore the task of the IOT is to "re-activate", by means of the mechanism of operation of the apparatus, this defective way. This is done by programming the moving of the mobile-laser light spot (M-LLS) in relation to the reading speed of the dyslexic subject. This, therefore, causes the reader to follow the M-LLS on the line with regularity and concentration without losing the characters and above all maintaining the constant angular velocity of the eye movement. The eye-M-LLS interaction, which occurs regularly throughout the course of the reading process, produces the contraction (shortening and lengthening) of the eye muscles both at a constant speed (isokinetic), and at tension or constant force (isotonic). This type of movement with constant speed and strength, produced by the contraction of the extrinsic muscles of the neuromuscular apparatus of the eye, which cannot be reproduced in nature but only with the apparatus, is the basis of the "oculo-isokinetic" rehabilitation principle, capable of producing positive effects on visual function. During oculomotor rehabilitation with the electric bookrest®, it reduces the functional abnormalities of the ocular musculature of central origin responsible for the visual dysfunction in children in the developmental age affected by superficial dyslexia, which is the basis of the lexical decoding deficit and therefore of the reading disorder. Furthermore, to favour the process of learning concrete words, the visual or lexical pathway is transformed and enhanced into a "3D figurative-semantic path", while the phonological pathway (which is not affected by the disorder in superficial dyslexia) is reinforced by the "modular decoding system" to facilitate the reading and learning of abstract words. With visual and oculomotor functional re-enabling, through the device, during the four IOT phases, considerable progress is made in reading skills, described in the text DISLESSIA E RIABILITAZIONE VOL. I e VOL. II - Liguori Editore - Naples (ITALY).

In the normal reader, both the access ways to reading, the visual (or lexical) and the phonological (or nonlexical) ones, work in parallel, so he can use the fittest way according to the word he has to read. In subjects with superficial developmental or phonological dyslexia, instead, because of an innate neurobiological condition, this mechanism does not work correctly: it is efficient only in one of the two access ways to reading, while in subjects with mixed dyslexia (superficial and phonological one) they have both deficiencies. The deficiency of the visual or phonological element or of both of them interferes with the capability of deciphering alphabetic signs and of their decoding and then of understanding and learning the written text, causing respectively superficial, phonological or mixed dyslexia. The proposed visual and cognitive-linguistic treatment, through the new customized assistance of the didactic-isokinetic technology of the electric bookrest™, works specifically on the deficiency of visual deciphering of superficial dyslexia, causing an important improvement of the visual functionality and its relative text decoding and consequently of reading. It can be applied also for the rehabilitation of mixed dyslexia and specifically to reduce the linguistic-visual deficiency, while for the linguistic-phonological deficiency an associated speech-language treatment is required.Last, for the rehabilitation of phonological dyslexia, that pertains to the speech-language therapist, the child can use the device which represents an additional resource for the applied treatment, capable to facilitate reading and accelerate the qualifying/rehabilitation process.

2.1 Creation and function
The electric bookrest™ is a new didactic-isokinetic device for the reading of paper books and the treatment of visual and cognitive- linguistic dysfunctions in dyslexic subjects; in addition, it can be used also by normal readers to improve reading performances. The device is made up of a fixed base on a table and a mobile inclined plane (MIP) on which the book is put and read during its shift upwards. At the end of the reading, the MIP arrives at the programmed height where it stops to automatically and quickly come back downwards, bringing the book back to the base. Here the MIP stops to start its shift upwards again while the reader continues the reading on the next page, following the linear and programmed course of the L-MLP on the line. The device has a keyboard with which it can record and then use the various reading speed programs, which are specific both for the normal reader and for the dyslexic or impaired reader. It must be underlined that the planning of the specific reading speed (and also of punctuation pauses if it’s an impaired or dyslexic reader) is made on the electric bookrest™, (EB) after the operator has identified it through a previous test, performed on a text chosen according to age and class attended by the subject. After the recording of data on the device, the operator will start, by the keyboard, the shift of the L-MLP according to the reading speed obtained during the test performed on the text. The L-MLP visual guide, which shifts on the line during the electric reading (v.nota 1), is a class-1 laser (harmless) which, like a precision foresight, allows the reader to:
- fix the eye with attention on the target word and read it accurately;
- guide the eye shift on the line with a linear movement instead of a saccadic (jumping) one between a fixation point and the next one of the word.
The programming of reading time, with the related L-MLP speed programming on the line is customized. It can occur in two ways:
- for impaired, slow and dyslexic readers, the L-MLP movement on the line is essentially continuous because it stops in case of punctuation signs for the programmed time and then it automatically starts its shifts on the line again;
- for normal readers, instead, the movement of the mobile light point (L-MLP) on the line is continuous, non-stop.

2.2 Advantages for the reader.
The methodology composed by the electric bookrest™ and the Integrated Ocular Treatment (IOT) puts some theories, models, principles and medical-pedagogical techniques for the rehabilitation of superficial dyslexia into practice which in the reader also improve the relation between reading and visual function. It includes: a) the Dual Coding Theory by Allan Paivio (1971, 1991); b) the learning model of the mask with a mobile window, which acts as a manual visual guide for the reading of paper texts, introduced by G. Geiger & J. Y. Lettvin (1999-2000); c) The “oculo-isokinetic” rehabilitation principle, equivalent of that “isokinetic-isotonic”; d) the Carrella visual principle (CVP) for the ergonomic reading of both paper texts (read on the EB) and digital texts (read on a monitor); e) the technique of rhythmic reading to improve the learning of school and non-school texts.
The device, associated with the Integrated Ocular Treatment (IOT) and with some ergonomic-visual elements introduced into study activities with the Carrella visual principle (CVP), gives dyslexic subjects various advantages for the reading, the understanding and the learning of texts, described in the books Dyslexia and Rehabilitation, Liguori Editore, vl. I and II. They are:
a) short-term advantages:
- cognitive advantages, with an improvement in attention, concentration and rhythm, given by the correct use of the device;
- ergonomic-visual advantages, with a reduction in ocular-visual and mental fatigue deriving from an high ocular position (HOP);
- physical-postural advantages, keeping a good balance of the tonic-postural system, deriving from a correct study posture (CSP);
b) medium-term advantages:
- linguistic-visual advantages, with an improvement in both reading speed, correctness and understanding and in learning, thanks to the visual and lexical treatment.

3.1 The Dual Coding Theory, by Al-lan Paivio (1971, 1991).
Scientists defined it as one of the most important cognitive theories of the XX century, useful both for normal readers and for impaired readers. The Dual Coding Theory, concerning visual and verbal coding, applied through the EB, during the reading of the words translated into relative pictures(modified in 3-D pictures by the author), improves both the learning and the visual and phonological working memory, which are poor in these subjects.

3.2 The learning model of the mask with a mobile window, introduced by neuro-cognitive scientists G.Geiger & J. Y. Lettvin (1999-2000), of the Center of Biological and Computational Learning of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States, and the similar model of the customized learning-isokinetic technique of the electric bookrest™.
This guide, recognized and approved by the MIT, is made of a coated card or even of a rule with a small rectangular window with various lengths and widths which runs on the lines as one reads the words within it. It was proposed and used by cognitive scientists of the MIT, G. Geiger & J. Y. Lettvin (1999-2000), to help people with visual reading problems, caused by a reduced lateral masking, which prevents them to read correctly the words in central vision. During the shift on the line, the mask improves reading because it makes visual aim, the identification and recognition of the text words more comfortable and more accurate, allowing to read only the word in the central vision, that is to say the one which appear in the window, covering all the others on the right and on the left. This mechanical device, which is easy and effective, usually used for the rehabilitation of the Center-Periphery Disorder (C-PD), prevents the negative effects produced by the reduced lateral masking responsible for decentralized ocular fixations, inaccurate and imprecise, producing animprovement in the reading of the treated subjects. In addition, with this rehabilitation model with the mask, the American authors associated some exercises (which are customized and can be performed even at home alone for about 15-20 minutes a day in about 6 months) to improve the visual perception and the fine ocular-manual coordination, that is to say practical capabilities. We should also underline the advantages produced during the reading with the customized didactic-isokinetic technique of the electric bookrest™ for subjects affected by superficial dyslexia, obtained thanks to the automatic visual guide of the L-MLP, which exploits: a) the “oculo-isokinetic” principle, very similar to isokinetic-isotonic principle of electro-medical devices for neuro-muscular rehabilitation; b) the model of the manual visual guide of the mask with mobile window for visual rehabilitation. The interactive technique of the L-MLP, applying the mentioned principle and model, was shown useful to decrease ocular muscles dysfunctions and central vision difficulties.  

