People having or suffering from reading difficulties or impaired reading frequently find reading passages of text problematic. Often the eye may wander from a passage of text, making it difficult to maintain concentration, and to relocate the particular text previously read on the page. Meanwhile, other conditions such as dyslexia can also impair reading ability.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a remedative reading aid designed to provide subliminal peripheral guidance for such people.

Thus, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a reading aid comprising a horizontal arm member and a vertical arm member conjoined at one end, the corner thereinbetween having a different visual portion,

and one or both arm members having progressive indicia along at least the inner edge thereof.

The reading aid forms a generally reverse"L"shape.

The horizontal arm member and vertical arm member can be the same size, shape or design, including length, or different. Preferably, the horizontal arm member and vertical arm member are wholly or substantially similar.

The different visual portion in the corner of the reading aid may involve any visually differing arrangement generally adapted to form a"cursor"to which the eye of the user is drawn. In one embodiment of the present invention, the corner portion is a fluorescent area.

The corner portion may be additionally enhanced or distinguished by the use of concentric sections, and/or one or more border means.

Preferably, the corner portion is a square or rectangular shape marking, and/or is fluorescent orange or yellow in colour. This portion may have a visually different surround to stress, highlight or emphasise it, such as a heavy and/or dark line, to increase its differing emphasis.

The progressive indicia along one or both of the horizontal and vertical arm members could be any suitable type of marks or markings. The indicia should be designed to facilitate cicadic eye

movement (CEM) therealong. Such indicia include lines, arrows, etc. possibly being slashed and/or slanted and/or fluorescent. The indicia may be wholly or substantially equidistant along the horizontal and/or vertical arm members, or be differently spaced therealong.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the progressive indicia are a series of herringbone notches slanted left to right (on the horizontal arm member) and leading to the corner portion. Between the notches may be a series of visually different, e. g. coloured or fluorescent, portions to assist CEM therealong.

According to a further embodiment of the present invention, the progressive indicia are located along the inside edge of both the horizontal arm member and the vertical arm member.

The reading aid of the present invention may include a visually different surround to stress, highlight or emphasise it, such as a heavy and/or dark e. g. black line, along and/or near the inside edge of the horizontal arm member and/or vertical arm member also to facilitate CEM.

The horizontal arm member and vertical arm member may have the same or different number of progressive indicia therealong.

The reading aid of the present invention may be of any suitable size, possibly for use in different situations and/or on different size text and/or pages.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the reading aid may be hinged or separable along the conjunction of the horizontal and vertical arm members so as to be folded for easy transportation and/or storage when not in use.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the horizontal and/or vertical arm member may include one or more griping surfaces and/or portions adapted to facilitate manipulation by a user. These could include depressions such as bevelled counter-sunk portions.

According to a further embodiment of the present invention, the or both inside edges of the arm members are angled, e. g. at a 45° angle to ensure the reading aid's contact with the page and text being read.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, the reading aid includes two additional markings located adjacent to the corner portion, one on the vertical arm member and one on the horizontal arm member. These additional markings are preferably in a lower frequency colour such as red, and are adapted to address the problems associated with

attention deficient disorder (ADD) or with a low freedom from distractibility on the users part.

In a yet further embodiment of the present invention, the reading aid includes a second horizontal arm member extending from the distal end of the vertical arm member to create a space between the three arm members. This arrangement may be further hinged or otherwise separable to assist storage and/or transportation.

The progressive indicia may be particularly arranged along the horizontal and/or vertical arm member, particularly the former, to suit or match relevant parts of a sentence such as the subject, verb and noun components.

In use, the reading aid is located on the written material to be read by the user or instructor, such that the different visual portion of the aid is at or near the trailing end of a relevant word or words. The reading aid is then moved along the line of writing towards the end of the relevant sentence.

The user's eyes thus are drawn along the words by the aid.

Thus, according to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of assisting reading wherein a reading aid as hereinbefore defined is located on written material such that the different visual portion of the reading aid is at or near the trailing end of a relevant word or words.

