I recently shared a Facebook post on the NAPLAN accommodations allowed for dyslexia students and it included reference to the C-pen Reader. In my reports, I already recommend to use the ‘Text to Speech’ facility on computers in my reports, but this sounds like a great tool for students of any age to use. Great video detailing usage and the differences between readers…
And details and price available here…
Here is the episode on Irlen Syndrome from “The Doctors” TV.
(Past clients will spot “pumpkin face” in the section assessing for the lenses 🙂 )
Please share with anyone who is struggling with reading / writing / headaches…
I’m often asked by clients, “So if my child has Irlen Syndrome, does that mean they are dyslexic?”
These two conditions often overlap, but they can also stand alone and a person with dyslexia may not have Irlen Syndrome and vice versa. This is why it is so important for me to look at both conditions, when a person comes to me for an assessment.
NOTE: At the end of this post is an excellent TEDEd video, particularly at 0:56 where it states that ‘dyslexia’ is a phonological processing problem where people have trouble manipulating language.
This is where dyslexia differs the most from Irlen Syndrome, as Irlen Syndrome is a visual perception problem, where difficulties cannot necessarily be explained by phonetic deficits or by a weak sight vocabulary. Faulty reading occurs, often characterised by omissions and additions.
Glare, lighting, contrast, patterns and colours impact this syndrome and individuals commonly suffer from any of the following: slow reading rate, inefficient reading, poor reading comprehension, inability to do continuous reading, strain and fatigue while reading, difficulties with depth perception or sport performance.
Meares-Irlen Syndrome or Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome as it is also known, can affect attention span, concentration, motivation, work production and classroom performance.
Individuals with Meares-Irlen Syndrome/SSS might have been considered to be underachievers, who may have been told they “could do better” if they “tried harder”. Some individuals have been misdiagnosed with behavioural or attitudinal problems or as having ADD, hyperactivity, or reading disabilities. Meares-Irlen Syndrome/SSS also occurs on a continuum, from very slight to very severe, depending on the type, onset, number and intensity of the distortions.
Irlen Spectral Filters are lenses, that are individually spectrally modified to eliminate or reduce the perceptual problems and act as filters, selectively reducing the input of specific wavelengths of light that allow receptor cells in the retina or others in the cerebral cortex to more effectively analyse visual information.
Where Dyslexia and Irlen Syndrome are most similar is in the need to stress the importance of a work program that presents new skills using a cumulative, structured and sequential approach that allows for overlearning.
Using a multisensory approach to teaching, across the curriculum, by-passes the organisational difficulties in the brain, integrating learning pathways and helping to store and retrieve information.
Yesterday, I asked an adult client about his first experience of the Irlen Method:
“One day, while reading to my mother during a storm, the wind blew some cellophane from the art table over my book. I really liked how the page looked all red, with the black letters, so I left it there and continued reading. Mum didn’t say anything but listened carefully while I read 2, 3, 4 and more, pages. I finished the book and looked up to see tears in her eyes. It was the first time I had finished reading a whole book, without any arguments.
Usually, I read half a page and the whinging would start – ‘How much did I have to read? Was that enough? I was tired. I was thirsty. I wanted to go outside and play. I couldn’t do it. It was too hard’.
What was different this time? It was easy to see the letters through the red cellophane, and because it was easy, I kept going!
That was it, for mum! Whenever I had to read (we were homeschooled), out would come the cellophane and off I would go! I was in high school before I got my ‘coloured glasses’, a result of mum doing lots of research and heaps of phone calls, to see if anyone else had ever experienced this.
I’m now 42 years old and still use my ‘coloured glasses’ every day.”
A graduate of Cornell University and former school psychologist, Helen Irlen has been in the field of education for the past 40 years. It was during her research under a federal research grant in the 1980s that she discovered that a subgroup of adults who were struggling to read, responded to material covered by coloured acetate sheets. For the next five years, Ms. Irlen worked on refining her discovery, developing diagnostic testing instruments and developing a set of coloured filters, which became the foundation for the Irlen Method.
Over the past three decades, the Irlen Method has been the subject of segments of 60 Minutes, ABC Worldwide News, and numerous TV news shows around the world. Helen Irlen’s work has received international exposure through National Geographic, along with other newspaper, magazine articles and research papers. Helen Irlen’s first book, Reading By the Colors (1991), introduced Irlen Syndrome while The Irlen Revolution proceeds through the many advances made over the past 30+ years, while also providing hope for millions of people suffering from this unique visual processing disorder.