3.3 The “isokinetic-isotonic” rehabilitation principle of isokinetic electro-medical devices and the equivalent "oculo-isokinetic" principle of the electric bookrest™.
In this paragraph we are going to describe synthetically the analogies between: a) the two isokinetic devices; b) the neuromuscular and neuro-visual disorder; c) the two neuro-muscular and neuro-visual treatments.
a) Analogy between the electro-medical device and the electric bookrest™ which has a similar functioning principle.
Some scientific tests performed by researchers have shown that the isokinetic-isotonic functioning principle of electro-medical devices offers great advantages for post-traumatic rehabilitation of patients with muscular dysfunctions or lesions and also for post-surgery rehabilitation of people undergoing surgeries. During the controlled muscular exercise, these devices for neuromuscular physiotherapy used in rehabilitation and sport let the subject develop dynamic muscular contractions with a constant (isokinetic) angular speed and with a constant (isotonic) tension or muscular force during the whole training against an accommodating resistance, with the aim of:
- improving muscular force and increasing the resistance to fatigue;
- rehabilitating muscular lesions and relative dysfunctions.
Due to isokinetic-isotonic principle of isokinetic medical devices, it is possible to rehabilitate effectively and quickly (compared to traditional methods) muscular lesions caused by excessive strains, traumas or even to decrease post-surgery convalescence. Using the equivalent customized technique of the electric bookrest™ (EB), instead, it is possible to treat, with oculo-isokinetic rehabilitating principle, the neuro-visual and cognitive-lexical dysfunctions in dyslexic subjects with great visual and ocular-motor benefits.
b) Analogies between neuromuscular disorder and neuro-visual
Let’s see now the analogy between a neuromuscular dysfunction caused by a lesion affecting the muscle of a limb and central neuro-visual dysfunctions (visual, perceptive and motor dysfunctions) in reading in an impaired reader. In the first case, we have a strain-related or trauma-related physical lesion causing a neuromuscular dysfunction of a certain organ in the body (for example an upper limb, a lower limb, etc.) which prevents or limits the regular function of the patient’s movements. In the second case, instead, we have neuro-visual and motor developmental dysfunctions, caused by an impaired control of the eye muscles by the brain during the ocular san on the reading line associated with the decoding deficiency of superficial dyslexia.
These dysfunctions, as B. Fischer et al. (2000) showed, are characterized by the absence of organic weakness of extra-ocular muscle tissue, of eye visual defects as well as lesions, neurological diseases or mental retardation which could explain these difficulties. B. Fischer, one of the most important experts and scientists of neuro-visual disorders connected with developmental superficial dyslexia (DSD), also used the following metaphor to indicate the cause of the disorder: “[…] the car (muscles and eyes) is not out of order, but the driver (the brain) cannot drive […]”.
In the cases of superficial acquired dyslexia (SAD), instead, the reading disorder can be caused by a brain disease like a stroke, a traumatic brain injury or even a small lesion which can cause in the subject (a child, a youth or an adult) some consequences limited to specific areas in the brain, damaging visual and intellectual abilities already learnt, like reading, writing and computation. If, instead, the disorder already appears in an advanced age, it is usually caused by brain tissue or vascular system ageing.
In the mentioned cases, that is to say in the presence of organic, pathological or traumatic superficial acquired dyslexia (SAD), the didactic-isokinetic customized technique of the electric bookrest™ (EB), associated with IOT, can be applied only after an accurate neurological assessment by a specialist.
c) Analogies between the neuromuscular treatment performed through isokinetic electro-medical devices and the rehabilitation of neuro-visual dysfunctions through the electric bookrest™ associated with IOT.
The neuromuscular, neuro-visual and cognitive-linguistic treatment performed with the respective isoki-netic techniques allows to obtain the same rehabilitation benefits for the treated functions. In patients with muscular lesions, through the application of a program of customized rehabilitation worked out by an operator, electro-medical devices produce a permanent and quick recovery of the muscular lesion or dysfunction. In the same way, also for neuro-visual and cognitive-linguistic dysfunctions. The Electric Bookrest®, through a customized didactic-isokinetic technique, which exploits both the “oculo-isokinetic” principle and the model of the mask with a window, produces an ocular-motor, visual and lexical improvement in times related to the severity of the disorder. In this last case, the rehabilitator, through a customized visual training with the electric bookrest™, has the aim of rehabilitating or enable (according to the fact that it is an acquired or a developmental reading disorder) the visual-lexical functional areas of the brain being impaired. This technique is applied with a training performed by the subject on reading files related to both age and attended class, as well as mental capability and cultural education.

3.4 The oculo-isokinetic principle of the electric bookrest™ (EB).
The new modus legendi of the paper book, of a continuous or intermittent type, by means of the mobile inclined plane (PIM) and the mobile light-laser point (PLM-L) of the LE, allows the text to be read with a programmed, constant and personalized speed, and contextually to control the displacement of the eye on the line with constant speed (isokinetic) and with constant muscular force (isotonic). Thanks to the constant maintenance of the two parameters, which represent the key elements of the oculo-isokinetic principle of EB, it is possible to control and influence both low-level visual-motor factors such as oculomotor speed and strength, and higher cognitive processes such as the speed and mental capacity to read and learn. During the rehabilitation from the reading disorder of superficial or visual dyslexia, the oculo-isokinetic method of the apparatus, through the regulation and the constant control of speed and ocular strength, reduces, on children in developmental age, the functional anomalies (of origin central) extraocular muscles, responsible for visual and oculomotor dysfunctions, with a noticeable improvement in both eye and reading activity. The oculo-isokinetic visual-training, calibrated on the superficial dyslexic, produces some visual benefits: 1) it allows to correctly fix, with foveal (or central) vision, the words on the reading line; 2) reduces and eliminates the refissions (it is a second fixation made on the same word due to an imprecision of the previous saccade from left to right); 3) reduces and eliminates the ocular regressions, that is the return saccade from right to left of the eye on the line to read one or more words. Furthermore, by keeping constant and personalized, with the LE, the two pro-activators of the oculo-isokinetic principle: the rhythmic reading time and the corresponding speed, it is possible to correctly activate also the superior cognitive process (composed of 7 elements: the attention , concentration, perception, understanding, processing, learning and memorization). The cognitive benefits of electro-reading are considerable and tangible for readers, far superior to those obtained with video-reading or traditional, where time and speed are not adjustable, as happens with the LE. Functional oculo-isokinetic therapy is administered for a duration of about 2 years, at an early, evolutionary age, when it is possible to influence both the visual system and the cognitive system more effectively. The objective of functional re-education, with visual guidance, which runs along the line with constant and personalized speed, is to regulate, at the central level, the visual areas that control eye-reading movements, that is to rebalance and reduce functional disorders of the vision that, due to evolutionary or acquired causes, are incorrect. This type of training, which increases the control of oculomotor activity (ocular fixations and saccades), is fundamental to improve the reading of superficial dyslexics and in general also that of non-dyslexic readers who have reading difficulties caused only by visual dysfunctions.