The reading aid of the present invention may equally be adapted for use on a monitor screen, i. e. comprise a moveable pointer or cursor for display on a visual display means. The reading aid could be adapted to be with or replace the general cursor' arrow used on the computer monitor screens.

Movement of the reading aid could be in line with movement of the current cursor arrow.

The electronic'version of the reading aid of the present invention is preferably in the form of an iconic representation. Its control could be by means of a pre-selected movement program based on the keyboard and/or a mouse. Such programs are well known in the art in relation to cursor arrows.

The electronic version of the reading aid could include further embodiments such as the reading aid being static on the monitor screen, and the page of material to be read on screen being scrolled vertically and/or horizontally to permit the text to move to meet the reading aid.

Also possible is the inclusion of a shaded area below and/or to the right of the reading aid to 'shield'such area so as to discourage the user's eyes'attention thereto. This feature is designed to simulate the accidental or deliberate covering of such reading material by the user's hands when using the physical form of the reading aid across a physical page. In such use, the user's hands shield written material below and/or to the right of the

reading aid merely by their placement on the written page. The size of the area so shaded in the electronic version could vary e. g. from a few lines to the entire remaining page on screen.

A further embodiment of the electronic version of the reading of the present invention involves one, some or all of the indicia on the reading aid being moveable or dynamic. Any such moving indicia could be on one or both of the arms, and be designed to run along one or both edges of such arms, or along the whole arm, towards the different visual portion at their conjunction corner. In this embodiment, such moving indicators become an active element in the actual dynamic of the reading aid.

In a further embodiment of the electronic version, the reading aid could include one or more horizontal indicators travelling over the words of the written material to be read in conjunction with reading aid.

This embodiment could permit a variety of forms of syntactical scanning.

As with the physical form of present invention, the electronic version could be adapted to have any suitable size, shape or design. Its size, shape or design could be varied by the user or instructor, so as to provide a different degree of"over-the-word" or"beside-the-word"arrangements.

Thus, a further aspect of the present invention is a computer software program, preferably on a data

carrier, for an electronic reading aid as hereinbefore defined, and/or having instructions to carry out a method of assisting reading wherein a reading aid as hereinbefore defined is located on written material such that the different visual portion of the reading aid is at or near the trailing end of a relevant word or words.

The present invention provides a reading aid suitable for any language read in a linear manner.

That is, not only English and European based languages, but also languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, etc., which may be read from right to left or in a vertical direction. The reading aid can either be used directly for these different language forms, or can be easily adapted thereto, based on the different visual portion at the corner of the conjunction of the arms being located at or near the trailing end of a relevant word or words, and used in a manner that leads to the end of the relevant sentence.

The present invention is based upon established principles of reading, does not inhibit reading fluency, and is believed to be therapeutic and remediative in nature. It is discreet, portable, and is a simple arrangement with no moving parts if desired. Indeed, those people with limited manipulative skills are perfectly able to use the present invention.

The present invention is particularly aimed at people with reading difficulties. This includes those who suffer from visual SLDs (specific learning difficulties), those who are illiterate, those who may be classed as remedial, and those who are in the pre-school to early school years. For all of these groups, the present invention assists by aiding visual processing by controlling eye movement across text, and focusing the eye on each individual word without destroying fluency.

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure la is a plan view of a first reading aid according to the present invention; Figure 1b is a plan view of a version of the reading aid of Figure la, having extended bevelled finger grips on each arm; Figure lc is a plan view of a version of the reading aid of Figure la having individual bevelled finger grips on each arm ; Figure 2 is a cross sectional view along AA of Figure la; Figure 3 is a second reading aid of the present invention;

Figure 4 is a diagrammatic representation of the reading aid of Figure la in use on a newspaper advertisement; Figure 5 is a diagrammatic representation of the reading aid of Figure la in use on a computer monitor screen; Figures 6 and 7 are third and fourth reading aids of the present invention.

