While we haven’t implemented automatic prosody yet, Kermit allows us to explore expressive writing to elevate comprehension for children and adults alike.
Helping severe dyslexics
Dyslexia is a very active area of research. Fifty years ago, people thought dyslexics saw letters backwards. Now, it’s primarily seen as a phonological problem in which dyslexics have difficulty with sounds in language. The most successful dyslexia programs to date focus on teaching phonemic awareness (e.g. that the spoken word “cat” has three sounds) and phonics (mapping letters to sounds). This success might make it seem like dyslexia is all about sounds, but it’s not clear yet if phonological problems are dyslexia’s cause.
In 2010, researchers Trichur Vidyasagar and Kristen Pammer suggested a new theory on the cause of dyslexia: dyslexic brains might have issues with visuo-spatial processing. In other words, dyslexic brains may process visual information differently, making the order of letters unclear and reading difficult.
To understand this, let’s take a trip inside your brain. Light enters your eyes and shines on the retina. The retina processes the light, sending neural signals on a long journey from your eyes to the back of your head where your brain processes images, forwarding them through the visual cortex.
This journey takes two parallel paths: the high road and the low road, literally. The high road, or dorsal pathway, physically runs along the top path through your brain, carrying information about where things are, such as the sky is up, pavement is down, or the order of letters on a page. It is the “where” signal.
The low road, or ventral pathway, runs below the high road, carrying information about what objects are, e.g. the blue thing is the sky, the grey thing, pavement, and the two lines leaning against each other with a crossbar is an A. It is the “what” signal.
These two roads meet at a little neural town called the Visual Wordform Area, which combines the “what” and “where” signals to form words—hence the name. This is where we recognize words.
This neural town has a big spotlight in it, controlled partially by signals from the high road. As we read, the spotlight should smoothly move from one letter to the next, focusing our attention on a letter from the low road, identifying it, then moving to the next. If anything goes wrong along the high road—and there are many things that can go wrong—the spotlight will not move smoothly or focus attention as well, disrupting reading.
According to Vidyasagar & Pammer’s theory, dyslexics may have something wrong in their high road, weakening signals about letter locations. That in turn makes it hard to understand the order that letters are coming in on the low road, making it more challenging to recognize words.
This smooth spotlight movement is something we have to learn. Before we learn to read, our eyes and attention unconsciously flit about, painting a picture of our world. The more we read, the more we train our brain to control our spotlight smoothly. But, if a child can’t recognize words due to weak high road signals, they won’t read as much. The neurological systems needed for proficient reading won’t get exercised, but they will get exercised in neurotypical classmates who read more. The dyslexic child gets left behind.
When these systems are underdeveloped, a child may not develop strong phonological associations or smooth visual scanning (remember, our eyes and brains have to be trained to do this; it isn’t natural). The number of potential issues along the high road might explain the variety of dyslexia subtypes.
So, what does all of this have to do with a font?
The high road doesn’t just carry location information; it carries motion signals, too. Adding motion to letters might boost the high road signal, helping dyslexics get control of their spotlight of attention and improve their reading. To help, we created a special version of Kermit that is animated, with letters that draw themselves.
A font that draws itself
How do you create an animated font?
Because Kermit is built as a Variable Font, it is not limited to Light, Regular, or Bold styles. It can produce any level of boldness thanks to Variable Font technology.