3.5 The Carrella Visual Principle (CVP) for the ergonomic reading.
The application of the Carrella Visual Principle (CVP) for ergonomic reading of paper texts and digital texts provides an eye specialist assessment to evaluate the subject’s visual real health and ocular and close visual function, with the possible prescription of glasses for the sight of reading at the farthest distance (see Progressive Distance Test*).
The Carrella visual principle for reading, with the correct study posture and position, allows the access to the written information in an easy and effective way with the highest level of ocular-visual, mental and postural ergonomicity. Its application on the text requires the use of four customized ergonomic and visual elements with the relative use parameters: 1) the high ocular position (HOP*); 2) a constant and customized reading speed (CCRS); 3) a visual page-center left-right direction (PCLRD) instead of the traditional center-of-the-book one; 4) the farthest reading distance (FRD).
The Carrella visual principle (CVP) for the reading, together with other ergonomic elements, was described in the book Dyslexia and Rehabilitation, vol. II. For the application of the first two parameters, which represent the most important elements of the Carrella visual principle, that is to say time and the constant and customized reading speed and the adoption and steady keeping of the high ocular position (HOP) on the first line of the text, the use of the electric bookrest™ (EB) is necessary. The discovery of the HOP was caused by an easy intuition relative to Bell’s reflex, that is to say to the ocular movement at rest, discovered by Sir Charles Bell (1774-1842). This Scottish physician, anatomist and scientist was the first one to de scribe the ocular automatism according to which when a person closes his eyes with his eyelids lowered and his muscles relaxed, the two eyeballs spontaneously move upwards and towards the external part, taking a rest or relaxing position. Studying this behavior, the author guesses its importance and the potential applications in reading and in the prevention and reduction of asthenopia*. In fact, he discovers that applying and keeping the HOP steadily on the first line, with the use of the EB and the application of other proto-didactic elements of the Model of Ergonomic Reading (MER), the reader can have various advantages:
- a sensible reduction in the physical tiredness of intrinsic and extrinsic eye muscles and so in ocular-visual fatigue (see asthenopeic disorders) and in mental tiredness;
- an improvement in the cognitive-linguistic capability to read and in the cognitive-reflexive capability to understand, elaborate, learn and memorize the text.
So, after experimenting it in readers with different age and cultural capabilities, the author proposes the HOP for daily practice in reading even in impaired subjects affected by dyslexia or by simple difficulties. With the visual axis high on the text (between about 15° and 30°), pointing on the first line at a greater distance than the traditional one, with the other ergonomic-visual elements associated with the foveal reading (or center of the page), that is to say with a visual central direction on the page and a symmetrical position of the head compared to it, the application of the HOP stimulates a synergic and balanced coordination between the eyes. Keeping the central visual direction on the page, the reader obtains the greatest resolution of the words or of the images produced on the fovea centralis (central position of the retina in the greatest visual sharpness) preventing visual fatigue and mental stress during the reading. This visual behavior lets the two right and left hemispheres of the brain work coordinately and synergically with great advantages both for the prevention of ocular-visual and mental fatigue and for reading achievement. The HOP, then, can be used also by people doing demanding jobs on a monitor, like technicians or computer experts or by people doing routine professional activities or office jobs at the PC. According to the author, the Model of ergonomic reading (MER), with its benefits produced by the device, is going to replace the reader’s incorrect way of reading forever, generally characterized by:
- the absence of a study method;
- the low ocular position;
- the lateral visual direction (see center of the book);
- the close range to the book;
- the inconstant reading speed;
- the incorrect study posture;
- non-customized study times and pause parking.
In addition, also the way in these readers perform the study activities is incorrect, as it is performed through the use of traditional furniture, with non-ergonomic chairs ad desk, using no kind of bookrest. Moreover, the study is carried out in often uncomfortable environments, where the climate, humidity and lighting are not correctly regulated, causing deconcentration and sudden interruptions. But to heavily influence the capacity for concentration and learning of the readers in the study or work environment is the presence of noises (internal or external: radio, television, telephones, etc.), with compulsive use technological tools, PCs and smartphones, used to perform multitask-ing, ie to send or receive messages, browse websites, answer mobile phones, etc. whose distractions have negative effects on the brain. These are little known, studied and evaluated effects, which are still little considered by people, but that cognitive scientists are now underlining and evaluating with seri-ous concern for the purpose of study performance. or in the work: "After continuous and sudden interruptions, the brain to resume the suspended activity and efficiently focus the attention and concentration on the content of the text requires specific times varying for each person, from one to minutes and more ... especially if they occur in the presence of fatigue and stress".
Parafoveal reading (or center-of-the-page), that is to say with a lateral visual direction on the page and asymmetrical position of the head compared with it, differently from foveal reading, produces a lower visual resolution of the fovea lateralis (lateral or peripheral position of the retina with a worse visual sharpness) which makes automatically the system of visual eyes-brain elaboration continually intervene on the text to improve the mechanism of vision. This additional and imperceptible effort, operated by the brain, compensating the traditional reader’s incorrect visual behavior, contributes to increase visual stress and mental fatigue. Parafoveal reading, then, differently from foveal reading, mainly stimulates the job of a single eye (the dominant one) and so of a single hemisphere, the contralateral one, causing in the traditional reader an early ocular-visual and mental super fatigue.

General Details.
The word rhythm comes from the Greek rhythmos, which means measured movement, flow. The reading rhythm represents the movement of the words pronounced with a regular succession in a loud voice on the text, independently from the speed. The subjects who, during the reading, have the sense of rhythm, that is to say can coordinate, in a rhythmic way, the alternation of pauses and punctuation with the sounds of lexicon, focusing the whole attention on going in time on the words read with intonation, show greater abilities in the language (read, spoken and written one) compared to the ones who are lacking: it was shown also by a recent scientific research. Reading a sentence with a specific rhythm the readers start and finish the reading at the same time, with a rhythm similar to a musical harmony; this happens in spite of the used speed (a slow, average or quick one). So, if during the study reading, time, specific speed and relative pauses are respected with the same breathing rhythmic acts in corrispondence of the punctuation, and words are pronounced with the right expression and the same gestures, the original rhythm is generated through the voice and its tones, whose perfect reproduction in the next reading and oral revision has a strong influence on text learning.