Referring to the drawings, Figures la, b and c show a first reading aid 1 having a horizontal arm member 2 and a vertical arm member 4. The arm members 2,4 are conjoined to form a generally reversed"L"shape having a corner 6. Around the corner 6 is a fluorescent cursor portion 8.

Along the inner edge of the horizontal arm member 2 are twenty herringbone notches 12 with a slanted left to right, and leading to the cursor 8. These notches 12 are designed to facilitate cicadic eye movement across a page of text in use.

Also along the inner edge of the horizontal arm member 2 is a heavy black line 14, designed to facilitate a good base reading along the text.

Also along the inner edge of the horizontal arm member 2 are a number of fluorescent orange or yellow markings 16. These markings 16 are located progressively in numbers 1,5,10,15 and 16 of the

herringbone notches 12. These are keyed to the projected subject, verb and complement of a sentence, and are designed to facilitate CEM and reading comprehension. The positioning of two markings in adjacent notches (such as numbers 15 and 16 are shown) provides an added stimulus to CEM.

Along the inner edge of the vertical arm member 4 are located 15 similar herringbone notches 20 slanted left to right and leading down to the fluorescent cursor 8. These notches 20 are also designed to draw the reader's eye down to the line of text being read. Again, the vertical arm member 4 includes a heavy black line 22, and a number of progressive fluorescent markings 24.

These markings 24 are designed to prevent the reader's eye from drifting up the page. The markings 24 could be particularly adapted to match the line spacing of the text being read, e. g. standard double spaced type, and thereby to focus the eye firmly on the base reading line.

The first reading aid 1 includes bevelled outer- edges designed to facilitate the aid's movement down and across the page, and inside edges at a 45° angle, designed to ensure the aid's clean contact with the page; both shown in Figure 2.

Each arm member 2,4 can also include a finger grip surface such as a bevelled counter-sunk portion designed to facilitate manipulation. Figures 1b and

lc show the first reading aid of Figure la with extended bevelled finger grips 30 and individual bevelled finger grips 32, respectively, along the horizontal and vertical arms 2,4. These allow for greater manual control over the positioning of the reading frame on the reading surface.

Figure 3 shows a second reading aid having lower and upper horizontal arm members 40,42 respectively, conjoined by a vertical arm 44. The lower horizontal arm 40 has the same features and arrangement as the first reading aid shown in Figures la to lc. The upper horizontal arm 42 mirrors the features of the lower horizontal arm 40, with its inner edge having a series of similar slanted notches 46 designed to draw the eye from left to right.

The second reading aid still includes a different visual portion 48 at the conjunction of the lower horizontal arm 40 and the vertical arm 44. In use, the second reading aid is located on top of the words or other written material intended to be read by the user, with the upper edge 49 of the lower horizontal arm 40 directly thereunderneath. The upper horizontal arm 42 increases the portion of surrounding text, words etc which are not immediately visible to the user, thereby increasing the user's attention to the particular words, etc which are visible between the lower and upper horizontal arms 40,42. The distance between the inner edges of the lower and upper horizontal arms

40, 42 can be as desired or necessary. The distance may be as little as the height of one line of text.

Figures 4 and 5 show the first reading aid 1 in use on a newspaper advertisement 50 and diagrammatic monitor screen 52.

The reading aid 1 is located on the written material to be read by the user or instructor, such that the different visual portion 8 of the aid is at or near the trailing end of a relevant word or words. The reading aid is then moved along the line of writing towards the end of the relevant sentence. The user's eyes thus are drawn along the words by the aid 1.

Figures 6 and 7 show third and fourth reading aids 60,62 respectively, having different arrangements of visual indicia along their horizontal and vertical arms. Thus, the present invention can be provided in a number of different visual and physical arrangements, which can be adapted to suit particular users and/or instructors.

The present invention provides a simple reading aid usable by anyone, which is effective in leading the eye of the user along a line of text towards the corner having the next word to be read. The reading aid is able to slide along a page of text, and to maintain the users attention along that line. The reading aid is equally usable on a monitor screen in a computerised version.