4.1 Rhythm: definition and elements
A) Definition.
With the word “rhythm” we intend the regular alternation of pauses (moments of silence of the reader, of a variable duration) indicated by punctuation marks, present within the sentence, with the sounds of words read in a loud voice with an expression and a tone adequate to the content of the text.
B) Constituent and stabilizing elements of the rhythm.
1) The constituent elements which activate the rhythm of the reading are the reading pauses marked by punctuation marks and by the sounds of the words, that is to say phonetic-phonological elements of the language.
The reading pauses
The reading pauses in a sentence or in a text are represented by punctuation marks: comma, semi-colon, colon, full stop, exclamation mark, question mark, dots, etc. Their function is determining during the reading for the understanding of the sentence and of the text, so they must be rigorously respected.
The sounds of the words. Sounds and their pronunciation, that is to say the phonetic-phonological elements of the language, represent the bricks of the linguistic development, the ones that the rehabilitator must teach the child during the pre-writing and pre-reading exercise to develop the correct perception, understanding and acquisition of read/written and heard/pronounced letters, syllables and words. The student is then taught how to learn and pronounce correctly, in a loud voice and with expression, the sounds of alphabetic signs: to modulate the volume and the tone of the words read according to the meaning of the sentence. The reading in a loud voice, with well-articulated sounds, differently from the silent reading, helps the reader to recognize and improve his own voice, to identify more easily the grammatical and pronunciation mistakes and typos, the repetition or wrong formulation of the sentence, but above all to fix information in the memory because, as psychologist Art Markman, professor in psychology and marketing at the University of Texas, explains: “Reading in a loud voice is a process which commits a part of the memory different and deeper than the one used in the silent reading”.
2) Elements stabilizing the reading rhythm: lexical and physical elements
They improve the linguistic expression, so their function is to contribute to improve and keep the reading rhythm stable.
Lexical elements: time and reading speed
The lexical elements stabilizing the rhythm, time and reading speed, including the constituent element, the reading pause, can be customized on the device. They have an important function for the development and the improvement of cognitive factors, particularly poor in impaired readers, because of which they show serious difficulties to read and learn and to memorize the content of the text.
Physical elements: the movement and the breathing.
The physical elements stabilizing the rhythm, the movement and the breathing, are acquired by the student in the developmental phase with the help of the rehabilitator. Their training in fact contributes to facilitate the process of language learning and to stabilize the rhythm in the subject.
The movement. The spontaneous movement (the movement of the hands produced by the person in general when he speaks) helps to give a greater emphasis and strength to the words, both read and oral, but above all to stabilize the rhythmic event during the various phases of the cognitive development. So, the spontaneous movement, even freely connected to the individual language of the child, must be moderately stimulated because it supports and strengthens the rhythmic expression: “The spontaneous reproduction of the same movement is accompanied with the same rhythm which facilitates learning”. The gesture, as American psychologist Susan Goldin –Meadow from the University of Chicago discovered through experiments on groups of children, “Helps to learn and to better memorize concepts as it would stimulate the mind”.
Breathing. It is made of two phases, inspiration, when the air is introduced into the lungs allowing cells to absorb oxygen, and expiration, eliminating carbon dioxide. During the reading, the frequency of breathing acts must be synchronized according to the presence of short and long pauses of reading, indicated by punctuation marks. For this reason, breathing exercises performed with an operator, in the rhythm education program, have the aim to awaken the student’s attention on the correct way to perform this important function. The exercise through the abdominal (or diaphragm) breathing, instead of the breast one, allows people with reading disorder improve the breathing dynamism during the reading-speaking. So it is useful: 1) to dose voluntarily breath during inspiration and control that expiration is regular, eliminating a short and disordered breath; 2) to increase resistance and breathing power, which also allows a greater physical and emotional control, reducing unease and inadequacy in the inexpert reader during this task; 3) to improve both brain oxygenation and voice. The operator, in particular, must teach the subject to respect times and modes of breathing during the reading of a text. Respiratory activity must be regulated according to the kind of punctuation pause of the sentence. If it is a full stop at the end of the sentence, there must be a long pause and, at the same time, a deep inspiration; instead, if it is a comma or else, then there must be a short pause with a small inspiration. This rule, applied during the reading, contributes, like the gesture, to stabilize the rhythm, reducing the sense of physical and mental fatigue and the sensation of anxiety and worry, which appears in impaired readers lacking rhythm. Summarizing, the rule to respect during the reading and the speech is the following: “Before reading each sentence of a text or the verbal pronunciation of a long phrase, stop for a long and deep inspiration. Continuing the reading of the sentence, the reader will stop on other punctuation marks (comma, semi-colon, etc.) where he will make short interruptions, executing for each pause a little expiration. During the reading in a loud voice, respecting the pauses of punctuation synchronically with breathing acts, one contributes to stabilize the reading rhythm.”

4.2 Rhythm: meaning and classification.
Meaning.
The rhythm represents the "auric" element of the language, which during the communication of the message, both read and spoken, introduces harmony and carries its content to the listener or the interlocutor with a greater efficacy. On the other hand, the lack of rhythm, both in reading and in verbal communication, produces disharmony, lack of emotions and empathy. The rhythm in the reading varies according to: a) the kind of reader (impaired reader, normal reader, professional reader); b) the kind of text (narrative literature, study book, learning book, that is to say school book, university book or professional book, information reading like brochure, leaflet, magazine, newspaper, etc.); c) type of reading mode (global-indicative skimming* or selective-exploration scanning* - see notes 4/5)
Classification. The rhythm can be classified in: 1) dynamic; 2) stable; 3) disharmonic.
1) Dynamic (or variable) rhythm. The dynamic rhythm is used for narrative works (like novels, adventure or fantastic short stories, etc.), poetic works (poems, prose, etc.), in which reading speed can vary together with the rhythm. In these cases, the reader must conform the rhythm to the context of the reading and consequently to the narrative sequences of the story he is reading. So, it is right to speak of varying rhythms: very slow, slow, average, quick, pressing, excited, both in the reader and in the listener. Besides causing emotions and making the text more harmonic and pleasant, the dynamic rhythm is essential also because, during the reading, it lets the reader and the listener perceive and understand more easily the meaning of the texts.
2) Stable (or constant) rhythm.
The stable rhythm is used in the study reading to learn schoolbooks, university books or professional books in which, together with the reading speed, it must be rigorously constant and customized. Study or learning reading, differently from other kinds of reading, where the rhythm and the speed can vary according to real or fantastic interpretation of its content, does not require either emphasis or subjective evaluations. Being educational its content, it has an objective value for the reader, so the rhythm and the speed must be stable and customized. This kind of reading, in addition, also requires a greater emotional participation, attention and concentration, sometimes even continued in time, appropriate to the text to be learned, with the aim of understanding, elaborating, learning and memorizing. In order to make the understanding and learning of the text effective and functional, it is necessary that the reader sets and keeps, during the reading, re-reading or oral revision in a loud voice, a stable rhythm and a linear and customized speed.
3) Disharmonic (lacking harmony) rhythm.
The disharmonic rhythm is characteristic of the disadvantaged or dyslexic reader, as he reads the study text (or even individual sentences) without modulating the regular succession of the two elements that constitute it: the pauses and the sounds of words and respect the other rules. This rhythm can be expressed also in the typical reader when, in a preliminary phase to the study and learning reading, it reads the text with global-orientative skimming or selective-explorative scanning.
● Elements of differentiation between the different types of rhythm: disharmonic, stable and dynamic. Reading two sentences of a hypothetical passage, where they are present, three commas and a final point in the first sentence and so also in the second, it is possible to detect different types of rhythm. a) The disharmonic rhythm manifests itself if the reader: 1) performs the reading with skimming or scanning mode, that is without respecting any rule ; 2) does not respect the pauses related to punctuation of the sentences reading without stopping; 3) takes breaks but stops at the wrong points, that is not indicated by commas or punctuation marks in one or both sentences; 4) makes frequent mistakes, etc. b) The stable rhythm is manifested if the reader reads the sentences of a study text in a harmonious way, respecting, during the reading, rereading and the oral revision, the rhythm and the constant speed together with the other constitutive and stabilizing elements.
Reading phase.
The reader reads the sentences of the study text respecting all the elements (see) that give rhythm to the reading and facilitate their understanding. In the specific case: 1) respects the stable rhythm; 2) keeps time and reading speed constant and personalized (slow, medium or fast); 3) it regularly stops at both the three commas of the punctuation referred to the short pauses and the final point referred to the long pause, where it also performs the relative inspiration, repeating these operations also for the next sentence; 4) use the right tone of the voice accompanied by natural gestures that strengthen it.
Rereading phase and oral review.
In order to produce the same steady rhythm, the reader must strictly respect all the elements that compose it, first set out, during the successive phases of reading and oral review of the text. c) The dynamic rhythmit is evident if the reader reads a narrative passage (rather than a study) in a harmonious way, varying, in relation to its content, the rhythm and speed of reading and respecting all the other constitutive and stabilizing elements. He, in the subsequent reading of the piece and oral review, reproducing all the harmonic elements, is able to elaborate the same dynamic rhythm, which may have similarities to that of a musical piece. The speakers, professional readers, cinema and theater actors are incomparable masters of this rhythm: they exalt their beauty and harmony during their performances.

4.3 The Electric Bookrest™: when to use it.
Its use is connected with the kind of reading.
a) the electric bookrest™ is not fit for the reading of narrative texts because the reader has to:
- read varying continuously the speed according to the characteristics of the narrative context;
- master the rhythms, differentiating them according to the structure, the meaning and the shades of the text;
- understand and interpret the thought of the author, understanding both shades and meanings.
b) the electric bookrest™ is not fit when one reads informative texts (leaflets, magazines, newspapers, etc.) which: 1) do not require any particular mental concentration; 2) present discontinuous spaces within the page with lines not perfectly in line with the body of the text and a graphic layout with various characters.
c) the electric bookrest™ is not fit when one reads in skimming and scanning modes, where the rhythm is disharmonic (or absent).
d) the electric bookrest™, differently from the previous cases, is useful in the reading for the studying or learning of a schoolbook, a university book or a professional book, when it is necessary to keep a stable specific rhythm, with a constant and customized speed.

4.4 Improvement of the rhythm: the role of the rehabilitator and the function of the electric bookrest™.
a) The role of the rehabilitator.
His role in the treatment of simple reading difficulties or of the reading disorder (dyslexia), according to the rhythm education program is:
- to teach the student the phonetic-phonological elements of the voice through which he learns to read well and to learn the text with “care and attention”, pronouncing the words in a loud voice correctly and quickly, with a correct decoding of the letters relatively to double letters and pronunciation of tonic accents;
- to control that, during the reading, the student respects both physical elements, like gestures and breathing, and the parameters programmed on the EB, like time, speed and pauses. With the development and the respect of the constitutive and stabilizing elements of the rhythm, the reader learns to immerse himself completely in the text and to perform an effective and functional reading, thanks to which he acquires a greater awareness for this job during the school or rehabilitation activity, developing the speed and the rhythm of reading which is more congenial to him.
b) The function of the electric bookrest™ (EB): the advantages in the reading for studying or learning schoolbooks, university books and professional books, produced by a stable rhythm and a constant and customized speed.
The Electric Bookrest®, through the functions of the laser mobile light point (L-MLP) and the mobile inclined plane (MIP), supports the development and the respect of some stabilizing and constituent elements of the reading rhythm, such as:
- the constant and customized speed reading of the text;
- the reading time programmed on the text;
- the reading pauses (short and long).
The function of the electric bookrest™ (EB) really helps to develop both the two lexical elements, speed and time, and to respect the reading pauses. Optimizing these elements, through the use of the device, people can increase the reader’s attention, concentration and perception threshold on the reading content, improving the understanding, elaborating, learning and memorization of schoolbooks, university books and professional books. This said, we underline that any study technique the reader applies during the reading, without the strategic support of rhythm,understanding and memorization results of the texts will be underestimated as to expectation. As to the rehabilitative treatment of an impaired subject or a subject with reading disorder, the rehabilitator can establish and plan a customized training on the electric bookrest™ (EB). It has, in this context, an essential role, both for impaired readers, facilitating the learning of reading, and for traditional readers, increasing their reading performances.
Production and respect of “photocopy rhythmical stimuli” during the reading, re-reading and oral revision: activators and enhancers of memory.
After underlining what was said before, we can affirm that learning and memorization can be improved and enhanced if the reader, during the study reading of a sentence or a text, the reading and the oral revision, respects:
- the punctuation pauses with breathing acts marked according to punctuation marks in the sentence;
- times and constant and customized reading speed, related to understanding;
- the voice and the tone, using the same expression according to its content, accompanied with the same gesture.
The reproduction of the customized and stable rhythm, obtained respecting all the described elements, allows the exact cognitive relaboration of the acquired acoustic, visual and kinesthetic information.
During the repetition of the message, it stimulates, in specific brain areas, the synaptic activity to produce and elaborate engrams* (see note 6) which are stored in the working memory. Their reactivation, through “photocopy rhythmic stimuli” (they induce specific neurons to produce the same engrams through synapses) allows the learned message, stored temporarily in the region of the hippocampus* (see.note 7) to be retrieved and brought again to mind. In this way, the memory can be more easily retrieved and sent to the working memory (or short-term memory), to average- or long-term memory where it remains for a long time. The mechanism hypothesized by scientists is more or less the following: “A signal, passing through synaptic connections among groups of neurons, in some ways leaves a trace, which makes the recall of the same message in a subsequent moment easier through the activation of the same synapses. So, the learning of the message seems to be influenced by the amount of passages of the nervous stimulus through the synapses of neurons, which depends on the number of repetitions of the message that one performed”. According to this theory, the author thinks that, in order to improve learning, beside the number of repetitions useful in this sense, it is also necessary to associate a stable and customized rhythm. The reading and the read-verbal repetition of the message, through a correct rhythmic reproduction of the elements making it, allows to stimulate deeply the functional areas of the brain appointed for the acquisition and elaboration of information. So, when, in the phase of information repetition, the same starting rhythm appears in the mind, stimulating the same group of neurons and relative synapses, it also retrieves the associated message. So, it can be affirmed that the specific rhythm associated with read and verbal repetitions in a loud voice has the fundamental role of activator and enhancer of the memory.

Introduction.
In subjects with superficial dyslexia there is a deciphering disorder of alphabetic signs with difficulties in the access to lexical elements through the eyes and to understand the graphical signs of the words, which cause an impaired performance in reading. The stop in the acquisition of visual competences in the age of development causes difficulties in the identification and discrimination of letters syllables and words (deciphering deficiency), but it normally keeps the phonological element (the non-lexical way for reading): the decoding of graphemes in phonemes, such to exclude the presence of a phonological deficiency and consequently the intervention of a speech-language therapist. The analyzed deficiency, which interests specific brain areas elaborating the vision and insufficiently controlling both fixations and saccadic ocular movements, in fact, prevents the superficial dyslexic’s brain from:
- transforming, understanding and learning correctly the visual images of letters, syllables and words of the text in the cortical areas appointed for vision;
- controlling precisely the ocular-motor activity (fixations and saccades) on the line.

5.1 The reduction of the Visual-Perceptive Disorder (V-PD).
The Visual-Perceptive Disorder (V-PD), which occurs with the subject’s difficulty to acquire the visual stimulus (letter, syllable, word) on the line and to elaborate it correctly in the visual areas of the brain, causes frequent visual-perceptive mistakes in the reading. Differently from the refractive errors, which can be easily corrected by the specialist with fit glasses, it requires a different strategy of intervention, based on visual-cognitive training. The perceptive problem preventing the recognition and the discrimination of a letter when it is surrounded by other letters, giving the reader the impression that they overlap, occurs during the visual crowding. In fact, these subjects easily mistake graphically similar letters, such as d/b, p/q, n/m, etc., also showing easy ocular-visual and mental fatigue. This dysfunction, as we know, is responsible for both the slowness and the inaccuracy of reading, During the customized didactic-isokinetic visual training, the laser mobile light point (L-MLP) of the electric bookrest™ tends to reduce the crowding effect and to normalize the perceptive aspects of vision, increasing the visual-cognitive capability to fix, discriminate letters, syllables and words during the reading and to elaborate them in the brain.

5.2 The reduction of the Ocular-Motor Disorder (OMD).
During the reading, eyes do not move linearly along the line of the text, but they make a series of small saccadic movements (jumping) interspersed with fixation pauses, during which reading occurs and so does the acquisition of read information. During the serial work from the left to the right, superficial or visual dyslexics show a disordered continuum connected with difficulties in specific visual areas in the brain to control both fixations and saccadic ocular movements (ocular-motor deficiency) in position direction and speed on the reading line, generating the so-called “motor error”. These readers, in fact, easily lose their place along the line or in the passage from one line to another, or during the saccadic ocular movement, which is not perfectly balanced from a point of fixity to the next one of the word, they easily jump some words which prevent them from understanding the meaning of the sentence; besides, they have difficulties in fixing correctly the target word and in keeping regularly the visual stimulus (letter, syllable or word) on the fovea centralis. Once the central dysfunction of extra-ocular muscles is confirmed, like all the other muscles in the body, they can be trained to improve their function. These ocular-motor dysfunctions, both single and associated with dyslexia, treated with the support of the mask with a window or with the finger, pencil or pen pointing, which during the reading are moved to keep the place along the line and/or in the passage from one line to another without anticipating or jumping the words, now can be effectively treated and corrected with the customized didactic-isokinetic technique of the EB which replaces and automates the above manual technique, improving the ocular-motor capability in the impaired reader. G. Nelles et al. (2009) showed, with their researches, that extra-ocular muscles training, through a specific visual exercise, can improve saccadic ocular movements and even produce a boosting effect of all central neurological functions. Previously, in the same way, Prof. Dr. B. Fischer (2004) from the University of Freiburg (where he directed the Optomotor Laboratory of the Center of Neuroscience), had obtained great improvements of visual function on dyslexic childrens, using a simple manual visual technique.
As to the mentioned technique he had experimented with successful effects on dyslexic children, he had affirmed, in the scientific review Mind & Brain (bimonthly review May-June, n. 9, year 2004), that: “Dyslexic children in reality sometimes have only perception problems or need a support to learn directing the look!”

5.3 The reduction of the Center-Periphery Disorder (C-PD).
Geiger & J. Y. Lettvin (1999-2000) discovered that many dyslexic children suffer from a deficiency connected with an impaired spatial distribution of attention of visual-perceptive resources between the peripheral visual field and the central one. Through laboratory tests, the two neuroscientists underlined that, during the reading, instead of setting their ocular fixations on the central position of the word, dyslexics mistakenly point its peripheral parts. So, they can identify the letters at the periphery of their visual field better than traditional readers. This happens because, due to their poor lateral masking, these subjects have some difficulties to inhibit information coming from the peripheral visual field which consequently disturb the reading process in the central visual field. Geiger and Lettvin measured, on this kind of dyslexics, through a laboratory device, the angular distance in degrees from the center of the look to the periphery, introducing in the diagnosis the FRF Form-Resolving Field disorder, a parameter indicating the visual center-periphery misalignment, estimating the various degrees of eccentricity on both sides of the fixation point. Besides, for the rehabilitation of the Center-Periphery Disorder, the scientists introduced the manual visual guide (previously mentioned). This model of rehabilitation, proposed by the two neurocognitive scientists, was reproduced and innovated through the customized didactic-isokinetic technique of the electric bookrest® (EB). The apparatus, during the training, through the automated visual guide of the laser mobile light point (LMLP) tends, in subjects with DC-P, to regulate the visual behavior, i.e. the lateral masking, enhancing the central vision and reducing the enlarged peripheral visual field responsible for visual dysfunction.

5.4 The improvement of contrast sensitiveness.
In dyslexic subjects presenting a reduced contrast sensitiveness, the laser mobile light point (LMLP) of the electric bookrest™ (EB) is transformed into a laser-mobile light rectangular (LMLR) and projected with a customized colour on the reading line to increase the poor visual potential and improve vision on the text. The choice of the colour to use is personal, so it is made through a preventive test. The colour improves vision and consequently the quality of reading, because it has two important properties: a) it catches the reader’s attention on the words of the text more easily; b) it produces the best possible vision of letters, syllables and words. Together with the colour to improve the contrast sensitiveness, it is also advisable to choose fitter characters, avoiding ones with "serif" presence, slightly increasing both their dimension and the space among the letters, the words and the lines compared to traditional texts.

For subjects affected by the above mentioned disorders it is difficult to keep attention and concentration constantly on the reading task without diverting frequently from the text. They generally present a common characteristic: an impairment of the visual-cognitive function with a difficulty in the elaboration and memorization of read information. During the reading of paper texts, the electric bookrest™ (EB), gives the traditional reader and the impaired one, in relation to education and prefixed individual objectives, various benefits like: cognitive, perceptive, ocular-motor, anti-fatigue and anti-stress benefits, besides the rhythmic ones previously described.

6.1 Cognitive improvement of children with learning difficulty produced by the new didactic-isokinetic interactive technique of the electric bookrest™ (EB).
The researchers Shulman et al. (1979) and Tsal (1983), analyzing with experimental studies the displacement of the focus of attention in space by subjects subjected to visual reading tests have exposed, in an irrefutable way, data in favor of constant speed eye movement. The study reading with speed and rhythmic reading time, constant and personalized, for learning text, without margins of errors in speed, accuracy and comprehension, can be programmed and performed only with the support of the electric lectern®. The instrument, through the two pro-activators, the rhythmic reading time and the corresponding speed, is able to activate, in a linear and sequential way, the seven elements of the cognitive process (previously mentioned) that allow to facilitate the acquisition of information read on the paper text. The help, both visually and cognitively, that this new technology for the mind is able to provide to the disadvantaged and not disadvantaged reader, to read and facilitate the learning of texts, is represented by the identification and recording in the memory of the instrument, of rhythmic reading time (with respect to the number of pauses and their duration) and the corresponding speed, monitored step by step on the same. Thanks to the programming on the electric lectern® (LE) of the two parameters mentioned, dyslexic, mediocre and normoliter readers improve reading performance.
Determination of rhythmic reading time and relative speed.
The reading speed is obtained by timing the reading time used by the reader to read a certain number of syllables, words, not words, or one or more sentences of a short, medium and long piece. Example: if the child reads a sentence consisting of 15 words in 8 sec. and from two commas of 1 sec each, we will have a total of 10 sec., which corresponds to the reading time programmed on the electric lectern® (LE). The child in this way, following the moving of the mobile-laser light point (PLM-L) on the line, is able to read the sentence always with the same time, that is 10 sec. (of which 8 sec. refer to eye movement and 2 to the sum of the two pauses of punctuation where the eye, in synchrony with the moving luminous point, stops for the programmed time). Respecting these two parameters, time and rhythmic speed, allows the reader to improve the acquisition of information read on the text. Regarding the speed / comprehension and cognitive processing of the information read, the rule shared by neurocognitive scientists is valid, according to which, by increasing the reader's reading speed to a certain value, compatibly with the understanding and cognitive processing of the information read , learning and memorization are improved. On the other hand, reading with the slow, inconstant and arrhythmic speed, typical of mediocre readers or worse still spelled out by dyslexics, has diametrically opposite effects on understanding, cognitive processing and learning. For greater clarification in this regard, we recall that the cognitive learning of the information contained in the written text can only be done correctly if the speed and the rhythmic reading time, constant and personalized, coincide with the speed and the cognitive processing time of the information included . Comparing as much as possible the speed of reading and cognitive processing of comprehension, at the speed of the habitually used oral language, the reading and learning performance of the text is improved in typical readers. Otherwise, poor performance is produced in learning and memorizing the piece read. Finally, in order to optimize the cognitive process of learning the information read, it is necessary to identify, also another parameter: the average daily time that the reader (dyslexic and non-dyslexic) is able to dedicate to school, university or professional reading. Its identification, together with the relative pauses between the reading of a passage and the following one, is important to allow the reader to maintain a good learning performance during daily reading.

6.2 Visual-perceptive and ocular-motor improvement produced by the electric bookrest™ (EB), through the following functions: a) the laser-mobile light point (L-MLP); b) the mobile inclined plane (MIP).
A) Improvement of visual-perceptive and ocular-motor abilities produced by the function of the laser-mobile light point (L-MLP) of the electric bookrest™. The facilitated access to reading by dyslexic children and adults who easily fatigue visually and mentally, and with problems of attention, concentration, perception, understanding, processing, learning and memory, is obtained through the laser-mobile light point (L-MLP) function on the electric bookrest™ (EB), that is to say transforming the traditional reading with saccadic ocular movements jumping movements in innovative reading with linear and fluid ocular movements. In addition, the dyslexic electric reader voluntarily eliminates also the left-right movements of the head which, in traditional reading, are usually accompanied with ocular left-right movements on the line. During the reading monitoring, comparing the two kinds of ocular movements on the line, the jumping movement in the traditional reader and the linear one of the electric reader, we can notice a clear difference on their behavior. In the electric reader, compared to the traditional one, during the reading, we can notice a stop-and-go reading process, a decrease in fatigue and consequently in the effort of extrinsic and intrinsic ocular muscles, with an improvement in the ocular-motor activity. In this process: a) stop represents the point of ocular fixation of the word on which the eyes stop for about 200 msec. to point out its content and send it to the brain through the optic nerve, where it is elaborated, understood and learnt; b) go, instead, represents the saccadic ocular jumping movement, lasting about 50 msec. during which the eyes, in lacking vision, move on the line from one point to the next one of the word.
The brain performs this process with three operations in quick sequence:
- the release, which consists in detaching the eyes from the point of fixation in the target word;
- the trajectory, which represents the saccadic ocular movement on the line which starts with the detachment of the eyes from the point of fixation of target word and continues through a quick jumping movement (trajectory) to reach the next word;
- the landing, which is the landing point where the eyes make the ocular fix on the next word.
Summarizing, in traditional reading, the eyes, controlled by the brain, do not move on the text in a straight and continuous line, but they move wave- form up and down with quick (saccadic) ocular movements from a point of fixity to another of the word, since the six extrinsic eye muscles when contracting move the eye in a snap, that is, with saccadic ocular movement, having only the line as a reference point. In innovative reading, instead, the concept radically changes; the shift of the eyes on the line does not occur jumping, but with "linear and fluid" eye movement, that is uniform and precise. This movement modulation is produced thanks to EB’s "oculo-isokinetic" rehabilitation principle. In fact, during electro-reading, in fact, the contractions of the eye mus-cles, which move the eye on the line, are produced both at a constant speed (isokinetic), or at constant tension or strength (isotonic). In addition, the eyes, following the L-MLP in line with the linear path on the line, preventing the brain from performing a series of additional visual, mental and physical operations, which tire and slow activities down. During the reading, the synchronized movement eyes - laser-mobile light point (L-MLP) produces the following advantages:
- it produces a greater brain activity. The movement, in fact, as shown in the experiment described on page 133 of the text "Dyslexia and Rehabilitation", vol. II, involves a greater number of brain areas which consequently improve both concentration and visual-perceptive and cognitive abilities;
- it eliminates the irregular saccades (regressive and involuntary ones on the line) because the eyes follow the motion of the pointer without diverting from the text, being able to hit the
target words at the first blow;
- it improves visual and functional activity. It was shown, in fact (as previously underlined) that the eyes are more active, concentrated and precise, only if they can follow some movements, instead of being pushed forward on the reading line without following something;
- it regularly and constantly facilitates the rotation of the eyes in the orbit avoiding the stressing working load produced by jumps, that is to say by the mechanism of contraction-release of extra-ocular muscles during the shift on the line; consequently, during the reading, this reduces visual and mental stress.
In addition, with the ergonomic shift of the eyes on the text, which continuously follow the laser-mobile light point (L-MLP) fluidly and regularly, the electric reader can perform even the previously described stop-and-go process more easily. In fact, analyzing the performance of this process (activated with the laser-mobile light point (L-MLP) technique), it happens that: a) the release of the eyes from the point of fixation of the word occurs in an easier way; b) the trajectory, that is to say the movement of the eyes from a point to the next one of the word, occurs without the calculation of the parameters of ocular shift on the line (width, direction, speed and duration) by the brain. This happens because the ocular movement between the two points of fixity is linear; c) the landing on the point of fixation of the next target word occurs with a greater precision (which prevents irregular saccades improving also deciphering and decoding). For a general assessment of the stress and of visual-perceptive and ocular-motor fatigue produced both during the traditional reading and in the innovative one, a simple calculation will be performed in relation to both the number of ocular fixations (OF) and of ocular movements produced during the two kinds of reading. Averagely, the number of ocular fixations (OF) performed by the traditional reader for each line is about 8, followed by 7 saccadic ocular movements (SOM); if we make an overall calculation on 40 lines usually present in a page, both of ocular fixations (OF) and of SOMs, he will perform on the same line about 320 ocular fixations (OF) and 280 saccadic ocular movements (SOM), while on 30 pages daily read he performs about 9600 OFs and 8400 SOMs. With the electric reading, instead, keeping the 9600 ocular fixations (OF) on the words, the 8400 SOMs are eliminated and replaced by continuous ocular movements (COMs) which sensibly reduce visual-perceptive and ocular-motor fatigue connected with the effort of the “snap or jump” ocular movement type. This said, we should specify that all readers using the automatic visual guide of the laser-mobile light point (L-MLP) can improve visual, ocular-motor and mental reading. In fact, the eyes make more fluent and relaxed continuous ocular movements (COMs) with more precise ocular fixations (OFs). In addition, it increases attention and mental concentration on the text, together with rhythmic abilities which improve learning and memory. Finally, for a wider and more detailed general outline of the advantages produced also by manual visual guides, please refer to the classical experiment of finger pointing described by English psychologist Tony Buzan and mentioned in the text Quick reading and also reported by the author on page 28 of the text "Dyslexia and Rehabilitation", vol. II. He was among the first to underline the visual ocular-motor and mental benefits produced by manual guides through the continuous ocular movement (COM) instead of the saccadic ocular movement (SOM) without the guide.
B) Visual-perceptive and ocular-motor improvement produced by the function of the mobile inclined plane (MIP) of the electric bookrest™ (EB).
Using the function of the mobile inclined plane (MIP) of the electric bookrest™ (EB), during the reading, the eyes remain constantly lined on the osserved word at the height of the first line; this allows to eliminate the high-low ocular movements. In addition, the reader will voluntarily eliminate high-low ocular movements of the head and vice versa, which during the traditional reading usually accompany the high-low ocular movements on the page. After all, during the electro-reading the reader's head remains erected and still, this improves both the control of the gaze on the text and the vision. Thanks to the elimination of the vertical ß tot. *(see note 8) visual angle we have a reduction in the activity of extrinsic muscles which govern the high-low ocular movement. During the electric reading of the text on the electric bookrest™, the MIP, which slowly goes up bringing the book upwards, allows to make, at the end of the reading of each line, the wide return saccade with which the eye begins a new line on the line below with a horizontal movement, instead of an oblique one as it happens during the traditional reading. The wide return horizontal saccades, obtained thanks to the perfect synchronism between the functions of the mobile inclined plane (MIP) and of the laser-mobile light point (L-MLP) prevent the formation of high-low ocular movements (from the first to the second line and so on till the last line of the page) which instead are performed with oblique saccades by the reader, during the traditional reading. This stated, we can show with a simple calculation the advantages for the prevention and the reduction of visual-perceptive and ocular-motor fatigue obtained with this new reading technique. Averagely, the number of lines in a performed on it during the traditional page is about 40, so the number of wide oblique return saccades performed on it during the traditional reading corresponds to 40 while on 30 pages daily read the reader makes about 1200 wide oblique return saccades, and consequently high-low ocular movements. With the electric reading instead the wide oblique return saccades are replaced by wide ocular horizontal return movements which prevent shifts on the reading page, so the eye remains still on the first line of the page. This implies for the electric reader the elimination of the 1200 high-low ocular movements with a sensible reduction in visual-perceptive and ocular-motor fatigue. In this way, asthenopeic disorders, frequent in the traditional reader, are prevented. With the annihilation of the ß tot. visual angle, the reader only makes short horizontal ocular shifts from the left to the right and vice versa on the line, which give birth to the formation of an α tot *(see note 9) horizontal visual angle: the shorter is the line(see a page with two columns with short lines), the smaller is also the α angle and consequently the visual and ocular-motor stress and also the possibility the he loses the mark on the line.

6.3 Anti-fatigue and anti-stress benefits for the prevention and the reduction of physical, visual and mental fatigue, produced with the assumption of a dynamic correct study posture (CSP), through the ergonomic chair™ associated with the high ocular position (HOP).
To the advantages for the reading, above mentioned, obtained through the two functions of the L-MLP and of the MIP, we have to add also the physical, visual and mental benefits produced with the assumption of the correct study posture (CSP) associated with the high ocular position (HOP). Vice versa, if during the reading an incorrect study posture (with bent neck and shoulders and the head bent forward on the book) is used routinely and statically and continually in time and the incorrect ocular position (that is to say the low ocular position, LOP) with a near visual engagement, both traditional and digital reader will inevitably perceive an early physical, visual and mental fatigue, consequently reducing the study time. On the contrary, if the reader uses the CSP, during the electric reading, before the book, with the erected head, positioned symmetrically in relation with the space of the page, the correct ocular position (that is to say the HOP) and the other ergonomic-visual elements of the Carrella visual principle (CVP), he reduces the physical, visual and mental fatigue. This new model of ergonomic reading, preventing asthenopeic disorders which are present during the paper and digital reading, scientifically satisfies the foundations of the ergonomic discipline, as requested by the International Ergonomics Association (IEA). The model of reading taken into consideration has produced, in the short and medium term, on groups of selected readers according to specific difficulties, a great improvement in reading performances and a reduction in the asthenopeic disorder. This disorder, as we know, affects millions of readers all over the world, in particular video-readers using the close visual distance for a long time and incorrectly on video terminals. Asthenopia in addition can affect, in a lesser way, also traditional readers using: a) low ocular positions (LOPs), that is to say with an inclined visual axis on the paper text and asymmetric in relation to the page; b) incorrect study postures (ISPs). As to these postures, professor Kenneth Hansraj of the Spine Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine (New York), in 2014 performed an accurate research in which he showed that: “When the head takes an erected position symmetric to the body it weighs about 4 Kg, instead, with an inclined position forward on the text (book or smartphone) the pressure increases on the cervical spine and consequently also its weight can vary, from 27 to 60 Kg in relation to the degrees of inclination of the head”. According to what shown, we can easily understand the usefulness of the high ocular position (HOP), which, for its characteristic, makes the reader take and keep the correct study posture (CSP) before the text preventing the assumption of the in correct one (with bent shoulders, neck and head forward) with the relative unease, scientifically obtained by professor Kenneth Hansraj.

The use of the EB in schools and in educational laboratories by impaired students supports the linguistic learning process in developmental age. It is addressed to:
- centers specialized in the treatment of dyslexia and rehabilitation specialists who care of children with superficial visual dyslexia, or only with neurovisual disorders;
- support teachers in nursery school and primary school;
- parents of dyslexic children;
- subjects presenting simple difficulties in reading, without dyslexia, that is to say only with neuro-visual disorders like visual- perceptive disorders, center-periphery disorders, ocular-motor disorders and low sensitiveness to contrast, certified by a specialist;
- traditional readers having no disorders or reading difficulties.

The Ergonomic chair™ for the reading is a piece of furniture designed to be used, together with the EB, for the reading activities but also before the PC or for professional or office activities. During the regular postural and left-right longitudinal movements and vice versa before the paper or digital reading text, it allows the assumption of both the correct study posture (CSP) to prevent and relieve backache, and the high ocular position (HOP) left center-of-the-page and then right center-of-the-page (see the third elements of the Carrella visual principle) to prevent and reduce visual, ocular and mental fatigue.
Users: students, professionals, technicians and video-terminal workers, clerks, etc.

Ergonomic Chair™ for the reading.

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Through some biomechanical and functional effective elements ensuring an active and dynamic correct study posture (CSP), the ergonomic chair™ gives the user some advantages:
a) during the reading on the EB, on the mechanic positioning bookrest (MPB) or before the PC, it facilitates the assumption of the mental and the correct study ocular-postural behavior (MO-PCSB), that is to say with a symmetric correct study posture (CSP) before the reading page and a correct ocular position (COP);
b) it prevents and relieves the physical-postural problems in people doing sedentary, office, school or intellectual activities, like backache, myalgia, connected with the stiffening of one or more muscular groups, to be ascribed only to study or work stress or to the assumption of bad postures, lacking injuries, strains, sprains or underlying secondary diseases;
c) through small and regular horizontal left-right postural shifts and vice versa performed on the ergonomic chair, it allows to point the look alternatively on the left center of the page and then on the right side of the book. These shifts performed at the end of the reading, from the left page to the right one, facilitate the assumption of the third ergonomic-visual element of the Carrella visual principle: “the left-right center-of-the-page visual direction (L-RCPVD) instead of the traditional center-of-the-book one”. These movements, however, are useful also to prevent conditions of neck and spine stiffness, with pain in the muscles and the body in general, deriving from still or passive postures, frequent during difficult and heavy daily activities, above all in developmental age. Summarizing the thought shared by physiotherapists and posturologists we can affirm that: “any posture is harmful if maintained for a long time during the study or the job even if it is a correct posture!”. So, in order to prevent these risks or relieve the consequences on people, it is advisable both the use of the ergonomic chair and to perform, at least every 30 minutes of fixed posture, a pause of 2-3 minutes, during which to perform simple physical exercises and muscles stretching.

Note

Neologism used by the author to identify a new interactive, customized, constant and ergonomic reading technique of the paper text performed on the electric bookrest™.      [back to read]

The aim of this test is to identify and use the customized farthest reading distance (FRD), which lets the reader decrease the α visual angle with a decrease in the ocular fatigue and to preserve the highest visual comfort even during a prolonged reading. Its performance requires the respect of the following conditions: a) the reading distance of the paper text must be between 55 and 70 cm; b) in case of subjects with normal sight (emmetrope), it is performed without glasses; c) in case of subjects suffering from a visual defect (refractive error), the test is performed with the glasses prescribed by the specialist at a prefixed distance between 55 and 70 cm.
For children, the test consists in the reading of a line from the school book relative to the attended class, while for the other readers (youths and adults) the books they usually read can be used. The book is placed on a positioning bookrest (that is to say which is adjustable in various vertical and longitudinal positions) which lets the subject adopt the HOP (with an elevation of 15-30°) with a visual page-center left-right direction (PCLRD) at a starting distance of 55 cm. After reading the first line at the distance of 55 cm, the subject reads the same line at the distance of 60 cm and up to 70 cm. f the reader can see well and reads the line of the text at the distance of 55 cm and also at 60, 65 and 70 cm, the farthest reading distance (FRD) is chosen, compatible with a clear vis8ion of the text, choosing, in this way, a right dynamic balance between vision sharpness and reading distance (both important for the prevention of ocular-visual fatigue). In front of PC is used the same process, but using bigger distances.      [back to read]

Global-orienting skimming has the aim to search useful information in the text globally and quickly: keywords, that is to say the titles of the paragraphs and subparagraphs, tables, lists, tables of contents, graphically highlighted parts in the text, etc., useful to have an indicative idea of the general content, while the rest is rapidly glanced over.     [back to read]

The skimming reading, global-orientation is aimed at the global and fast search on the text of useful information: the so-called keywords, that is, paragraphs and subparagraph headings, tables, lists, indexes, graphically highlighted parts on the text, etc., useful for get an orientation idea of the general topic, while the rest is quickly passed.      [back to read]

Scanning is an exploration reading, “with leaps”, with which the reader selectively stops only when he finds the information he is searching, that is to say which attracted his attention during the exploration phase.     [back to read]

Memory traces produced in the nervous system through chemical markers which allow to learn and keep in the memory.      [back to read]

The part of the brain in the temporal lobe, which has the function to transform short-term memory into long-term memory.      [back to read]

It is obtained with traditional or digital reading on the vertical axis of the paper and digital page, during the excursions of the eye from the top downwards and vice versa, that is to say from the first to the last line.      [back to read]

It is formed between the visual axis of the eye and the two extreme points of the line.      [back to read]

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